Learning Commons at Cabell Library Proves an Instant Hit with Students

By Tom Gresham

On a recent weekday afternoon, students packed the new Cabell Learning Commons area on the second floor of James Branch Cabell Library at Virginia Commonwealth University. Students were seated at the study stations that are arranged throughout the space, typing on laptops and flat-screen desktop computers. Others sat in booths with open books and a late lunch or conferred near white boards covered with formulas. Group study rooms were filled. Active, engaged students were apparent in every direction.

The scene was a validation of the thinking that prompted the major redesign of the library’s second floor. The 14,000 square feet that make up the Learning Commons area are devoted to creating an improved student study space in the Cabell Library. The new space, which opened officially with a ribbon-cutting ceremony during Welcome Week, is designed to provide versatility and functionality in an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere, according to John Ulmschneider, University Librarian. The Learning Commons adds 438 new seats in the library, which hosts more than 2 million student visits each year.

Students have a variety of places to settle and the amenities they require are always nearby, including abundant computer monitors, table space and especially electrical outlets. There are smaller touches, such as cupholders, reconfigurable furniture with flexible lighting and moveable whiteboards on wheels, and larger ones, such as large impromptu gathering areas, group study rooms and a multipurpose room big enough to seat as many as 60 people.

The result, Ulmschneider said, is “a state-of-the-art academic work space for students … that is among the best of its kind anywhere in the country.”

Beverly Warren, Ed.D., Ph.D., interim provost of VCU, said the Learning Commons was the latest in a series of projects designed to improve the student experience at VCU, following the opening of the Larrick Student Center on the MCV Campus and the Cary Street Gym on the Monroe Park Campus and the establishment of the Harris Hall Student Services Center as a one-stop home for enrollment services needs.

Warren said the Learning Commons project reflects the status of the library as the center of university life and a critical setting for scholarly interaction. Rapid technological advances have not eliminated the necessity for students to collaborate and exchange ideas in person, Warren said.

“And what better place to collaborate than this?” Warren said.
 
The redesign was made possible in part by the move of hundreds of thousands of bound journals to storage space in the new 500 Academic Centre building. The journals, which placed end to end would run for six linear miles, according to Ulmschneider, are still easily accessible, but their absence from Cabell means much more room for students.

Ulmschneider said the Learning Commons marked the first step in an effort to provide VCU’s student body with more places to study and work in the library in a productive atmosphere.