A Comparative Study On The Construction Of Information Commons Of University Libraries In China Mainland,Taiwan And The United States

The information commons has been arising in the late 90s of the 20th century in the United States as a new learning mode.It is generated in the background of shared learning and the open access movement,and it is a one-stop service center and collaborative learning environment combined with various types of information resources and software and hardware facilities.The information commons will be changing and developing according to user needs,and it has become the main way for users to obtain information technology and digital resources.The characteristics of information commons include:providing users with one-stop information services,improving the user's information literacy,promoting cooperative research and learning.In other countries,information commons has become a very important part in the construction of university library,and is the most popular way of service of all kinds of university libraries.In Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan regions,the study of information commons is relatively earlier than that in mainland China.The construction of the information commons of University Library in mainland China started late,but it has aroused wide attention of academic circles,and has become a hot research topic.However,compared to the theoretical research,the construction of the information commons of university libraries in mainland China is still slightly lagging behind.And there exists a series of problems:space design is not reasonable,resource allocation is yet to be improved,website construction lagged behind,user service needs further improvement,the user policy needs to be changed,has yet to establish a unified university information commons evaluation standard and so on.In order to understand the basic situation of the construction of information commons of university libraries in mainland China,and to find out the differences between the mainland,Taiwan and the United States in this field,the research using literature research method,case study method and method of comparative analysis,and searching online databases and related websites,to compare the construction of information commons in mainland China,Taiwan and the United States.The comparison shows that there are some differences in this filed including space design,resource allocation,website construction,user policy and evaluation feedback mechanism.Specifically,in terms of space design,the construction model,regional division and construction scale in the mainland university library information commons are slightly behind that in Taiwan and the United States.In the allocation of resources,the practice of university library information commons in American proves more perfect,it can meet various user needs in information resources,it not only serve for users,but also constantly strengthen the librarian personalized professional training.It is beneficial to improve the user service of the library and information literacy of users.The information commons in Taiwan combines information resources with teaching,it also creates a distinctive spatial information sharing model according to different professional settings and teaching features of every different schools.However,the information commons in mainland China is insufficient in terms of information resources,software and hardware facilities and staff allocation.In the terms of website construction,the United States and Taiwan do well,they can fully base on the user's point of view,enable to save users' time and to provide users with comprehensive information related with information commons.However,the information commons in mainland China in the website construction is still somewhat lagging behind.In terms of user policy,compared with Taiwan and the United States,the university information commons in the mainland is still insufficient in terms of service object,service time and user specification.Meanwhile,most universitiy information commons in mainland China neglect the construction of user evaluation and feedback.This study selects the information commons in Tsinghua University Library,Chung Hsing University "Xing Yue Fang",University of Kentucky library the Hub at WT'S as a case.Studies shown that the construction of information commons in these three universities exists advantages and disadvantages.Overall,"Xing Yue Fang" and he Hub at WT'S proves more perfect,the information commons in Tsinghua University Library needs to improve in the following aspects:reasonable planning and space design,providing personalized service,improving the software and hardware facilities,extending opening hours,website construction,developing the user explicitly use standard,perfect the evaluation and feedback mechanism.Through the research we can see,currently,university library information commons is still in its infancy.We can take many measures to improve the information commons in mainland university libraries.These measures are reasonable planning of premises,and creating a good environment for the construction of information commons;to establish a reasonable structure of information resource system;to change the service concept,expand service content,to optimize the service mode;to establishment of unified university information commons evaluation system;to learn from the other successful examples.