UAA Learning Commons moving to Consortium Library

UAA’s Learning Commons is moving out of Sally Monserud Hall and into the Consortium Library by the beginning of 2024. 

The Learning Commons provides a wide variety of resources to students. Students may already be familiar with the writing center, which provides consultation and feedback on writing of all kinds, and the math lab, which provides math help and tutoring. 

The Learning Commons also has a communications center, for students who wish to practice public speaking skills and presentations, science tutoring, and nursing tutoring. 

In an email to The Northern Light, project manager Cory Fischer wrote that Sally Monserud Hall is being repurposed as a part of a  $5 million grant “in collaboration with the College of Health to support Healthcare Workforce Development.”

Fischer wrote that this move is aligned with UAA’s 2022 Campus Master Plan, which envisions the Consortium Library as a “community learning hub.” He wrote that the Learning Commons was a “critical component” of that plan. 

Part of the first floor of the library is emptied of shelves to make room for the new learning commons space. Most of it will be filled with furniture, but there will be a few things that need to be built inside the space.

“The first floor of the library was chosen, since it represents the area of the library most visible to students. Additionally, it provides a space that is close to public centric building functions, such as restrooms, water fountains, and elevators,” wrote Fischer. 

“As a result of learning comments, we had to move every book in the building with the exception of the reference collection and the Alaskana collection. So all the books have been basically back shifted,” said Steve Rollins, the Dean of the Consortium Library, in an interview. 

Rollins said that the items that used to be in the now cleared-out space were old newspapers that have already been digitized by the library and old journal indexes that were not being used.  

He said that having a learning commons in an academic library isn’t a new concept; it’s something that’s been done many times. 

“I think it's a very good thing to have a learning commons in an academic library because then you're bringing people in that might not think about coming into a library, because they're coming in to try to find somebody to help them,” said Rollins.

He also said that the space will be accessible to students looking for spaces to study even beyond the times that the Learning Commons operates. “The space is all usable,” said Rollins.

Executive Director of the Learning Commons Cameron Nay said in an interview that the move to the library will be a good one for the Learning Commons. 

He said that in the past, the Learning Commons had students who needed librarian support while students in the library often needed Learning Commons support. Now, Learning Commons resources and library resources will be in one place. 

“That’ll also reduce confusion for students … especially with how our campus is so long, for students to be like ‘Oh! We came over here,’ ‘Oh, we can’t help you, you need to go over there,’” said Nay. 

“We'll be moving to the library which also helps kind of centralize us in an area where a lot of students are at, especially on weekends and things.”

Nay also said that with the Learning Commons operating in the library, he hopes that their services will be more widely available to students. With staff from the library and other departments quickly available nearby, “We can operate within their footprint which is bigger than what we've been doing here in this building.”

Nay said that the library is more secure with a frequent UPD presence, making it easier for them to expand their availability.

In addition to the existing writing, math, communications, science and nursing tutoring, Nay said that the Learning Commons is also working on putting together more programs. They are currently working on creating programs for engineering tutoring, foreign language tutoring, creating a learning assistant program to help undergraduates in key challenging courses, peer mentoring, and bringing back academic coaching programs.