Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal April 2006 Volume 4(2)

New learning centre

Learning comes of age

The Saltire Centre, the new Learning Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University, has light filled spaces, areas suited to students’ varying needs and people ready to listen. Jan Howden describes the culmination of three years of planning.

The Saltire Centre opened in February at the very heart of Glasgow Caledonian University campus. Response from the students has been very positive. The Centre’s four-storey atrium spaces are flooded with sunlight or alive with light graphics after dark.

Douglas Fir beams, wooden walkways, high ceilings and north and south facing glass walls are the main immediate features of the building. All the main routes through the building have stunning views of these attributes but they are also very discreet from the study areas.

Almost every aspect of service delivery was considered when planning of the building started three years ago. At this stage, some radical ideas emerged. These are based on:

>>the development of the learning café concept and extending the review of technology and environment to other learning styles;
>>current ideas on paper and e-resource balance of provision; and
>>grouping a range of student services in the one very accessible area to provide services that are focused on the student.

Most furniture has network and power connections built in so that people can use their own laptop or borrow one from the Saltire Centre. Group activity and individual study is enhanced by the ability to eat and drink in the study area and to stop for a quick chat – for example, on a mobile phone.

The first floor provides very easy access from teaching blocks to an assistive technology area with special height desks and high specification computers and technology. A mix of furniture is also available in this area, which has the feel of a sophisticated office environment. The same quality of furniture and integration of technology continues progressively up the building.

Some informal group spaces are retained; the bean bag areas are very popular. The further you go up the building , the furniture starts to encourage more individual learning, with more space and desktop lighting. In the silent fourth floor, computers remain an important part of what the student brings in to support them; again either by using the desktop machines with lots of space around them or plugging a laptop into a study table.

Access to learning resources
Glasgow Caledonian is amongst the biggest users of CASS, the joint storage facility for SCURL libraries. CASS offered the opportunity to review what would be retained on campus. Extensive use is made of compact storage; eight kilometres of it. This enables the Saltire Centre, which is a similar size to the previous library, to not only have 1000 more places to study but to feel more like a bright ‘people building’ than a book repository.

The most frequently used books are on open shelves. As more book contents become browsable in the catalogue, the efficiency of the compact storage will improve. The University has always spent a high proportion of its budget on online resources. Digitisation of offprints will increase access further.

Student access to services
Along with the planning and design of the building, a range of web-based services have been developed for students. These include: disability services; careers; funding; the effective learning service; registry; and the international student advisory service.

The web is a now a major access point for such services via the student home page on any of the Saltire Centre’s 600 computers – or indeed from anywhere else. This information is also used to support people working at ‘the Base’, the information and advice desk which acts as the first point of contact for most services. The people here are trained to answer a range of questions including basic library subject enquiries. If they can’t help they will phone a specialist, offer drop-in times in a semi-private pod or appointments in the consultation rooms in the building.

This desk is also the issue and return desk for books. It is situated away from all of the five entrances and exits which prevents it being crowded with people wanting to issue or return books. Self issue and return machines are at points near to the five entrances and exits which link the teaching blocks at different levels.

Queues are rare at the Base, helping to make students feel that they are in a friendly environment with people ready to listen, rather than being in queue for book processing.

Jan Howden is Associate Director and Senior Librarian, Learner Support, Glasgow Caledonian University t:0141 273 1204.

The Saltire Centre is open to the public.

Art at the Saltire:
Toby Paterson, one of Glasgow’s most successful young artists, is shown below painting directly onto the walls of the Saltire building. Toby developed art, which covers three walls of the Ground Floor Services Mall at the centre, as a response to its dynamic design and innovative approach to learning. Toby Paterson is known for his signature architectural images. He has exhibited throughout the world and won the 2002 Beck’s Futures Prize.
Gary Breeze, an artist in lettercutting, has also created a work for the Centre. Gary's commission is a dissembled archway engraved with Horace's Ode 3.9. The text is in its original Latin form and an old form of Doric Scots dialect. Gary has used the reflection of Latin in its translation to demonstrate learning through conversation and language: a principal theme in the Saltire Centre.

Information Scotland Vol. 4(2) April 2006

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