It’s the thing we all dream about – a brand new school library or a renovated library space. The opportunity to improve the school library building is an exciting one but it also comes with many challenges. When I joined St Paul’s School four years ago, the plans to move the school library into a new building were already underway. Since then, the library team have moved the Secondary School Library three times including moving it into the new Innovation Precinct, adapted the new building to suit the needs of the library, created a renovation plan and pitch for the Junior School Library, moved the Junior Library into a temporary location and have finally seen work on the junior library start. Surviving the redesign process can be daunting, so here are a few tips I’ve learnt along the way.

Gather Ideas

Getting inspiration for your new build or renovation is an exciting first step of the process. I highly recommend visiting other school libraries to see their layouts, ask the staff what they think works and what they’d love to change about their space. Take lots of photos.

Have a look through library and furniture supply catalogues – don’t focus on the details yet, just check out their galleries and inspiration boards.

Check out photos and galleries of libraries online. Don’t forget to look outside the school library sector, there are lots of ideas to be gathered from bookshops, public libraries, shops, offices and other innovative spaces.

Collate the ideas you like on mood boards or online curation boards (Pinterest, Padlets or Miro boards or even just a document full of images).

Screenshot

The big picture

Align your redesign with your school library’s strategic direction, areas of service and directions for growth in the future. Think carefully about the spaces you need and why, what you want them to achieve now and what they can become years into the future. I’ve already made lots of changes in our new building to adapt to needs and make better use of the layout. Like moving the upstairs library and senior study area around to provide a quieter study area and a much better teaching area for the library and visiting classes. Creating spaces that are flexible and future-proofed is ideal.

Bringing your ideas to life

Pulling together your ideas for your new layout or space can be hard to do. I use tools like FloorPlanner so I can build 2D and 3D models of our library spaces. It helps to plan, move things and plan again. I also use physical printouts of floor plans to draw in possible layouts and locations of furniture, shelving, key features, and AV tech, and map possible movements of students. Finally, a tape measure and masking tape on the floor can help you plan out the distance between shelves and layout of storage areas to check you have enough room to move.

More than you think

You are always going to need more storage, more power points, and more data points than you think. Fight hard for these, as they give you flexibility in the future. Lighting is another key detail that is vital to get right. Brightly lit workspaces and shelves are key. It’s an issue I’m still dealing with, so fight hard to get it right the first time round.

Share these ideas with the other stakeholders

Being a part of the renovation or new build conversation differs dramatically depending on who is driving the renovation. Is it school library staff leading the project, internal project managers or external architects? Having a seat at the redesign table is important and yet for some, out of reach. No matter your allowed level of involvement, it’s so important for the school library staff to have a voice.

Here are some tips on how to achieve this

  • Ask for a seat on the redesign leadership team. If you haven’t already been included, it’s worth asking.
  • If not included on the redesign team, ask to see plans or have regular meetings with anyone on that redesign group for updates.
  • Document your ideas and share these in any format that you can. Send these through in emails, share links to design boards, print them off for meetings, pass them to others on the redesign task force.
  • Keep a record of your requests, design ideas and how you’ve shared them. It can be extremely hard to do this, particularly if you haven’t been allowed to be an active member of the redesign group, but it’s important to put your ideas out there, even if they are not listened to, and document how you are doing this.

Not having a voice in the design process can be extremely hard, especially when you need to fight for good lighting, extra power points and shelves that suit your collection. Document, advocate, and document some more. At the end of the day, if all your requests are ignored, you’ll at least have evidence of your requests and did everything you could.

Things will go wrong or need to change

The key thing in managing a library renovation or move is flexibility and adaptability. Plans will need to change, multiple times. Things will get delayed. Having multiple contingency plans in place can help, but sometimes you just can’t plan for everything.

When I planned our library move, I planned for multiple scenarios and how it would play out given delays and the need to adapt. I had no idea how often I would need to enact these multiple plans and stay flexible and calm around the many changes and crazy situations I was asked to face.

Look after yourself

The process while exciting can be incredibly draining and exhausting, particularly if having to advocate for your voice to be heard. Ensure you take breaks – renovations can often happen in the term breaks as that creates less disruption to library services, but it also means you don’t get your usual break times or are working longer days as you keep services running as well as managing the move. Ensure you find time to switch off. It’s also important to find ways to mitigate the stress of the project. As for the move itself, advocate to have library removalists do the bulk of the heavy lifting or moving for you. Injuries can be devastating and have a massive impact on your health so make sure you look out for yourself.