What are some important considerations when looking holistically at library spaces today? This talk will focus on a subset of issues that are important for academic libraries as they critically review their current spaces and plan for renovations and re-purposing of spaces: examining research and teaching and learning trends in the university and identifying gaps that the library’s spaces and services might address; aligning the library’s program and staff expertise with spaces; and exploring how the library might approach making their spaces more inclusive and welcoming. Principles for space planning and specific examples of how some libraries have approached and addressed these issues will be presented.

Speaker bio: Joan K. Lippincott is Associate Executive Director Emerita of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), a joint program of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and EDUCAUSE, based in Washington, DC. At CNI, Joan provided leadership for programs in teaching and learning, learning spaces, digital scholarship, ETDs, and assessment. She served on the boards of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), the New Media Consortium (NMC) and on the advisory boards for the EDUCAUSE Horizon Report for both higher education and libraries. Joan was the editor of the EDUCAUSE Review E-Content column and was chair of the Association of College & Research Libraries’ (ACRL) New Publications Board, and served as a member of the ACRL task force that produced the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. She has served on the Advisory Boards of the Learning Spaces Collaboratory and the Learning Space Toolkit project. Joan has consulted with many academic libraries on their space renovation projects and has been on the planning committee for the Designing Libraries for the 21st Century conference since its inception. She co-edited Designing Libraries for the 21st Century, published in 2022. Prior to her position at CNI, she was a librarian focusing on user services in the libraries of SUNY Brockport, Georgetown University, George Washington University, and Cornell University. Joan has a B.A. in History from Vassar College, an MLS from SUNY Geneseo, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Policy, Planning, and Administration from University of Maryland, College Park.