The learning support role of the Information Commons exhibits emergent properties characteristic of organizational learning theory. The literature review highlights four articles from the United States, one from Germany, and one from Japan to illustrate the issues involved. The philosophy of the commons extension across physical, virtual, and cultural domains and the development of the Learning Commons as a collaboration among multiple learning support units, including libraries, are traced from theoretical origins through real-world examples. "Integrative learning" is offered as one example of a 21st century learning paradigm being supported by such collaborations, as evidenced by the development of commons-based e-portfolio systems.
Web-based learning environments are becoming more widely used for on-campus and distance education course delivery. A review of articles on the topic by faculty shows that only a few mention issues related to library access or resource integration. Moreover, only a small number of courseware evaluations posted on academic Web sites include criteria related to libraries. However, a few articles and reviews share common themes that point to a greater library involvement in courseware implementation, which is consistent with arguments made by distance education librarians calling for an active role in technical, pedagogical, and instructional support decisions concerning Web-based learning environments.
The complex state of flux in scholarly communications
and publishing today cannot be described or analyzed adequately in
economic or technological terms. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) offers an
interdisciplinary vocabulary and methodology that may have promising
application to understanding this flux and its impact on libraries. Key
terms and concepts advanced by several ANT researchers are applied
to an overview of the evolution of scholarly communications networks
and to an analysis of the strategy of the Scholarly Publishing and
Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). A possible adaptation of the
Jenkins-Fricke analytical matrix for tracking actors across the network
is also discussed, as well as its potential as a predictive mechanism
for anticipating future network elaboration.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.