PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES

Author: Madison Dearnaley (Page 1 of 137)

Managing A School Library Renovation, Redesign or New Build

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.

Best Job In the World – How to Get Started

It’s a question I absolutely love. “How did you get into your role and is that something I can do?”

Working in a school libraries is the best job in the world (I’m biased, but just try and prove me wrong!). Yet becoming someone who works in a school library is a path shrouded in mystery. If you are considering working in a school library, there are a few ways to get started.

How To Get Started

Do your research

There are lots of myths and stereotypes around school libraries. The job is not what you remember from your school days and is not at all what books and media like to portray. So, what is it? It depends on your role and every day might look different, but it’s definitely customer service driven and focused. It is an area requiring  a high level of skill, continual on the job training and upskilling, openness to new things and change, as well as flexibility and adaptability. Read about school libraries, look at the websites of school library associations. Check out the social media accounts of school libraries or school library staff to get an idea of what happens in a school library.

Talk to a school library staff member

Maybe you have a connection through your local school. Reach out to the staff to see if there would be anyone willing to talk to you, show you their space or even let you shadow them for the day. This is a great way to understand what the role looks like and if it suits you.

Decide on a role

Each role within school libraries is specialised and it’s not a clear career chain path, you specialise, you don’t work your way up, so to speak. Deciding to become a library technician is a completely different job from that of a teacher librarian. It requires different specialised skills, different attributes and different qualifications. You can see my description of some of the common roles here and ALIA has a list of library staff roles here.

Check out which qualifications suit you. Check out the ALIA roles and recognised studies list to see which qualification pathway might suit you best.

Changing career? If you’ve got other qualification and experience and have worked in other sectors, many of those skills will come in handy in the library due to the varied nature of the role. Moving into libraries from another career is a great move. Skills in education, training, research, customer service, working with young people, event planning, graphic design, technology, robotics or coding, marketing, hand crafts are all extremely useful skills to have when working in a school library. The same is true of any knowledge of experience in English, history, geography, science, mathematics, languages or any other subject covered at school.

Get experience

Even while studying, you can and should try to get experience in a school library. You might be able to volunteer your time. Reach out to your local school library to see if this is something they can support. If they say no, don’t be discouraged or offended, school libraries are busy places and often understaffed, so they might not have the resources to take on a volunteer. You might also be able to get relief work in a school library, contract work or part-time work. Even visiting a school library space or spending a day there can show you what the rhythms and routines are like.

Upskill

Qualifications and formal training aren’t the only way to gain the skills you’ll need to work in a school library. There are plenty of webinars, courses, articles and conferences you can attend. My monthly list of professional development opportunities is a great way to start. Many are free and offer both training and exposure to school library issues, contexts and knowledge.

Connect with the local school library staff network

These networks are a great way to connect with school library staff in your area, visit school libraries, hear of job opportunities, and gain practical professional learning.

Get a mentor

There are plenty of school library mentoring schemes, like the ALIA or ASLA schemes, or just connect directly with a school library staff member and ask if they would be open to mentoring you. Mentors are ideal for guiding you through the process of joining the school library profession, sharing their knowledge and experience, and answering questions you might have.

 

If you are at all interested in school libraries, why not explore the options available to you. This vibrant, diverse and rewarding career just might be the perfect fit for you.

Best Job In the World – What Do You Do All Day?

It’s a question I absolutely love. “How did you get into working in school libraries and is that something I can do?”

Working in a school libraries is the best job in the world (I’m biased, but just try and prove me wrong!). Yet becoming someone who works in a school library is a path shrouded in mystery. I know I certainly didn’t realise it was an option that was open to me until much later on in my search for a career that felt right and fit me.

Continue reading

School Library Design Trends

I’m in the midst of redesigning our Junior School Library. it’s very exciting but there is also a lot of pressure to get it right. What should we include? How do we pick colours? I totally love it and have enjoyed looking for inspiration from libraries around the world.

School libraries have and continue to rapidly evolve, adapting to the changing needs of students and the education and learning environment. Today’s library spaces should be dynamic, flexible environments that encourage collaboration, innovation and creativity. But designing a school library to achieve all this can be tricky. Whether you are completely renovating the space, undertaking a new build or just making small updates to an existing space, there are lots of decisions and considerations to be made. From flexible furniture to tech-friendly zones with VR, 3D printers, and makerspaces, modern school libraries are being reimagined to inspire curiosity and cater to a variety of learning styles. Exploring the latest design trends has helped me, so here are a few I have discovered that are shaping the future of school libraries.

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Life in the Library – A busy start to the term

I want to be more reflective, share more about the daily happenings in my school library and the challenges I face, so here’s the first of my Life in the Library posts.

It’s been a busy two weeks of the fourth school term here in Queensland. I started the term by attending the IFLA and ALIA Research and Effective Practices Seminar, Sustainable Reading at Every Age and Stage. It was great to connect with school and public library staff from around Australia for some incredible discussions and presentations on supporting reading.

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Building a Reading Culture Part 8

Building A School Reading Culture – Part 8 – Reflecting and Reassessing

It’s been almost a year since I last wrote about building a reading culture. It’s been an interesting year. This post was meant to be about the steps we’ve taken to move towards a reading culture but I’ve decided to change that and instead take some time to reflect and reassess.

Over the past few years, I’ve looked at organisational culture research, culture change research and methodology, reading culture research, and tools for measure reading culture. I also used those tools to measure our reading culture starting point.

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Best Job In the World – School Library Roles

It’s a question I absolutely love. “How did you get into working in school libraries and is that something I can do?”

Working in a school libraries is the best job in the world (I’m biased, but just try and prove me wrong!). Yet becoming someone who works in a school library is a path shrouded in mystery. I know I certainly didn’t realise it was an option that was open to me until much later on in my search for a career that felt right and fit me.

Continue reading

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