Lynn Durkee, Yavapai College library manager for the college’s Clarkdale camps, presented “Unlocking the Future: A Library Transformation” as a part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute’s Brown Bag Program at Yavapai College on Nov. 7.
In May, the college announced that it would be replacing its library with additional computer equipment and gave away most of its books to the public during the week of May 8. Remaining materials and staff are currently being housed in Building I at the Clarkdale campus during the rebuilding process. Durkee presented photos of the former library, which is now stripped down to concrete and metal and can be renovated, but not expanded.
“Yavapai College is leading us to the future and this forward motion includes the library,” Durkee said.
The redesigned computer center will offer a more spacious entryway and ample open seating. It will include a multimedia studio where students can record presentations, introduction videos and podcasts. Durkee said that not all students have access to this kind of equipment and discussed what she called a “one-button studio” program used at Arizona State University that allows a student to insert a thumb drive and press a single button to record video and sound that is automatically saved to their drive.
The center will also include a virtual reality lab with VR headsets students will be able use. The first set of headsets that Yavapai College received were funded by a grant from Facebook. Durkee explained the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality as being solely contained within the headset for the former while the latter uses a headset but also additional objects in the real world.
The college intends to use the VR gear to reduce time spent in classroom instruction. The VR room will be large so that multiple people can stand and interact in the virtual world without bumping into one another in the real world.
Durkee argued that virtual reality can be used in the classroom for situations that are dangerous to show normally, impossible to show otherwise or too expensive.
The center will include an experimental classroom as a space for faculty to try out new ideas and teaching methods. As in the former library, there will be a learning center for tutoring and other accommodations, plus more quiet rooms for studying, each with a built-in monitor on the wall and big glass windows.
Durkee’s explanation for the college’s abandonment of its library was its new focus on expanding access to technology. She claimed that VR technology makes learning more effective than watching a video by immersing different parts of the brain. Durkee added that the center will retain a few books and that over one million physical items are currently in the Yavapai County interlibrary loan network.
Durkee also argued that technology is changing fast, and that the jobs available today that students can train for will be different in five years’ time.
The new library, which the college is calling the Center for Learning and Innovation, is estimated to be finished sometime between May and August 2024.
