Chapman Learning Commons

Staff Team

Julie Mitchell Managing Librarian Chapman Learning Commons

Teri Grant Student Development Coordinator Chapman Learning Commons

Clare Yow Program Assistant Chapman Learning Commons

UBC Library Student Advisory Committee

In 2010, the Learning Commons Student Advisory Committee was established at UBC to offer a venue for students to bring forward issues and ideas related to the programs and services of the Chapman Learning Commons and UBC's Learning Commons website.

Beginning the 2011/12 academic year, the committee expanded to become the UBC Library Student Advisory Committee. The Student Advisory Committee advises on how best to support and enhance student learning and library services, and helps shape strategic directions for the development and provision of learning resources to meet the needs of our diverse student population.

2011/2012 Committee Members

Chairs:

• Julie Mitchell, Managing Librarian, Chapman Learning Commons
• Erin Biddlecombe, Student Development Officer, Learning

Members:

• Al-Hassan Al-Shaibani, Faculty of Science, Residence Advisor
• Carolee Changfoot, Faculty of Arts, Arts Student Senator, AMS Elections Administrator, Arts Coop Student Association Web and Alumni Relations Coordinator
• Deepshika Kelkar, Education Committee Member
• Stewart McGillivray, Education Committee Member
• Aaron Sihota, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Senate Library Committee Member, AMS Council Senate Representative
• Nick Thornton, Faculty of Arts, Chapman Learning Commons, Sexual Assault Support Centre Peer Educator

Membership and Terms of Reference

The Library Student Advisory Committee meets 3 times per year and is comprised of representatives from student government (including student senators and AMS) as well as students at large from various faculties:

2 Student Senators 2 VP Academics - undergrad constituencies 2 Education Committee 4 Students at Large

1. The Managing Librarian, Chapman Learning Commons and Student Development Officer, Learning will co-chair the Student Advisory Committee. Staff representatives from other UBC Library branches and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology will attend meetings in an ex-officio capacity.
2. There is no requirement of a quorum for the Library Student Advisory Group.
3. There will be a key question for inquiry and opportunities for open discussion as part of each meeting.
4. From time to time, depending on the issues to be discussed, resource persons will be invited to meetings.
5. Staff representatives on the Committee are committed to transparency of process including reporting results of decisions related to student suggestions and ideas.

Expectations/Objectives

For Students:

• To take an active role in shaping learning support and enhancement resources
• To have an environment for providing feedback and sharing ideas around learning support resources
• To have the opportunity to have contact with and influence the Library
• To become better informed on services related to learning support and academic resources and to share that knowledge with their respective campus communities

For Staff:

• To gain a better understanding of the needs and desires of students around learning support and enhancement
• To gain insight to student expectations for services and quality of service for the purpose of the development and improvement of in-person and online resources
• To have students identify gaps in services that are currently offered and help prioritize services for improvement
• Identify student needs related to support for new technology

Minutes

2012

March 28, 2012 | Minutes March 2, 2012 | Minutes January 11, 2012 | Minutes January 11, 2012 | Feedback from Rapid Fire Activity

2011

January 12 2011 April 7, 2011

2010

November 5, 2010

The Chapmans

Kay and Lloyd Chapman, Benefactors

"We chose to fund the Learning Commons because we've always believed that people learn best when they are engaged in discussion, sharing ideas and insights with one another."

It is the often the most daring ideas that have the most impact. Nowhere is this more evident than in the support that Mrs. Kay Scott Chapman and the late Dr. Lloyd Chapman have given UBC Library. Longtime supporters of UBC, the Chapmans have inspired innovative projects and programs that have improved the quality of life of students, faculty and the wider community.

Mrs. Chapman attended UBC, and graduated in 1937. Her husband, Dr. Lloyd Chapman, attended UBC for one year before completing his degree in dentistry at the University of Toronto. Beginning in 1975, the Chapmans have made a yearly gift to the library, focusing their efforts on inventive projects with the highest degree of impact. Their dedication to innovative learning is evident in their gift to establish the Chapman Learning Commons, an exceptional facility that encourages group interaction and provides access to cutting-edge technology.

The Chapman Learning Commons officially opened in 2002, and reopened in 2008 in the newly completed Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Located in the heritage section of the former Main Library, the Learning Commons has soaring ceilings, stained glass windows, and comfortable seating. The suite of programs and services offered in the Chapman Learning Commons support the Chapmans’ vision that discourse and debate with fellow learners greatly enhances the university experience by allowing the free exchange of ideas, theories and information.

The Dodsons

Suzanne Cates Dodson and Earl D. Dodson

The Dodson room is a popular workshop space located in the Chapman Learning Commons, named in honour of Suzanne Cates Dodson and her late husband Earl D. Dodson, great friends and benefactors of the UBC Library. This beautiful space was restored in 1999 to recapture its original appearance, dating back to the opening of Main Library in 1925. Suzanne Dodson's career with the Library spanned 36 years, ending in 1999 with her retirement as Facilities and Preservation Manager. The Dodsons have contributed numerous gifts to the Library for the restoration and upgrading of facilities, and Earl Dodson was a former member of the President's Advisory Council on the University Library.

From Concourse to Commons

The Main Library was one of the first three permanent buildings on campus. The architectural style, harking back to British traditions, has been called free Tudor, Gothic revival, and part of the academic Beaux-Arts tradition. The architects were Sharp and Thompson, a Vancouver firm.

The Main Concourse, the building's centrepiece, is 100 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 60 feet high. The walls are finished in Caen stone, a soft, fine-grained, light-coloured limestone from Caen in Normandy, France. The walls and the exposed oak trusses supporting the roof are decorated with shields and friezes, carved and painted. In the windows along the walls are stained-glass crests of Canadian and British universities. The large cathedral windows at either end have been restored and refinished to let in light as originally intended.

From the Concourse can be seen the Canadian Jubilee Memorial window, unveiled on November 28th, 1928 by BC Premier S. F. Tolmie. The final cost was $1,600. Marking Canada's first 60 years of nationhood, it represents the Dominion and the provinces in existence at the time.

The Main Concourse, now home to The Chapman Learning Commons, has seen changes since the building opened in 1925. At that time the Concourse, filled with long rectangular tables, was the Library's main study room. Of course, the book stacks were not open for browsing. Students handed "Loan Slips" to a staff member at the "Loan Desk," a large counter in the Concourse. A "Call Boy" fetched books from the stacks. The Main Stacks were not fully open to all students until 1966.

John Ridington, the first University Librarian at UBC, served from 1919 until his retirement in 1940. The room to the north of the Concourse is named for him. His authoritarian reputation earned him the nickname "King John" and Main Library was called "King John's Castle".

He issued edicts and students parodied them. One such was that students were walking too much on the white portions of the Concourse floor and in future must walk on the black squares only. Some students believed it and tried to comply.

Another time, in the 1930s, students issued a notice: "Due to the shortage of Library janitors, you are requested to walk only on the black tiles."

A further story from the 1940s involves Dean Buchanan, for whom the adjacent Buchanan Building is named. Dr. W. Kaye Lamb, University Librarian from 1940 to 1948 reported: "One day between terms, when the building was deserted, Dean Buchanan came up the main stairway into the reading room. At the top he stopped suddenly and said: 'I've always wanted to do this!' Striding down to the end of the room he turned about and in his magnificent voice, which echoed grandly through the rafters, he called out: 'Now loading on track 12, train number 5, for Toronto, Hamilton, Buffalo.'"

By 1968, the "Main Information Desk", the central information point for the Library was in the Concourse, along with the "Main Card Catalogue", the Library's only public record of its entire collection, system-wide. As many as 5 or 6 cards were filed by hand for each item in the collection. The Card Catalogue grew until it filled the Concourse. In 1978, when the Card Catalogue closed, the collection numbered about two million items. The Main Library and the Main Concourse were the focal points of the UBC Library system.

After that, the online catalogue made visits to the Concourse increasingly unnecessary. Using computers, students could look up books anywhere. By the 1990s, the Main Concourse was in urgent need of renovation and a new purpose. The University's Academic Plan set out the long term goal, to have a learning commons on campus that focussed on the needs of students.

The benefactors of The Chapman Learning Commons, Mrs. Kay (Scott) Chapman and her husband, Dr. Lloyd Chapman, generously funded the Learning Commons. Mrs. Chapman, a UBC alumna, hoped to find projects at UBC that allowed for discourse and debate and that "improved the quality of life" for all. The Commons, with its access to technology and innovative learning programs, fit the bill perfectly.

Decades ago, students filled the Concourse at study tables. Today, students once again occupy tables where they engage in discussion, but they also take advantage of the latest computer technology, a wireless network, peer programs and community events. The Chapman Learning Commons is rooted in both the heritage of Main Library and in modern technology and can once again be enjoyed by all.

The Chapman Learning Commons was officially opened in February 2002 and reopened in 2008 in the newly completed Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Sources Franklin, Douglas. "The competition for the design of the University of British Columbia." West Coast Review 15.1 (1981): 49-57.

Shorthouse, Tom, ed. Scrapbook for a golden anniversary; the University of British Columbia Library, 1915-1965. Victoria: Morriss Printing, 1965.