Our learning landscape: opportunities, challenges and possibilities.

• Author: Roberts, Sue
• Position: Report

The learning landscape of the 21st century provides opportunities, challenges and multiple possibilities for librarians as educators, and as facilitators for communities in a world of knowledge and wisdom. Charted are this landscape and what it means for librarians as leaders and practitioners. This paper, as the starting point for the Learning for all conference, aims to take a broad brush approach to painting the learning landscape that all libraries form a part of, it then focuses on one critical issue for libraries in their learning role--collaboration. Edited version of a paper presented at the conference 'Learning for all: public libraries in Australia and New Zealand Melbourne 13-14 September 2012'.

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Libraries are operating in a rapidly changing information, pedagogic and technological environment. In this context, libraries have been redefined as facilitators of access to a world of information far beyond physical collections, providing access to global information through online resources and systems; many have also positioned themselves as facilitators of learning, with the emphasis on informal and lifelong learning, and as physical and virtual spaces for community engagement and connection. This paper, as the starting point for the Learning for all conference, aims to take a broad brush approach to painting the learning landscape that all libraries form a part of; it then focuses specifically on one critical issue for libraries in their learning role--collaboration.

From learning to learners

Pedagogic and policy changes, combined with the impact of new technologies and a society that is increasingly consumer oriented, has led to a conceptual shift--in the literature at least, and hopefully in practice--from learning to the learner. As Watson so eloquently and clearly highlights in his discussion on learner support developments 'It's not about us: it's about them'. (1) This shift in emphasis focuses on the learner as an individual who may not necessarily take a linear approach to education throughout their life, who wants to dip in and out as circumstances dictate, who wants to blend home, work and education, and who uses technology ubiquitously to find information, learn, connect and create. Libraries have successfully been making the shift from 'lending to learning', (2) from content to facilitation. We must also ensure we make a shift from learning to learners, creating services, spaces and programs with the learners firmly at the centre. In practice, this has been translated by some organisations into a commitment to a refreshing approach to service design. At Glasgow Caledonian University, the service promise of the Saltire Centre (which incorporates library, learning support, student services, IT and more) is that 'Students should not have to understand how a university is structured in order to access its services'. (3) Integrated services, one stop shop information points, staff with a broad range of knowledge and effective referrals between services are all features of this model and approach.

Inclusion and diversity

These learners are also becoming increasing diverse with multiple and multifaceted needs and aspirations. Changes in demographics in many countries mean that there is increasingly more diversity within communities. For example 2012 US census figures show that for the first time in US history 'minority births' make up more than half of all births (US Census Bureau 17 May www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archive)

2011 Australian census figures reveal that one in four Australians is born overseas with Hinduism the fastest growing religion. (Australian Bureau of Statistics 22 June www.abs.gov.au/census)

This growing community diversity points to the need for a sophisticated and considered response to learning needs, arguably well beyond the current approach in Australia to culturally and linguistically diverse (Cald) groups.

An analysis of the trends in the global education literature in the late 20th and early 21st centuries also points to a rise in the profile of the inclusion agenda, arguably driven both from a diversity and social mobility perspective. This shift in thinking can be attributed to demographic changes, government imperatives and policy, and--more altruistically--growing awareness that an...