Learning Commons and 3D Printing — The Library's "Third-Generation" Transformation

A university library in the twenty-first century is no longer merely "a place that houses books." From the "book repository" to the "information retrieval centre," and now to the "space for learning and creation," libraries have undergone several generations of functional transformation. The Learning Commons (LC) at HKUST's Lee Shau Kee Library is precisely a typical practice of this "third-generation library" concept. This article focuses on its space, services, and transformation, complementing Library, University Archives and Special Collections^※ and Library and Digital Education^※: those two articles focus on archival special collections and IT services, while this one centres on learning spaces.

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# 1. Origins: A Global Generational Shift from "Information Commons" to "Learning Commons"

The Learning Commons was not HKUST's invention; it was a spatial upgrade that began in North America and swept through university libraries worldwide. According to a commonly cited overview of "learning commons," its predecessor, the "Information Commons," emerged in North American universities in the 1990s alongside the spread of the internet, with early examples including the Information Arcade at the University of Iowa (1992) and the Information Commons at the University of Southern California (1994)^※. At that time, libraries first put rows of networked computers, software, and technical support staff in a single location, allowing "looking up information" and "using tools to make things" to happen in the same space.

What truly advanced the concept was the upgrade from "information" to "learning." According to the same overview, library scholar Donald Beagle proposed in 1999 that the Learning Commons is "a new model of academic library service," characterised by providing a continuous chain of service "from information retrieval to original knowledge production"^※. This statement crystallises the difference between the two generations: the Information Commons solves "finding sources," while the Learning Commons aims to solve "using sources to produce outputs" — moving from passive information consumption to active knowledge production.

On this trajectory, HKUST was no follower. According to a document recording the library's early practice, the HKUST Library began piloting an information commons at an early stage^※ — concentrating networked computers, software, and reference support in one place, exactly the prototype of the later Learning Commons. That a young university, opened only in 1991, could introduce this model relatively early in the region is, to some extent, consistent with its character of "starting with a research-oriented positioning and a willingness to experiment with the new."

Placing this lineage back into HKUST makes clear where the Lee Shau Kee Library's Learning Commons sits: it is not a "study room with added computers," but the concrete embodiment at Clear Water Bay of the global generational shift to the "third-generation library." The ground floor retains the Information Commons's foundation — computers, printing, scanning, technical support — while the Learning Commons, one level down, incorporates collaborative group work, creative production, and even 3D printing, all "productive" functions. Understanding this "information commons → learning commons" generational logic means the seating, zones, 3D printing, and year-by-year renovations that follow are not just a list of facilities but the unfolding of a coherent concept.

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# 2. Space: Approximately 600 Seats, Five Functional Zones

According to HKUST Library materials, the Learning Commons provides approximately 600 seats across five functional zones: Group Study, Open Study, Refreshment, Teaching, and the Creative Media Zone^※. Within it are 18 spacious rooms equipped with large screens (televisions or interactive projectors), as well as study pods with seating, good ventilation, power outlets, and USB sockets^※.

The "five functional zones" design embodies the core idea of the "third-generation library" — it no longer takes "quiet, solitude, and book collections" as its sole orientation, but simultaneously accommodates diverse learning modes such as group collaboration, open self-study, rest and socialising, teaching, and creative production. From "no talking" to "collaboration encouraged," this marks a fundamental shift in the library's role.

The Information Commons, meanwhile, sits on the ground floor (G/F). According to library materials^※, it offers a range of computers, equipment, group study rooms, and services, including a learning space with an 85-inch digital whiteboard, suitable for presentations or small-class teaching^※. Per the library's "Places to Study" page, the Information Commons's computers are hardly uniform office machines — beyond general Windows workstations, it specifically configures Adobe Creative Cloud creative-suite workstations and Bloomberg financial terminals^※, letting students do design and layout and check financial market data on the same floor — echoing the Information Commons's original vision of "one-stop access to tools."

The Learning Commons itself is located on the lower ground floor (LG1). According to library materials, besides group study rooms and open study areas, it houses 18 group study rooms, two E-Learning Classrooms (A and B), Tutorial Spaces, and a Refreshment Zone^※. Room booking has gone the online route — students can reserve study rooms through the library's online booking system (lbbooking.ust.hk), while teaching purposes can be arranged separately by contacting the Learning Commons team^※. These rooms scattered across LG1 are mostly embedded within the university's "megastructure," in which floors serve as addresses (see the academic building where "the elevator is the address"^※); students navigating their way around will often say not a room number, but "which zone of LG1."

One detail easily overlooked — yet quite indicative of the library's thoughtfulness — is that the library also provides nap pods and a "Tech Item Kiosk," the latter allowing various electronic devices to be borrowed under the library's lending policy^※. The very existence of nap pods is, to a degree, a concession and response to the culture of "all-night exam cramming" — rather than pretending students will never pull an all-nighter in the library, why not simply offer a corner where they can rest?

The least "library-like" of the five zones is the Refreshment Zone. According to library materials, this is a place to take a break from studying — grabbing a light snack and a drink, watching television, or simply sitting and letting the mind wander^※. A corner where drinking, watching TV, and zoning out are officially permitted and formally designated as a library "zone" would have been almost unthinkable in the old-library context of "no food or drink, keep quiet." But read it against that 2013 assessment in Section 9, and it becomes clear this is no dispensable ornament: if "meeting and making friends" ranks among students' most popular activities in the Learning Commons, then a space where one can safely chat and unwind is itself a design requirement — what the Learning Commons serves has never been "learning" alone, but also the human connections that form around it.

The Creative Media Zone is the most "production-room" corner of the Learning Commons. According to library materials, this zone is operated by the Media Technology and Publishing Center and houses a media production studio (with control room and changing room), four AV Editing Suites, and a Graphics Workshop^※. In other words, this is not merely a place to "look up sources and write papers" — students producing presentation videos, recording podcasts, or editing graduation projects can also do so within the library. Like the 3D printing service discussed later, this reflects the library's functional extension from "consuming information" to "producing content."

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# 3. Floors and Zoning: From the Ground-Floor "Information Commons" to LG1's "Learning Commons"

"Quiet" and "bustling" in this library are not randomly distributed but deliberately stratified by floor. According to the library's "Places to Study" page, the functional zones are arranged vertically by noise tolerance: the Information Commons sits on the ground floor (G/F), while the Learning Commons is one level down (LG1)^※. The further one moves towards the Learning Commons, the more discussion and collaboration are encouraged; the further towards the quiet reading areas, the more solitude and silence are emphasised — "accommodating varied study rhythms within one building" is precisely what distinguishes the third-generation library from the old-style reading room.

The quiet end has clear rules. According to the same page, the first floor (1/F) has a quiet room with single-user carrels equipped with large tables and power outlets, where "no discussion of any kind" is permitted^※; the ground floor's newly added curved-monitor workstations are likewise single-user, no-discussion positions^※. The carrels scattered across G/F, LG1, LG3, and LG4 are uniformly positioned as single-person, silent-work seats. For students racing against a deadline who need long stretches of solitude, these are the corners of the library that "most resemble the old library."

The bustling end starts from pairs. According to the same page, the LG1 study pods include both single-person pods with no discussion allowed (e.g., POD-04, 05, 06) and group pods seating 2 to 4 with discussion permitted (e.g., POD-01)^※; the group study rooms across 1/F, LG1, LG3, LG4, and LG5 range from 3–4 to 8–10 persons, with most Learning Commons rooms sized for 6–8 and open 24 hours during the autumn and spring terms^※. There are also heavier-equipped room types, such as an LG1 media discussion room seating 8–10 with a Blu-ray/DVD player and LCD television^※, suited to groups watching and reviewing films together. This continuous spectrum — from single-person carrels to ten-person rooms, from silence to discussion — lets study groups of any size and any task find their proper place.

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# 4. Booking Rules: Two Sessions a Week, Minimum Two People, Ten-Minute No-Show Forfeit

Roughly 600 seats against tens of thousands of students means popular rooms are inevitably scarce; the library's response is a remarkably detailed set of booking and occupancy rules. According to the library's "Rules for the Use of Study Rooms and Pods," group study rooms and four-person pods follow the same allocation: a maximum of 2 hours per session per group, 1 session per day, 2 sessions per week (counted collectively across all rooms and pods), bookable up to 2 weeks in advance^※. Individual pods follow the same 2 hours per session, 1 session per day, 2 sessions per week^※. This "two sessions per week" quota is exactly parallel to the "two sessions per week" limit on 3D printing discussed later — both are rations struck between scarce resources and enormous demand.

The most interesting rules are two "anti-hoarding" clauses. The first is the "two-person minimum": per the rules, group rooms must have at least 2 people present at all times; if only 1 person remains for more than 10 minutes, another group may take over the room for the remainder of the session^※. The second is "no-show forfeiture": if a booked group arrives more than 10 minutes late, the booking lapses and other groups may take over the remaining time^※. Together, these two clauses close off the two most common forms of resource waste — "one person squatting on a big room" and "booking without using" — keeping group rooms genuinely available to "groups actually collaborating" rather than individuals claiming territory. The rules further note that study rooms and pods are for use by HKUST staff and students as groups only^※.

It is also worth noting that the library is setting aside space specifically for non-undergraduate groups. According to an April 2024 library blog post, the library added a new large group room for staff and postgraduate (PG) students^※ — postgrad seminars and staff mini-workshops run on a different rhythm from undergraduates' deadline sprints, so the separate allocation gives research communities their own "table where the door can be closed" for discussion.

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# 5. 24-Hour Opening: An Exam-Season Sanctuary

For university students, library opening hours are often a hard requirement. According to the HKUST Library, the Learning Commons is open 24 hours during the autumn and spring semesters^※. According to the library's "Open Hours" page, the other floors and service desks follow semester schedules, with the overnight period mainly serving the Learning Commons and related study areas^※.

The 24-hour opening — especially during mid-term and final exam seasons — makes the library a "sanctuary" where HKUST students cram through the night and push projects to completion. Behind this arrangement lies a respect for students' real study rhythms: it acknowledges that university learning is not always nine-to-five, but often includes "late nights where inspiration and pressure interweave." The nap pods mentioned earlier, the open study areas that accommodate overnight stays, and the around-the-clock bookable study rooms together sustain this "lights never off" operation: students can shift between settings late into the night, catch a brief nap when tired, and carry on.

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# 6. 3D Printing: From "Borrowing Books" to "Making Things"

What best embodies the library's "third-generation" transformation is its creative services. According to the HKUST Library, the Learning Commons provides a 3D printing service, with librarians available to help users set up their models^※.

"3D printing in a library" is itself deeply symbolic: it means the library's role extends from "acquiring knowledge" (borrowing books, looking up sources) to "producing artefacts" (printing models, making prototypes). For a university renowned for "technology" and "entrepreneurship," embedding maker facilities like 3D printing into the library echoes HKUST's overall character of "learning by doing and industry-academia integration" — in the library, students can not only read about drones, but print a prototype of a drone part.

The service's operational details are both remarkably accessible and remarkably transparent in pricing. According to library materials, 3D printing is charged at "a HK$20 base fee plus HK$1 per gram of material" — a 12-gram model, for example, costs HK$20 base plus HK$12 material, for a total of HK$32^※; the library explains that the base fee covers machine maintenance and staffing costs. The printer model used is a Tiertime Up Box, printing in biodegradable PLA polymer, single-colour only, with the colour chosen from the library's existing stock^※. Per the library, the existing stock includes blue, white, black, green, Natural, and red — six colours in all — with each print limited to one colour, and a maximum build size of approximately 25.5 cm (length) × 20.5 cm (width) × 20.5 cm (height)^※ — the size cap means large models must be split into parts and printed in multiple sessions, which is one reason students need to plan ahead under the "weekly quota."

In terms of process, users must first prepare a physical, manifold/watertight STL-format model file, then book a printing slot^※; the library also suggests that users unfamiliar with modelling can edit or convert files using the online tool Tinkercad^※. Under library rules, each person may book at most 1 slot (6 hours) per day and 2 slots per week^※ — this "twice a week" cap is, in essence, a rationing mechanism between limited equipment and vast student demand, ensuring the service is not monopolised long-term by a few heavy users. Once a print is complete, users must collect the item at the service desk and pay by cash or Octopus; uncollected prints are disposed of after 14 days^※. The library states the service is open to all HKUST students and staff^※, not limited to engineering or design departments. There are also several time disciplines: per library rules, users must arrive within 30 minutes of their slot's start, and the latest file submission of the day is 4:30 pm, with late submissions requiring a new booking^※ — consistent with the study rooms' "ten-minute no-show forfeit" logic: clear time thresholds reserve limited machines and staff for those who actually show up on time.

"Transparent pricing + weekly quotas + disposal of uncollected items" — this set of rules is, in some ways, closer to "public utility" than to "welfare" when compared with many makerspaces: it assumes students will use the service repeatedly and will occasionally be late collecting their prints, and thus replaces vague "first-come-first-served, use-it-up" management with clear billing and deadlines. Placing 3D printing in the library rather than some engineering lab also means it serves the whole university rather than a single department: a humanities student can just as easily print props for a graduation exhibition here. This capacity for "making things" runs in the same vein as HKUST's explorations in digital credentials and online courses (see Blockchain-Verified Credentials^※), together sketching the library's new facet as a "hub of creation and certification."

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# 7. Continuous Iteration: Space Updates in 2024–2026

The Learning Commons was not built once and then frozen; it is the object of incremental, year-by-year improvement. According to a 2024 library blog post, the library opened a new LG5 learning space in spring 2024^※. The cleverness of this space lies in "dual use of one room": per a September 2024 post, LG5 has served as a classroom during the day (until approximately 3 pm) since September of that year, converting to a self-study space from 3 pm until closing^※ — flipping the same room into a study space after the teaching peak is a pragmatic way to raise space efficiency under campus pressure.

Seating and equipment are also being upgraded on a rolling basis. According to the library's year-end blog post, the library plans to install modular study seating in LG4 and the Learning Commons, with samples first placed on the ground floor for students to try, and the new seats expected in autumn 2025^※; the new ground-floor monitors were chosen by community vote and installed for the new term in early 2025^※. Approaches like "put out samples first, then let students vote" carry on HKUST's established path of "renovation — evaluation — optimisation" for its spaces. In the same period, the library also brought video streaming services such as Kanopy into its collections^※, so that the renewal of "places to study" extends beyond desks and chairs to content resources. Another line of equipment iteration is the Information Commons's "desktop upgrade." According to the library's "Places to Study" page, the ground floor now has expandable curved-monitor workstations, plus dedicated workstations with Adobe Creative Cloud and Bloomberg financial terminals^※. Bringing large curved screens and professional creative software into the library means the "heavy equipment" that once required a special computer room is now available on a public floor everyone passes through — the same logic as 3D printing and the Creative Media Zone: place the tools of "production" as close as possible to where students walk every day.

According to the "Library Places" introduction page for new students^※, these spaces and rules are re-explained to every incoming cohort each year — the facilities change, but the guidance to "treat the library as your study base" remains constant.

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# 8. The Transformation: The 2011–12 Expansion

The Learning Commons did not emerge from nowhere; it is the product of a deliberate spatial transformation. According to the Wikipedia account of the HKUST Library^※, between 2011 and 2012, the library expanded by approximately 1,800 square metres and converted a further approximately 1,800 square metres of existing space into the Learning Commons^※.

This "1,800 m² expansion + 1,800 m² conversion" project was, in substance, a redefinition of a substantial portion of the library from "shelves and reading" to "collaboration and creation." It overlaps in floor level with the earlier Information Commons and follows on in function, together forming today's vertical arrangement of "information commons on the ground floor, learning commons below."

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# 9. Post-Renovation Assessment: The 2013 Survey with 886 Responses

HKUST did not simply "build the Learning Commons and call it done." Shortly after opening, it tested the results with a systematic survey. According to the library's Learning Commons Assessment 2013, in spring 2013 the library conducted an assessment to understand how students and service partners used and viewed the Learning Commons and to identify areas for improvement^※. The assessment rested on three legs: a student survey conducted online and on paper from mid-March to early April, yielding 886 responses; three student focus groups in March with 21 students in total; and an online survey of service partners in April, yielding 32 responses^※.

The results were strongly positive. According to the assessment, nine in ten respondents rated the Learning Commons overall as "important" or "very important"; overall space, 24-hour opening, study rooms, open study areas, the Refreshment Zone, classrooms, and supporting amenities also each drew "important" or "very important" ratings from a majority of respondents^※. These figures, in a sense, cast a vote of confidence in the "five functional zones + 24-hour opening" design described earlier — students want not merely quiet places to read, but a complete scene that allows collaboration, rest, and all-night work. The assessment also sketched a usage map of "what students actually do here": per its record, the most popular activities, in order, were self-study, meeting and making friends, and using the library's computers^※. That "meeting and making friends" ranks near the top shows that the Learning Commons's social character was no designer's wishful thinking — it has indeed become a "public living room where socialising happens along the way."

The library further stated that these findings would serve as the basis for fine-tuning existing configurations, developing new services and facilities, and exploring new collaborations^※. Reading the 2013 survey alongside the 2024–25 practice of "samples first, community vote, then finalise" reveals a methodology running through more than a decade: renovation is not the endpoint; evaluation and further renovation are the norm. The library treats itself as a product requiring continuous "parameter tuning," not a building cast once and left intact.

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# 10. Lateral Comparison: "Learning Commons" Across the Eight UGC-Funded Universities

The Learning Commons is hardly unique to HKUST; it has been a shared choice among Hong Kong's eight UGC-funded universities over the past decade or so. Placing three institutions side by side makes HKUST's choices clearer. This lateral coordinate can be read alongside A Comparison of Hong Kong's Tertiary Landscape^※.

What the three universities share is the packaging of "group study rooms + open self-study + technical support" into a single destination; the differences lie in emphasis. CUHK places its Learning Commons under the IT Services Centre, highlighting its "IT facility" character; HKU's rooms are clearly numbered and neatly layered; and HKUST's distinctive feature is embedding productive services such as Creative Media production and 3D printing directly into the library, pushing "learning commons" closer to "creation commons." This choice aligns well with HKUST's positioning as a research-intensive, practice-oriented university.

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# 11. Summary: The Library as the Hub of a "Learning Ecosystem"

Placing the Learning Commons within the broader HKUST narrative:

1. A generational shift in concept — picking up the global "information commons → learning commons" thread, moving the library from "finding sources" to "producing outcomes";
2. A spatial transformation — with approximately 600 seats, five functional zones, and vertical noise zoning, reshaping the library from "book repository" to "space for collaboration and creation";
3. An extension of services — through 24-hour opening, 3D printing, and the Creative Media Zone, extending the library from "acquiring knowledge" to "creating artefacts";
4. Pragmatic evolution — through the 2011–12 expansion, the subsequent usage assessment, and the 2024–2026 "samples first, community vote, iterate yearly" updates, embodying a pragmatic path of "renovate — assess — optimise."

The Learning Commons, together with the University Archives and Special Collections (see Library, University Archives and Special Collections^※), constitutes the library's dual face of "facing the past (archives and special collections)" and "facing the future (learning and creation)" — the former preserves memory, the latter incubates creation.

Note: The figures in this article — seating (approximately 600), functional zones, opening hours, expansion area, booking rules, and year-by-year updates — are as stated in the source pages and are time-sensitive; library spaces and services are continuously updated, so please refer to the HKUST Library's latest official announcements before citing.

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# Further Reading

• Library, University Archives and Special Collections^※ — the library's "past-facing" archives and special collections
• Library, Digital Education and Campus Services^※ — the library's MOOCs, smart-campus, and IT services
• Blockchain-Verified Credentials^※ — another angle on HKUST's "creation and certification" beyond the library
• The Academic Building Where "the Elevator Is the Address"^※ — the giant main building into which the Learning Commons is embedded
• A Comparison of Hong Kong's Tertiary Landscape^※ — placing HKUST's learning spaces within the eight universities

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