Re: [INFOCOMMONS-L] Controlling Noise Levels

You can use pornography to mean level of comfort if that is the analogy you choose (one can use spicy food, strength of coffee, debt on a credit card, etc).

As far as the "if it's too loud, you're too old" the great majority of our library patrons are college student who are between 18 and 24. The majority of these students had no problem with the noise level in the library. Our survey indicated that many students replied that the library was "a quiet place to study". This surprised those of us on the staff (long since past 24 years old) since we were concerned that the library was too noisy. The results made us revise our thought of what is too noisy and what isn't.

The issue isn't related to age as much as it is to ability to concentrate.

Andy Heiz

On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 5:45 PM, Larry Schwartz <schwartz@mnstate.edu> wrote:

Ah.  So noise is like pornography:  one knows it when it occurs.  And, if it's too loud, you're too old, right?  ls.

Andrew Heiz wrote:

Hi,

The interesting concept in this discussion is "Who is it too loud for?" The students or the library/commons staff? A recent student survey in my library indicated that students think the library is a quiet place. The definition of quiet is different for different people/generations. Too loud is certainly a matter of opinion and is a moving target as staff and students come and go. It takes a while to balance what is tolerable. Having clear cut rules is always useful but it takes pretty complete staff coordination to enforce the rules the same way.

This falls into a crowd control issue. When the commons is quiet (usually before 11am) staff will quiet down the group that is being disruptive. Later on, when the library is noisier, the library staff will take action if students are running amok or a student makes a specific request. The only creative solution we've come up with is to have a quiet lab where group work is discouraged. The lab serves as a place where students can escape the noise and hubbub of the commons.

Andy Heiz
Orange County Community College

--
Larry Schwartz, Librarian
Livingston Lord Library
Minnesota State University Moorhead
1104 7th Ave., S.
Moorhead, MN  56563
(218) 477-2353 (vox)  (218) 477-5924 (fax)
http://www.mnstate.edu/schwartz
http://del.icio.us/msumlarry
Find me on Facebook!  Find me on Twitter!  Find me on LinkedIn!

"People read books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life." --Garrison Keillor

Re: [INFOCOMMONS-L] Controlling Noise Levels

Ah. So noise is like pornography: one knows it when it occurs. And,
if it's too loud, you're too old, right? ls.

Andrew Heiz wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The interesting concept in this discussion is "Who is it too loud
> for?" The students or the library/commons staff? A recent student
> survey in my library indicated that students think the library is a
> quiet place. The definition of quiet is different for different
> people/generations. Too loud is certainly a matter of opinion and is a
> moving target as staff and students come and go. It takes a while to
> balance what is tolerable. Having clear cut rules is always useful but
> it takes pretty complete staff coordination to enforce the rules the
> same way.
>
> This falls into a crowd control issue. When the commons is quiet
> (usually before 11am) staff will quiet down the group that is being
> disruptive. Later on, when the library is noisier, the library staff
> will take action if students are running amok or a student makes a
> specific request. The only creative solution we've come up with is to
> have a quiet lab where group work is discouraged. The lab serves as a
> place where students can escape the noise and hubbub of the commons.
>
> Andy Heiz
> Orange County Community College

--
Larry Schwartz, Librarian
Livingston Lord Library
Minnesota State University Moorhead
1104 7th Ave., S.
Moorhead, MN 56563
(218) 477-2353 (vox) (218) 477-5924 (fax)
http://www.mnstate.edu/schwartz
http://del.icio.us/msumlarry
Find me on Facebook! Find me on Twitter! Find me on LinkedIn!

"People read books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life." --Garrison Keillor

[INFOCOMMONS-L] Budgeting for Learning Commons

The learning commons at Seattle University is currently under construction.  Our library building is being renovated and expanded.  We are in an Interim Library this year and will move back into our building next September, hopefully before the beginning of Fall quarter.

At Seattle University, we are creating a learning commons with the collaboration of the writing center, learning assistance (tutoring) center, speaking center, and the library.  These units will be moving into the learning commons space, they are not satellite services.  We have a group that we call "Learning Commons Partners" that has been meeting to plan (both spaces and services) for the past 3 years.  We are currently working on a budget request for our learning commons for next year.  We are looking at operational and staffing expenses.  Our Provost's office would like us to include “best practices” in our requests. There seems to be a lot of variety in the structure and services of information and learning commons, so identifying "best practices" for staffing and budgeting is a challenge. 

Another one of our challenges is that each of the partners currently have separate budgets and report to a different campus official.  (Reporting eventually ends up at the Provost’s office but through different routes.)  We are trying to figure out how this will work in terms of staffing the commons and budgeting for it.  Another challenge is that this project was initiated by a former provost who was very active in the original design of the learning commons.  She was followed by an interim provost and then our current provost arrived last year.  We are now in the position of needing to make a case for the learning commons, its services and budget.  It went from a top-down project to a bottom-up one over a couple of years.

We are currently planning to make a budget request for the learning commons that is separate from the library's budget and for a LC coordinator and administrative assistant that are not a part of the library staff.  This coordinator would report to an associate provost rather than being a part of the library staff. 

Does anyone have a Learning Commons located in a library building that has a separate budget from the Library?  Or a Learning Commons Coordinator that is not a library staff member?  Do any of you share operating and staffing expenses among the partners?

Thanks for any help you can give me on what you would consider "best practices" for budgeting for a learning commons.  Judy

Judy Solberg

Director, Instructional and Public Services

Library, Seattle University

solbergj@seattleu.edu

206-296-6274

Re: [INFOCOMMONS-L] Controlling Noise Levels

Hi,

The interesting concept in this discussion is "Who is it too loud for?" The students or the library/commons staff? A recent student survey in my library indicated that students think the library is a quiet place. The definition of quiet is different for different people/generations. Too loud is certainly a matter of opinion and is a moving target as staff and students come and go. It takes a while to balance what is tolerable. Having clear cut rules is always useful but it takes pretty complete staff coordination to enforce the rules the same way.

This falls into a crowd control issue. When the commons is quiet (usually before 11am) staff will quiet down the group that is being disruptive. Later on, when the library is noisier, the library staff will take action if students are running amok or a student makes a specific request. The only creative solution we've come up with is to have a quiet lab where group work is discouraged. The lab serves as a place where students can escape the noise and hubbub of the commons.

Andy Heiz
Orange County Community College

On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 4:12 PM, Goulding, Aaron <aaron.goulding@mun.ca> wrote:

Hi everyone,
We have been struggling to control noise levels in our information commons after an increase in complaints. Our student staff find it difficult to approach fellow students, and sometimes it is not clear cut if the clients are being too loud or if it is just the large amount of around which causes a general increase in the noise level.  Just wondering if anyone has some creative strategies and/or tips for how they handle noise issues in learning commons? Thanks!


____________________________
Aaron Goulding
Senior IT Consultant

The Commons
QEII Library
Memorial University of Newfoundland
QEII Library, Room L2019
St. John's, NL, Canada    A1C 5S7
T  (709) 737-8062
http://thecommons.mun.ca/dmc

Re: [INFOCOMMONS-L] Controlling Noise Levels

Hi,

Our LC project is now about a third of the way completed, and I can mention some of the noise-suppression elements we have been including in the re-dedesign of what was formerly our reference room. In a few weeks I'll post some photos to the Flickr site to illustrate the points I'm making below.

In visiting many IC & LC facilities over the past 15 years, I've noticed that many use hard-surface design elements that create great visual energy and hi-tech ambience but also tend to exacerbate noise reverb. Also, many have workstation arrays on open tabletops with lo-rise plastic or frosted glass dividers, and others use wave tables or sawtooth table arrangements with reflective-surface dividers. Again, the visual appeal is great, but my personal view (not proven by actual decibel testing, by the way) is that workstation arrays on open tabletops, whether rectangular, wave, or sawtooth, tend to aggregate noise, especially in rooms with large undraped windows and tile floors and hard-surface ceilings that cause sounds to ricochet.

So we did some focus group prep and decided to place all our workstations in carrels, some single-width, some double-width for coaching and tutorials, with sound-absorbent fabric back-panels. These are H-M Vivo carrels which are a bit like lego kits--reconfigurable with choices of side and back-panel surfaces. Our focus groups suggested that the main ergonomic downside of carrels for some students is a "shadowy enclosed feeling." So we worked with H-M reps to design our carrels with fabric-face back-panels and frosted-glass-look side panels to allow light pass-through. The carrel-rows (7 side-by-side) are being placed across the room to divide areas of open seating reading tables from one another. So when students are talking at a table, their area is baffled from other areas of the LC by one or more rows of hi-rise fabric-backed carrels. These are single-sided rows of carrels, so the backside of each row that faces the open tables is a solid "wall" of sound-absorbent fabric.

For carpeting we chose relatively thick-pile cross-hatched design of carpet tile because we were told that cross-hatched pile tends to absorb and baffle sound better than uniform pile. We are also adding pull-down shades over the windows in the high-traffic areas that are translucent gauze so they allow light through but are more sound-absorbing than open glass. Finally, we are hanging some large colorful fabric banners from the dropped ceiling, situated to hopefully dampen noise reverb back and forth across the open spaces. Again, I'll post some photos on the Flickr site in a couple weeks. Even if your hard-surface design elements are in place, you might be able to retrofit some gauze windowshades, ceiling banners, or freestanding fabric-backed panels at strategic points. Even fiber-art or quilt displays might help.

And now for an obligatory message from our sponsor: "The Learning Commons at Belmont Abbey College has been supported by grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the federal Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources."

-Don
----
Donald Beagle
Director of Library Services
Belmont Abbey College
100 Belmont-Mt. Holly Rd
Belmont, NC 28012-1802
voice: 704.461.6740
fax: 704.461.6743
donaldbeagle@bac.edu

________________________________

From: Information Commons Interest Group on behalf of Goulding, Aaron
Sent: Thu 11/26/2009 4:12 PM
To: INFOCOMMONS-L@LISTSERV.BINGHAMTON.EDU
Subject: [INFOCOMMONS-L] Controlling Noise Levels

Hi everyone,
We have been struggling to control noise levels in our information commons after an increase in complaints. Our student staff find it difficult to approach fellow students, and sometimes it is not clear cut if the clients are being too loud or if it is just the large amount of around which causes a general increase in the noise level. Just wondering if anyone has some creative strategies and/or tips for how they handle noise issues in learning commons? Thanks!

____________________________
Aaron Goulding
Senior IT Consultant

The Commons
QEII Library
Memorial University of Newfoundland
QEII Library, Room L2019
St. John's, NL, Canada A1C 5S7
T (709) 737-8062
http://thecommons.mun.ca/dmc

Re: [INFOCOMMONS-L] Subject: [INFOCOMMONS-L] Controlling Noise Levels

Dear All:

We are facing the same problem in our InfoCommons area, with a clientele that is loud by nature, thus making the noise problem more critical. Please share the replies and/or copy me if replies are off list.

 

Best regards,

HKC

 

Houeida Kammourié-Charara

Electronic Resources Librarian

Lebanese American University Libraries

P.O.Box 13-5053 - Chouran Beirut 1102 2801 Lebanon

Phone +961- 1- 786456 ext. 1817

Fax +961-1-867098

 

P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail

 

 

From: Information Commons Interest Group [mailto:INFOCOMMONS-L@LISTSERV.BINGHAMTON.EDU] On Behalf Of Goulding, Aaron
Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 11:12 PM
To: INFOCOMMONS-L@LISTSERV.BINGHAMTON.EDU
Subject: [INFOCOMMONS-L] Controlling Noise Levels

 

Hi everyone,

We have been struggling to control noise levels in our information commons after an increase in complaints. Our student staff find it difficult to approach fellow students, and sometimes it is not clear cut if the clients are being too loud or if it is just the large amount of around which causes a general increase in the noise level.  Just wondering if anyone has some creative strategies and/or tips for how they handle noise issues in learning commons? Thanks!

 

 

____________________________

Aaron Goulding

Senior IT Consultant

 

The Commons

QEII Library

Memorial University of Newfoundland

QEII Library, Room L2019

St. John's, NL, Canada    A1C 5S7

T  (709) 737-8062

http://thecommons.mun.ca/dmc

 

[INFOCOMMONS-L] staying on top of new releases?

This semester I have taken over media selection (movies & tv)  and I'm struggling to find a good, complete, list of new & upcoming DVD film releases. What I've not been able to find is a source that includes art films, independent releases, and foreign films.

I'm sure many here have also struggled to stay ahead of this information. Where do you get your new release information?

--
Rudy Leon
Learning Commons Librarian
Undergraduate Library
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
(217) 333-3503
http://www.deepening.wordpress.com
AIM: rudibrarian