TEALS (Tool for Evaluation of Academic Library Spaces) project : evaluating physical library spaces

The aim of TEALS project was to establish a setting for evaluation of academic library spaces. The outcomes of such evaluation were anticipated to provide insights into the impacts of library spaces on students’ learning experiences, faculty’s teaching and research and lead to identifying the area of weakness and strength, developing improvement plans and defining specific goals and means for project decision-makers.

Transforming an academic library's spaces : an evaluation study of Deakin University Library at Burwood campus using TEALS discovery

Libraries worldwide are transforming their spaces to better align with the changing needs of their communities. The aim of this paper is to outline the process and outcome of an evaluation study of transformed academic library spaces at the Melbourne Burwood Campus using TEALS. In light of changing higher education practices and students learning preferences, Deakin University has been questioning the balance of informal learning spaces and more formal teaching and academic spaces across its campuses. Commissioned by Deakin University Library, TEALS (Tool for the Evaluation of Academic Library Spaces) was developed to evaluate academic library spaces. The Melbourne Burwood Campus library has undergone several phases of refurbishment to create a library environment that is centred around students’ needs and that supports their individual and group learning experiences. In addition, areas of the library yet to be improved will undergo a major redevelopment over the next year. Given this, carrying out an evaluation of the current spaces is timely to ensure that a better understanding of the impact of changes is achieved. The evaluation process involved: a review of architectural plans and space briefing documents; an observational study of spaces; focus groups with students and library staff; and an online survey of Students’ Library Experience. Use of the TEALS space evaluation tool along with an analysis of data collected during the evaluation process have provided significant insights into various dimensions of the quality of new library spaces. The areas of weakness and strength identified in the study will inform the next phase of Deakin University Library space redevelopment.

Development of a tool for evaluation of academic library spaces (TEALS) (0242)

The paper provides a brief description of the tool for evaluating the quality and utilisation of academic library spaces (TEALS). Supported by Deakin University Library, TEALS has been developed out of a research project in the School of Architecture and Building, Deakin University, Geelong Waterfront Campus. The tool is intended to establish the setting for evaluation of physical spaces at different phases of development of new academic library spaces and refurbishment of existing ones as well as throughout the life of buildings. The methodological framework of the tool consists of four key elements; establishing Criteria of Quality (CoQ), determining Quality Indicators, evaluating library spaces against QIs and interpreting results for future improvements. The characteristics that distinguish TEALS from existing evaluation models include adopting an approach that focus on people (students, faculty and library staff), acting as a “reflective” and “empowering” tool and being user-friendly, quick and easy to use.

Spaces of trauma : young people, homelessness and violence

Little contemporary research has examined young people’s experiences ofviolence and homelessness in detail within the Australian context. This articledraws upon qualitative research with 33 homeless youth in Melbourne andseeks to enhance understanding of the impact of violence on young people.It argues that everyday experiences of violence play a central role in shapinghomeless young people’s lived experiences, traumatising young people andviolating any sense of connection and home. It suggests that violence is notonly a causal factor for homelessness, but also exacerbates and prolongs homelessness.

Keeping connected: the design and overview of the research

The special issue Keeping Connected: Identity, Social Connection and Education for Young People opens with a paper that discusses the research design and overview of a three-year project by a Melbourne (Australia)-based multi-disciplinary team. Over 2007–2009, the Keeping Connected team of 10 researchers investigated the lives of adolescents with ongoing health conditions. The project centrally is developed by the young people's perspectives, their identity and wellbeing, relationships with others and engagement within changing contexts and their altered opportunities in the world. The research design includes image production underpinned by visual methods and a narrative-informed approach to interview and interpretation of images. The study, which crosses the health and education interface, set out to highlight differences of perspectives adopted by 31 young people, their families and the professional groups, such as teachers and health professionals. The special issue discusses key project findings and contributes a body of scholarship that expands our knowledge of evidence-based research across the education and health interface. The longitudinal study highlighted two themes of importance for education, and poorly catered for in current policies and guidelines: that the situation of these young people needs to be addressed by schools as a process over time (including prospectively); and that the young people's identity is strongly marked by a desire to be seen and treated as ‘normal’ combined with an awareness of being vulnerable.

Keeping connected: a review of the research relationship

In this paper, some key findings of the Keeping Connected project are discussed in light of the methodological challenges of developing an analytical approach in a large-scale study, particularly in starting with open-ended, participant-selected, digital still visual images as part of 31 longitudinal case studies. The paper works to clarify the methodological and epistemological discussions of the visual data, an issue of great interest in qualitative research and visuality for researchers intent on developing understandings of participatory research methods in the field of youth studies.

Embedding learning in a paediatric hospital: changing practice and keeping connected

This paper, the final paper in the Keeping Connected special issue, presents the key findings of the overall study and focuses on the challenging process of re-imagining a hospital setting as a community of learning for young people in light of these findings. The paper focuses on young people as learners within the overarching themes emanating from the Keeping Connected research such as normalcy, diversity and communication. Taking up Slee's notion of ‘the irregular school’, we describe how one setting in a large urban paediatric hospital in Victoria, Australia, is transforming the way in which children and young people are supported to maintain their connectedness to learning. We reflect on the evidence of the Keeping Connected project to inform the ways in which a hospital can respond to young people's needs as learners and offer a model of inclusion as a form of cultural change in this important out-of-school setting. Directions for future research are also offered.

Conserving the heritage spaces of Kuala Lumpur : a case study of the old Market Square (Medan Pasar)

Being one of the new Asian mega-cities today, the origins of Kuala Lumpur started as early as 1850s at the confluence between two rivers; Gombak and Klang. The history of Kuala Lumpur changed when tin was discovered in Ampang in I 857. To cater for the need of residents and miners, a small trading post was constructed at the confluence between these two rivers. This business activity expanded eastwards to the Klang River resulting in one of the busiest business centres in Kuala Lumpur. Shophouses were erected and streets formed. These rows of shophouses and streets, with the river located to the west, created a rectangular space, known as the Old Market Square (Medan Pasar) which later became the main focal point of Kuala Lumpur. Today, even though the native senlements, chaotic sheds and huts have totally disappeared, some of the original shophouses, streets and even spaces still exist. However, they are struggling to survive and to maintain their authenticity due to pressures of nearby developments. This article considers the status of the Old Market Square in regard to its historical evolution and its position in contemporary heritage legislation and policy.

Creating spaces in higher education for marginalised Australians : principles for socially inclusive pedagogies

The Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education provided a timely reminder of the dismal performance of the nation and its higher education system in terms of the proportional representation of certain groups of Australians within the university student population. While the Australian Government has taken on the challenge of creating more university places for people from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, this article makes the case for creating spaces in higher education for marginalised Australians. Specifically, we argue that the most strategic place to begin this is with the pedagogic work of higher education, because of its positioning as a central message system in education. And it is from the centre that the greatest pedagogic authority is derived. In this paper we conceive of the pedagogic work involved in terms of belief, design and action. From these constitutive elements are derived three principles on which to build a socially inclusive pedagogy and to open up spaces for currently marginalised groups.  

Contact zones, third spaces, and the act of interpretation

The conceptual understanding of museums as ‘contact zones’ has been widely appropriated in the museum literature and beyond. But the discussion lacks empirical insights into actual experiences: What does ‘contact’ mean for the person experiencing it? How is it lived, negotiated and contested? Drawing on a long-term narrative study of global visitors to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), this paper offers an empirical interrogation and theoretical refinement of the ‘contact zone’. It moves beyond the more usual focus on museological production by shedding light on the meanings made by museum visitors. This paper augments current normative and theoretical approaches with an ethnographic study of processes of intercultural mediation during cross-cultural encounters, translation and dialogue. This is done through a hermeneutic analysis of visitors’ acts of interpretation that facilitates an understanding of ‘cultural action’ in ‘contact zones’ as an interpretive ontological endeavour of the shifting Self within a pluralist cosmopolitan space.

Trust evaluation for indirectly connected nodes using link community information

Inspired by recent empirical research on link communities, we borrow some important ideas and concepts for our own research to provide a more reasonable computation model of transitive trust. The key advantages of using link community methodology is to reflect on the nature of the social network features of Hierarchy and Overlap. Our research mainly resolves the computation of trust transitivity in which two nodes do not have any direct links to any link community. In this research, we discover a new direction analyzing trust transitivity. By using a social network game, we found that the link community methodology is a natural way to analyze trust in social networks. We also discovered, even in a small social network, trust has certain community features.