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This study was aimed to examine emerging knowledge commons in the public libraries in the Thabo Mofutsanyane District in Free State, South Africa.

A triangulated sample survey was adopted to collect data from the users of the commons using a questionnaire, and data of community member and the library officers were collected using an interview schedule. The study was guided by Hess and Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and Development framework.

The librarians and the commons users recognise the changing nature, roles and services of the libraries without necessarily attributing the changes to the emergence of knowledge commons. Users viewed the commons by the learning opportunities offered by information and communication technologies. They were, however, willing to contribute their resources to boost and enrich the commons; their contributions presently take the forms of volunteering of their knowledge and skill through offering of training sessions to users of the commons. A critical aspect of the commons, namely, participation in the governance and management of the commons resources appears not to be occurring.

To adequately build knowledge commons in the libraries will require formally introducing knowledge commons in the libraries, doing a systems analysis, deciding on the content and their sources, drawing up a programme for nurturing the system including training of relevant staff and then providing basic infrastructures.

This study used quantitative approach to deploy the institutional analysis development Institutional Analysis and Development framework in the study of public library institution. Studies on knowledge commons in public libraries have not been found.

The purpose of this paper is to share the knowledge and lessons learned about the process of developing an institutional repository (IR) using a hosted solution, Digital Commons from bepress, and to make the case that Digital Commons is still the best IR solution for smaller university libraries.

This is a case study based on Rowan University Libraries developing an IR using the Digital Commons platform.

To implement a hosted solution successfully, key actions include defining the repository’s scope and mission early in the process, including a variety of stakeholders in promoting the repository, integrating the repository with a faculty profile system and being able to effectively work collaboratively with both internal and external professionals in developing the system.

This paper will be valuable to academic librarians considering implementing an IR on, or migrating an existing repository to, the Digital Commons platform.

This paper seeks to document and provide detailed information about physical space, technology resources and the service model for the NCSU Libraries' Learning Commons (LC). The LC was scheduled to open on March 12, 2007 and will be a state‐of‐the‐art facility. The objective is to share information and best practices with academic libraries developing their own Commons.

The article includes a brief overview of the East Wing Renovations Project at the D.H. Hill Library as well as a profile of and interview with Joe Williams, Director of the Learning Commons at the NCSU Libraries.

Creative design of space, technology resources and services makes academic libraries central to the learning and research process.

The piece is representative of one library only.

The article will encourage academic libraries to rethink their role in the learning process. The piece also provides practical information about technology trends in academic libraries and will be of particular use to libraries that are planning renovations projects.

The piece documents the creation of an innovative Learning Commons by a leading academic research library.

The purpose of this paper is to consider arguments both for and against intellectual property (IP) rights that are premised on each of two conceptions of the information commons that attributes either moral value or disvalue to its preservation.

The methodology is the philosophically standard one of reflective equilibrium. The author considers the argument for a morally protected information commons that is grounded in Locke's famous proviso limiting original acquisition of material property to situations that leave enough of the resource to others and Hardin's famous argument that holding material property in common leads to overuse and depletion – a Tragedy of the commons. In particular, the arguments are evaluated according to whether they cohere with ordinary foundational commitments.

The author argues that neither conception of the commons is directly applicable to information objects and hence is relevant with respect to the issue of whether legal protection of IP rights is morally justified.

The identification of key differences between material objects and information objects that shows the irrelevance of these two leading conceptions in resolving the general issue of whether legal protection of IP rights is justified.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the questions: What challenges do students face in an information commons and how does roving reference help?.

The author recounts her work roving in her community college information commons and supplements this with an analysis of 1,500 records from her detailed reference log that compares roving reference results with conventional references and with reference questions as a whole.

Her autoethnography and data reveal that roving substantially increases the number of reference encounters. In addition, her data sheds light on students’ struggles with common, productivity software, academic packages and malfunctioning hardware. More importantly, these findings show that roving reference data identify problems that librarians, as stakeholders, can solve.

Roving reference in a community college information commons brings students in one library into sharper focus. Roving reference increases the number of reference encounters and the reach of reference service. It also exposes a use-based digital divide that calls for collaboration in the long run and increased point-of-need service immediately.

Even data that points to digital divides, hardware issues or other shortcomings and offers empirical evidence of problems for which library staff, unlike student workers, can find long-term solutions. This study shows that it is possible to gather rich and extensive data with minimal personnel and off-the-shelf software.

A college degree is vital to social mobility and easing inequality. Fluency with academic technology and information is necessary for completing college. Roving reference means more opportunities to teach information and computer fluency at point of need and more opportunities for librarian stakeholders to find and remove obstacles to student learning.

This is one of the few, recent studies, autoethnographic or otherwise, on roving reference in a community college library’s information commons.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits and challenges of creating a shared institutional repository and to, describe the process by which a consortium was able to establish such a service.

A case study is presented outlining the process through which the Washington Research Library Consortium selected and implemented the DSpace institutional repository software in a shared information technology environment. The issues confronted in dealing with a multi‐institutional implementation are examined through both a detailed description of the implementation and a generalized description of the challenges the consortium faced.

The paper finds that while a shared implementation of an institutional repository does present significant challenges that would not be present for a single institution, the collaborative approach also presents significant benefits in drawing on the breadth of expertise available among the Consortium and utilizing a shared information technology infrastructure.

Institutional repositories have generally been implemented within the context of a single institution. An alternative model is described that draws on the experience and expertise of multiple institutions to achieve a common goal.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a state mandated merger of two institutional repositories from two separate campuses of a university into one new institutional repository. Due to a State Legislature mandate, the University of South Florida was required to merge institutional repositories from two campus into one new institutional repository.

USF Libraries formed a committee, planned for the migration and executed of the migration.

The authors discovered many unforeseen issues during the process of the migration such as difficulties with site redirects and hidden collections.

This project was a large-scale migration of institutional repositories, under a tight deadline due to a legislative mandate, that has not been discussed in detail in the literature.