By Dominic Agyei Dankwah

When people think about innovation in libraries, they often imagine new buildings, digital databases, or upgraded study spaces. During recent visits to the Siebel Center for Design and the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a different perspective stood out. That is innovation is less about tools and more about people. Across both centres, design begins with understanding users. Understanding their needs, behaviours, frustrations, and aspirations. Technologies and spaces are then shaped around those insights. This raises an important question for libraries. A question of “what changes when we design services around people, rather than around traditional library structures?” For many academic libraries in Ghana, service delivery is still anchored in established models, including information literacy instruction, reference support, access to collections, and provision of study spaces. These remain essential. Yet they are no longer sufficient on their own in an environment where learning and research practices are rapidly evolving. Today’s users operate in increasingly digital and immersive environments. Students learn through blended and remote platforms. Researchers engage with data-intensive workflows and collaborative tools. Faculty members require support for publishing, visibility, and responsible data management. Increasingly, they also need exposure to emerging technologies that are shaping education and knowledge production.

This is where libraries are beginning to expand their roles beyond traditional services into more dynamic, experience-based environments. Artificial intelligence-enabled learning spaces are emerging as support hubs where users can interact with research assistants, explore datasets, and receive personalised guidance. AI environments in libraries can support writing, coding, literature exploration, and even simulation-based learning, shifting the library from a passive repository to an active intellectual partner. Alongside this, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) studios are redefining how knowledge is experienced. In health sciences education, for example, VR environments can simulate clinical scenarios, anatomy explorations, or emergency response training. AR tools can overlay information onto real-world environments, allowing students to engage with complex concepts in more embodied and interactive ways. Libraries that provide access to VR/AR studios become not just information centres but immersive learning laboratories. Podcast and media studios are also becoming increasingly important within academic libraries. These spaces allow students and researchers to communicate scholarship in more accessible and impactful formats. Whether it is producing research summaries, oral histories, science communication content, or academic discussions, podcast studios extend the reach of scholarship beyond traditional print and journal formats. They also build digital literacy and communication skills that are increasingly essential in academia and professional practice.

At the University of Health and Allied Sciences, for example, investments in infrastructure have created a strong foundation for supporting learning and research. The next step is to consider how these spaces can evolve into integrated environments where AI tools, immersive technologies, and media production facilities are part of the library ecosystem. The key question is no longer only whether services exist, but whether they align with how users now learn, create, and communicate knowledge. The visits to Illinois reinforced an important lesson. A lesson that innovation does not always depend on large budgets or new buildings. Often, it begins with reimagining existing spaces through the lens of user experience. A quiet study area can become a collaborative digital lab. A training room can evolve into a VR simulation space. A small office can become a podcast studio for scholarly communication.

For academic libraries in Ghana, this shift may mean rethinking how spaces are designed and used, integrating AI-enabled services, establishing VR/AR studios for experiential learning, and creating media production spaces that support research dissemination. It is not about adopting technology for its own sake, but about embedding it meaningfully into how users learn and work. Perhaps the future of librarianship lies less in asking what libraries should provide, and more in understanding how knowledge is now created, experienced, and shared. The answer may lead to libraries that are not only more innovative, but also more deeply connected to the realities of their users. In the end, the strength of a library is not defined by the technologies it owns, but by how well it enables people to think, learn, create, and communicate in a changing world.