Markham Centre Campus Library is a multi-modal, flexible, open and dynamic space, not only to consume knowledge but to network, experiment, discover, and produce new knowledge through creative activity and interdisciplinary interaction in alignment with how 21st century education is taught. Envisaged as the campus focal point, it is a hub that fosters research and knowledge mobilization in practice, supported by student-centred pedagogies. Offering technology, space and expertise fundamentally integrated with program offerings, the Markham Library is designed to enable digital fluency, communities of practice, supports for experiential learning, while fostering the art of critical making and creative entrepreneurship.
Inclusion is at the heart of the Markham Library, offering differentiated study space to support diverse learning, research and knowledge production needs ranging from inspirational designated quiet space to mixed use active, stimulating spaces for those that prefer to study in the buzz of things or are inspired by sensory stimuli. Plenty of collaborative spaces are offered to help foster the social and communal nature of learning including group and peer learning. This in turn helps to reflect and support the current shift from instructor to learner-centred pedagogies with spaces that allow for creative collaborations for faculty, librarian, student and industry collaborations that leverage libraries’ connections and expertise on research content, information literacy inclusive of digital and data fluencies, digital publishing, and a variety of collaborative knowledge production supports including data visualization, media creation, and critical making. An adaptive learning lab is also available within the Library, dedicated to providing students with disabilities the tools, resources and expertise they need to succeed academically.
Markham Campus Library ...
IS: inclusive, multi-modal, flexible, open and dynamic space
TO: consume, network, experiment, discover, produce new knowledge through creative activity and interdisciplinary interaction
ENABLES: diverse learning, EE, research, knowledge production, partnerships
PARTNERS IN: creative collaborations WITH faculty, librarian, student, industry drawing on Libraries
EXPERTISE: animating & visualizing content, digital & data fluencies, critical making, publishing
Digital Scholarship Centre: Curricular and Co-curricular Programming
As an academic partner the Libraries bring many areas of expertise to our academic partnerships in research, teaching & learning. The extension of the Libraries' Digital Scholarship Centre to the Markham Campus Library will enable a number of curricular and co-curricular educational opportunities:
- Fundamentals of Research Computing
- Developing Digital Collections
- Digital Authorship and Publishing
- Data Literacy and Visualization
- Digital Pedagogy and Digital Research Methods
- Information Literacy
- Academic Integrity
- Research Data Management
- Building Your Scholarly Visibility
- Text and Data: Encoding, Manipulation and Analysis
Media Creation
Drawing on the successes of the Media Creation Lab at Scott Library, the Library Media Creation Spaces at Markham Campus Library will be a site for teaching, learning, and research creation. The libraries will work with faculty to integrate media creation into the curriculum along with critical conversations about rights and ethics, accessibility, intellectual property, and preservation. Teaching supports will include podcasting, video projects, virtual reality, digital storytelling, and journalling. We offer audio and video recording and editing equipment, sound attenuated studio spaces with specialized lighting, and media production workstations.
The Media Creation Spaces facilitate:
- Experiential learning within undergrad and grad programs across York University
- Access to audio and video recording and editing equipment
- Media production workstations
- Equipment Loans
- Studio, Lab, and VR Spaces
- Workshops
- Software, Tools and Content Management
- Teaching, Learning, and Research Partnerships
MakerSpace
The Library MakerSpace is envisioned as a research and learning environment where students and researchers will have access to 3D printers, electronics, robotics, design tools, programming, robotics, and electronic textiles. It is designed as a teaching space where the Libraries teach maker literacies including critical and creative thinking, research skills, project planning and management, professional communication, and adaptability to new contexts and circumstances. The Libraries will also offer expertise for research partnerships with campus and community stakeholders.
The Markham Campus MakerSpace will offer:
- 3D printers, electronics, robotics, design tools, programming, robotics, electronic textiles
- Expertise for research partnerships with campus and community stakeholder
The MakerSpace will teach:
- Critical and creative thinking
- Research skills
- Project planning and management
- Professional communication
- Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams
- Adaptability to new contexts and circumstances
Gaming, Extended Reality (XR), and Visualization
The Gaming and Visualization space will be equipped with virtual reality headsets, a visualization wall, and gaming hardware and software. The visualization wall screen will enable library partnerships for enhanced in-class and research applications such as the visualization of data sets, the teaching and navigation of complex software environments, and the modelling of intricate structures in the physical and life sciences. The gaming functionality of this space will support faculty who are creating games with their students and need enhanced spaces that can handle legacy equipment for teaching and research purposes. View a virtual reality rendering here of this space here: https://bit.ly/yu-gaming
The Visualization, Gaming, and Extended Reality Lab will:
- Offer VR headsets, visualization wall, and gaming hardware and software
- Enable researcher, community, industry partnership and entrepreneurial opportunities
Affordances of these technologies:
- Virtual reality can build empathy and connection to place
- Virtual reality simulates medical or social contexts
- Visualization wall facilitates data visualization for research and analysis
- Visualization wall allows a group to share and interact with research and experiences
- Gaming setup offers classroom capability for gaming as critical site of learning