Vision for the Future

Welcoming the Future – But Will There be Books?

The Mary Kawena Pukui Learning Commons – a cornucopia of collaborative spaces; airy lānai; design studios; flexible classrooms; a food lab; Archives and a cafe – is slated to open in 2026. But with such a futuristic vision in place, the question on some people’s mind is: will there be books? Most definitely. 

The Academy’s permanent collection of 30,000 volumes, temporarily housed in Bishop Hall during renovation, will be at the heart of the new Learning Commons. There will be something for everyone, including fiction, nonfiction, Hawaiian, visual storytelling, food and cooking, and much more. 

Taylor Wong ’05 Pang, department head for the Mary Kawena Pukui Learning Commons, and Susan Clark, Learning Commons librarian, met to talk about their hopes for the new spaces. Pang’s responsibility will be to oversee the operations in the Learning Commons, to support the staff and ensure that it will be a productive space for students. She will work with guest speakers, coordinate programming and facilitate communications among the departments in the building and across the School. 

For her part, Clark and the Learning Commons staff are responsible for the information resources available to students in the Cooke Library Collection, not only books, but also an array of proliferating e-publications. Clark also provides workshops to help students learn effective research strategies.

Pang and Clark share an enthusiasm for what lies ahead. “We are hoping to implement new ideas,” says Pang. “The interior and the layout will be new and we’ll be testing the flexible spaces and finding the best ways to use them.”

Some of the most successful programs, launched in the original Learning Commons building, will be retained. Clark noted that the Peer Learning Center (PLC), where students are available to tutor other students, was one of the effective prototypes and will continue to be a staple when the reimagined structure is unveiled. 

“Peer tutoring really stood out as an innovation that has survived and thrived. The PLC benefits not only the students who come for help but also the tutors themselves who learn the material better when they have to teach it to others.” She also observed that clubs had begun to be more of a presence in Cooke, and she anticipates that the variety of meeting spaces in the new Learning Commons will be conducive to more club meetings and gatherings.

Do Pang and Clark see their jobs changing in the new space? “Yes and no,” says Pang. “We’ll be transitioning into the larger space on two levels with open lānai and classrooms along with smaller group working spaces.” 

Clark sees two major differences; the spaces, yes, but also the resources available to students. “We are always reviewing and refreshing the print collections, and also updating e-books and research databases. We rely on reputable, reliable and scholarly resources, and as AI systems improve, we’ll investigate how and when to use them. We’ll continue to work with teachers to make sure that students use critical thinking skills. Information literacy is part of our mission. Students need to find, evaluate, and read good sources, and also use them ethically in their projects.”

Part of the opportunity of the new spaces for Pang will be bringing authentic audiences to the Mary Kawena Learning Commons, and working with different departments to make visiting speakers available to classes. “The community will be a part of our audience. Especially in the new building there will be so much history and love, and we will want to welcome the community in.”