Media Commons

The Media Commons, http://www.library.illinois.edu/mc/ is located on the north and east side of the upper level of the Undergraduate Library, is a collaborative campus effort that provides students, staff, and faculty opportunities to experiment with emerging technologies, with expanded opportunities to learn of best practices in educational technology. In addition to a robust loanable technology program, the Media Commons is a service space that offers faculty, students, and users the ability to create, disseminate, use, and curate digital media. The goal is to meet the need for broad access to media creation tools, information technology training in multimedia hardware and software, and instruction in media literacy.

The Media Commons opened in 2013 and began as a Partnership between The Library and Technology Services, with support from the Library IT student fee program to provide faculty, students and staff a space to create digital media projects.

photo of media commons open house promo

  • For faculty and staff, it is a space to discover effective ways to integrate digital media into their curriculum and to demonstrate to their students the equipment and techniques used by professionals.
  • For students it is a space to facilitate the creation of both basic and advanced projects and to explore creative ideas.

Support is the cornerstone of this endeavor. Technology alone is not enough. The Media Commons provides support and education using either an individual’s media and technology or equipment available through the Media Commons or the Undergraduate Library. Current technology support offered in the Media Commons and video production studio is provided by the combined efforts of Media Commons staff, staff from Technology Services, and other technology partners from around the campus.

An important mission of The Media Commons is to help train and educate those affiliated with the University on techniques and best practices for creating and editing video, as well as the basic usage and implementation of production studios.

Space: The large open area is 11,000 square feet, the Video Production room 295 is 530 square feet

Media Commons in the News/Publicity