Collaborative design: a learner-centered library planning approach Mary M. Somerville and Lydia Collins Dr Martin Luther King Jr Library, San Jose ´ State University, San Jose ´, California, USA Abstract Purpose – Information commons were introduced into libraries in the early 1990s. Now universities are building library learning commons and campus learning spaces. This paper sets out to present a participatory library (re)design approach for collaborative planning “for and with” faculty teachers, student learners, and campus stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – Collaborative design (co-design) employs user-centric investigations to produce products, applications, and environments aimed at advancing learning, sustaining communication, and building relationships. Examples from California Polytechnic State University and San Jose ´ State University in California, USA, suggest the efficacy of this inclusive, learner-centered (re)design approach for library facilities, services, and systems. Findings – Inviting and enabling user input from the start offers a fruitful planning approach in which campus librarians, stakeholders, and beneficiaries “learn their way” to appropriate library (re)design decisions. Also, user involvement in information gathering and interpretation activities initiates the interactive relationships necessary for continuous improvement. Practical implications – Collaborative design (co-design) yields sustained interaction with user beneficiaries and campus stakeholders. It changes how library staff members think and what they think about, concurrent with enhancing libraries’ appeal and value. Originality/value – In development since 2002, the highly participatory design approach reflects theoretical and applied insights from researchers in Europe, Australia, and North America who have worked with US library practitioners to develop user-centric processes for advancing organizational learning and enhancing user efficacy. Its practical application to planning for library learning commons and learning spaces contributes to the small but important literature on user-centered library (re)design. Keywords Libraries, Learning, Design, Learning organizations Paper type Research paper Introduction The rapid emergence of peer production, social networking, and powerful non-market actors via the internet and other technologies is reshaping not only the flow of commerce but also the means by which information and culture are created and shared between individuals, groups, and societies. Reflective of these changes, the generation that has grown up with the internet – referred to interchangeably as Millennials, the Net Generation, Generation Y, and the Digital Generation (Windham, 2005, 2006; Oblinger, 2003; Prensky, 2005) – create, distribute, share, and consume information in ways that challenge cherished higher education assumptions about learning (Brown, 2002; Prensky, 2007), including libraries’ traditional “warehouse of knowledge” role (Lippincott, 2005). In response, academic libraries are increasingly serving as providers The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm Learner-centered library planning 803 Received 18 October 2007 Revised 6 January 2008 Accepted 16 January 2008 The Electronic Library Vol. 26 No. 6, 2008 pp. 803-820 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0264-0473 DOI 10.1108/02640470810921592