REDESIGNING SCHOOL LIBRARIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY How to transform traditional school libraries into vibrant 21st century learning centers RESOURCE SERIES

The Redesign Process Chapter 2 Ideas for Inspiration Chapter 3

Close your eyes and picture the school libraries you spent time in as a youth. If we could take snapshots of every reader’s memories and compare them to each other, chances are they’d look pretty similar: Rows of thick wooden shelving piled high with books. Students sitting quietly at tables, reading independently or perhaps working together in hushed tones. The school library was a place you came to check out books, or look up information in encyclopedias or other reference materials as you compiled a research report. Younger students would have story time, and older students might use the library...

A Powerful Shift Now, that has begun to change. Networked mobile devices have given students limitless access to information in the palm of their hands. With a world of information now just a click or finger swipe away, the teacher’s role is no longer just to impart information, but to have students co-construct new knowledge—often in collaboration with each other. Learning is becoming more active and engaging, with students in charge of their own learning. As teaching and learning have shifted in these fundamental ways, school libraries are transforming as well. Consider the following examples:...

More Important Than Ever In today’s information-rich society, with the Internet at our fingertips, students and teachers no longer need a library for access to information. But that doesn’t mean school libraries have become irrelevant. On the contrary, it can be argued that school libraries are more important today than ever. They serve as a focal point for helping students and teachers navigate the flood of information available online and distinguish fact from fiction. In many school libraries, teachers and media specialists are teaming up to teach classes together, with the media specialist...

Redesigning your school library requires rethinking how you want the space to function—and what new roles you would like it to serve. As technology becomes an increasingly important part of education, and as teaching and learning continue to evolve, how will these shifts affect the use of your library space? Through the website DiscoverDesign.org, the Chicago Architecture Foundation offers a series of design challenges for students. One of the these challenges is to redesign the school library space.4 Although this challenge is intended for students, the advice it contains applies equally well...

You can’t propose a new solution until you have fully assessed your needs. To do this effectively, you should involve all stakeholders in the process, so you are getting input from multiple perspectives. Here are some action steps to guide you. • Articulate an overarching mission or purpose for your school library. If its purpose used to be proving access to information, what is its purpose today? This could be helping students make sense of the information around them, making sure they know how to find the information they need or preparing them to be effective digital citizens, to give a few...

Once you have gathered this information, the next step is to think about the implications of your findings. Then, you can begin sketching out some rough ideas for how to approach the space. Here are some suggestions to guide you. • Form a design committee that includes students, teachers, library staff and parents. This will ensure that all stakeholder groups are represented in • Prioritize your needs and goals. Consider which uses of the space are most important to you. Make separate lists for the functions that are non-negotiable, those you’d like to accommodate if you can fit them into your...

Once you have some rough ideas in mind, you can begin establishing a final plan. At this stage, it might make sense to bring in an architect to help you with your planning. Here is some other advice as well. • As you’re designing the space, consider what types of furniture would be most appropriate, based on how you envision the space will be used. Also, consider what kinds of media you will need, such as large screen monitors or interactive whiteboards, “huddle stations” to support collaboration or video conferencing equipment. • Think about the role that lighting plays in the space, and how...

K-12 leaders who have transformed their school libraries are finding that students are naturally drawn to these vibrant new centers of activity. “One of the first things that I see when people create a learning commons is that kids come in, and they really want to be there because there’s so much going on,” said David Loertscher, a professor in San Jose State University’s School of Information. “It’s a space that turns over to the user, rather than the user having to adapt to the space.” 5 Here are some ideas from school library redesign projects around the c

A ‘Think Tank’ For Solving Key Challenges At Swan Valley High School in Saginaw, Mich., “our library is the hub of the school,” wrote Library Media Specialist Kay Wejrowski. “Each year, our library morphs itself into what the school needs.” 6 Wejrowski and her aides help teachers plan lessons, such as developing probing questions encouraging students to compare historical slavery with today’s human trafficking. Library lessons for all incoming freshmen lay the groundwork for their success in high school, teaching them about the resources that are available, how to be safe online and how to create...

The school has turned part of its library into a maker space, and students also use the facility to videoconference with authors, Holocaust survivors and people from other parts of the world. Each spring, library staff help students research their senior projects and give constructive feedback on students’ presentations. When the Swan Valley School District cut bus funding to take preschoolers to the public library, the high school created an early childhood center in its library, with teens developing and teaching weekly reading lessons for these children. When the school went 1:1 with tablets...