Northeastern University will hold an open house of the Snell Library’s new Digital Media Commons on Tuesday from 2-4 p.m.

Members of the university community are invited to tour the cutting-edge media lab and digital creativity center and participate in faculty and student demonstrations of the state-of-the-art equipment, which has been designed to enhance next-generation teaching and learning at the university.

The Digital Media Commons, which opened at the start of the school year and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is housed in 11,000 square feet of space on the second floor of Snell Library. The space had previously been home to many library collections that have recently been converted to online formats or relocated to other parts of the building.

Stephen W. Director, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, announced the opening of the Digital Media Commons, saying that it “addresses a need expressed by faculty and students for greater access to educational technology and additional study space on campus.”

Supported by both the University Libraries and Information Services, the Digital Media Commons features regularly held instructional workshops and group study rooms with cutting-edge presentation technologies. The learning facility is integrated with the library’s existing recording studios, and is also equipped with plug-in stations for laptops and notebooks that are available for short-term loan; Mac and PC workstations with dual-monitor displays; and a comprehensive suite of data-analysis, media-editing and creative software.

The array of new animation, 3-D modeling and game-design software allows students to create and present interactive media-rich content. The facility’s data-analysis capabilities and computer-aided design tools provide users with the ability work across disciplinary boundaries to explore innovative solutions to real-world problems.

User feedback, Director said, will play a critical role in the evolution of the collaborative study space.

He also thanked those who participated in developing the Digital Media Commons, including Rehan Khan, vice president and chief information officer; William Wakeling, dean of the University Libraries; and Xavier Costa, dean of the College of Arts, Media and Design.