The Library Space as Learning Space

It is fitting that this E-Content column is being published in the EDUCAUSE Review issue immediately following the E-Content column written by David W. Lewis.¹ Much of the work I am discussing here had its starting point in a model developed by Lewis—a model that depicted a compelling vision for academic libraries over the next twenty years.² In seeking to protect the library's role as a vital part of scholarship, Lewis argued that a number of strategies were available to those charged with library funding and administration. Broadly, his thesis recognized that libraries would continue to be heavily used by students, though largely independent of print collections, and that librarians' roles would become much more grounded in teaching and research enterprises, frequently outside the confines of the library building.