The quotation in the title of this paper is from a student’s response to a library satisfaction survey conducted at The University of Queensland in August 2008. It was typical of the strong sense of satisfaction with, and importance of, the provision of library services in support of students and their learning, and of teachers and their teaching. What this paper sets out to do is explore the role that the Library plays in these activities, with particular reference to the sense of the Library as place. This brief paper does not intend to provide a guide to designing an academic library, nor does it set out to provide a prescription for the creating of a learning space. There are many excellent guides to such endeavours, and readers will find much to stimulate their thinking elsewhere in this volume. Rather, it seeks to set out a view of the changing nature of the research library and the opportunities that are presented through this evolution better to support the learning needs of today’s, and tomorrow’s, students. For almost the whole of the 20th century, interactions between students, researchers, teachers, library staff and collections have taken place within the physical boundaries of the library. The constraints of the print environment necessitated the construction of libraries which served as substantial warehouses of print materials and provided a place dedicated to the quiet and private study of books and journals. Service points were constructed to provide access to library staff for support in the use of library materials and to facilitate the borrowing of items that could be taken away from the confines of the library building. The nature of university teaching required little else, for it embraced a model where students attended lectures and tutorials, but demonstrated their learning outcomes in an assessment model that embraced solitary learning. The essay and the examination were the products of individual achievement. The arrival of electronic forms of scholarly information resources over the past fifteen years, coupled with changes in teaching practices and comfort with technology, have brought rapid and significant change. The challenge for libraries for providers of learning space is inextricably linked at this moment in time with the need to make hard decisions about the future of legacy collections and the securing of sufficient funds to repurpose library space to meet the expectations of teachers and students operating in an academic world very different to that seen only one generation ago.
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