The Paul Meek Library on the UT Martin campus has made a number of changes on its main floor to make room for a new area of academic assistance and support.
The library learning commons held a ceremonial ribbon cutting at the library Sept. 3.
The coordinator for the new learning commons is Dr. Amanda Mansfield, who earned her Master’s in Business Administration from UT Martin in 2020 and a Bachelor’s of Science degree in sociology from UT Martin in 2018. She also earned her Doctor of Education degree from Murray State University in 2024.
Mansfield was a supplemental instruction leader as an undergraduate student, helping students with their academic challenges. As a graduate student, she supervised the supplemental instructors.
Dr. Erik Nordberg, the dean of the Paul Meek Library, said that the library had already hosted several organizations and their activities, including the Supplemental Instruction Program operated by the Student Success Center; a small STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) lab also run by the Student Success Center; and a smaller version of the Hortense Parrish Writing Lab.
Nordberg said the project began nearly three years ago when he and Brad Baumgardner, the director of retention at the Student Success Center, considered how the Student Success Center and the library could become more collaborative in the way they support students.
“We know from collected data that students who take advantage of academic support functions and services do better,” Nordberg said. “They attain higher grade-point averages, they are more likely to progress semester to semester, and they are more likely to progress to graduation and succeed.
“The problem tends to be that students think there is a stigma to ask for help or to get a tutor or do those kinds of things.”
The first challenge was to create a space for the library learning commons. The library did a review of its print reference collections, which Nordberg said were very underused, and it integrated important items into the second-floor circulating collection, allowing the library to move those shelves from the first floor to the second floor.
“In effect, we were able to focus and re-energize our print collection on the second floor and open up the area for the library learning commons,” Nordberg said. “It’s taken us three years to do that, and that’s been a lot of hard work by librarians and staff to review titles, select titles, input from teaching faculty on campus and then, of course, just the physical nature of moving thousands of volumes and shelving.”
Funding for the change came from the students’ annual facilities fee and a $1.54 million Title III Strengthening Institutions Program grant approved in October 2023. The grant bolstered the creation of the commons as well as the Center for Teaching and Learning. The Center for Teaching and Learning is located on the second floor of the library.
Nordberg said the goal of the library learning commons has been to make it easy for students with academic challenges.
“Come to the library learning commons – the location is right in the name – and ask for some assistance,” he said. “If you need help finding a peer-reviewed article, we can get you to a librarian. If you need help getting those peer-reviewed articles into an essay, we’ll find somebody from the writing center. If you have a challenge with a harder class, we will connect you to a peer educator student associated with that course.”
The library learning commons includes a new welcome desk, new computer furniture and one-to-one consultation booths. There will be six or seven academic coaches this semester, with a goal of increasing to 10 coaches.
The library learning commons is overseen by Sarah Morris, assistant director of student Success Services, and Baumgardner.
For more information about the library learning commons, call Mansfield at 731-881-3093 or Nordberg at 731-881-7070.
PHOTO: UT Martin Chancellor Yancy Freeman cuts the ribbon Sept. 3 in the ceremonial opening of the library learning commons in the Paul Meek Library. Also pictured are Library Learning Commons Coordinator Dr. Amanda Mansfield and Dr. Erik Nordberg, dean of the Paul Meek Library.
