Muhlenberg College's Trexler Library to Integrate “Information Commons”
Muhlenberg College’s Trexler Library recently dedicated its new “AT&T Information Commons” at a celebration of the facility’s 20th anniversary on campus.Friday, October 17, 2008 11:22 AM
Referring to the production, sharing and democratic discussion of information that is afforded by new technologies, an Information Commons provides facilities to bring a scholarly community of researchers, instructors, students, teachers and users into one space, equipping them with a full suite of technology resources. A neutral, interdisciplinary space, the AT&T Information Commons will allow for collaboration and innovation, with full access to scholarly resources and the availability of full research support from reference librarians and trained student mentors.
"We support projects that create opportunities, make connections and address community needs where we - and our customers - live and work," said J. Michael Schweder, president of AT&T Pennsylvania. "The AT&T Information Commons at Muhlenberg College is a project that will help not just their students, but students of all ages from throughout the Lehigh Valley."
Trexler Library has a long history of community involvement, and the AT&T Information Commons will continue to benefit the community-at-large. With community access to the Commons, the facility will reach local high school students, the high school classes that visit each year for research projects, K-12 teachers from across the state who attend the Urban Academy held in the Library’s curriculum lab every summer, and the College’s service learning program, which serves organizations such as the Hispanic American Organization.
The concept of the Information Commons began in 1992 when the University of Iowa unveiled what it called its Information Arcade, funded with private grants and matching funds. The U. of Iowa arcade (or commons) includes high-end workstations with multimedia capabilities, a color flatbed scanner, slide scanner, digital cameras and video digitizing hardware. Other prominent Information Commons can be found at The University of Southern California, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., the University of Missouri at Kansas City and Indiana University at Bloomington.
