UW-MADISONS TEACHING LIBRARY - A DESIGN STUDIO FOR CREATIVE CULTURAL-CONFLICT

Since the fall of 1991, the School of Library and Information Studies of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has utilized the concept of the laboratory or teaching library to provide students with a ''design st udio'' in which they can experience professional practice in a protect ed environment and reflect on that experience. In the process of imple menting the teaching library, the faculty administrator and senior aca demic librarian who manage the library and its learning experiences ha ve discovered its role in making connections among many of the differe nt institutional cultures of library and information science education . The teaching library model, rooted in the professional school librar y, extends into the greater library community. A summary of outputs an d samples of student outcomes from the first four years of implementat ion reveal that the teaching library has created a bridge between theo ry and practice, between the demands of the academic culture and the d emands of the professional culture, and between the culture of the adu lt, part-time student and the culture of the full-time ''traditional'' student. It has enabled the school to integrate-new, rapidly changing technologies into the more slowly changing curriculum, and it has hel ped to create a unique learning community integral to one of the count ry's largest research universities.