Presentation exploring contemporary concepts, ideas and spaces fro School Libraries

1. Le Régent College Library Design
& Use
Concepts, Ideas, Spaces

2. Le Régent College Libraries
Concepts, Ideas, Spaces
A school library by definition:
• has a qualified school librarian with
formal education in school
librarianship and classroom teaching
that enables the professional
expertise required for the complex
roles of instruction, reading and
literacy development, school library
management, collaboration with
teaching staff, and engagement with
the educational community
• provides targeted high-quality
diverse collections (print,
multimedia, digital) that support the
school’s formal and informal
curriculum, including individual
projects and personal development.
• It has an explicit policy and plan for
ongoing growth and development.

3. Concepts, Ideas, Spaces
A school library operates as a:
• dedicated physical and digital space in a
school that is open and accessible to all;
• information space providing equitable
and open access to quality information
sources across all media, including print,
multimedia, and curated digital collections;
• safe space where individual curiosity,
creativity, and an orientation toward
learning are encouraged and supported and
where students can explore diverse topics,
even controversial topics, in privacy and
safety;
• instructional space where students learn
the capabilities and dispositions for
engaging with information and for creating
knowledge;
• technological space providing a diverse
range of technology tools, software, and
expertise for the creation, representation,
and sharing of knowledge;
Le Régent College Library Design

4. Concepts, Ideas, Spaces
A school library operates as a:
• literacy centre where the school
community nurtures reading and
literacy development in all its forms;
• centre for digital citizenship where
the learning community learns to use
digital tools appropriately, ethically, and
safely, and learns strategies to protect
identity and personal information;
• information environment for all in
the community through equitable
access to resources, technology, and
information skills development that are
not always available in homes; and
• social space open for cultural,
professional, and educational events
(e.g., events, meetings, exhibits,
resources) for the general community.
Le Régent College Library Design

5. Concepts, Ideas, Spaces
Role of a school library within a
school
A school library operates within a school as a
teaching and learning centre that provides an
active instructional program integrated into
curriculum content, with emphasis on the
following:
• Resource-based capabilities –accessing, and
evaluating resources in a variety of formats,
including people and cultural artefacts and the
development of digital and print-based literacies.
• Thinking-based capabilities –engagement with
data and information through research and
inquiry processes, the processes of higher order
thinking, and critical analysis that lead to the
creation of representations/products that
demonstrate deep knowledge and deep
understanding.
• Knowledge-based capabilities – research and
inquiry abilities that focus on the creation,
construction, and shared use of the products of
knowledge that demonstrate deep knowledge
and understanding.
Le Régent College Library Design

6. Concepts, Ideas, Spaces
Role of a school library within
a school
• Reading and literacy capabilities –
enjoyment of reading, reading for
pleasure, reading for learning across
multiple platforms, and the
transformation, communication, and
dissemination of text in its multiple forms
and modes to enable the development of
meaning and understanding.
• Personal and interpersonal capabilities
–social and cultural participation in
resource-based inquiry and learning
about oneself and others as researchers,
information users, knowledge creators,
and responsible citizens.
• Learning management capabilities –
abilities that enable students to prepare
for, plan, and successfully undertake a
curriculum-based inquiry unit.
Le Régent College Library Design

7. Design for Online Learning
Schools will need to address ways of working with students who
are becoming more individualized in their own learning and at the
same time are also becoming more collaborative.
What libraries can offer are intimate spaces for online learning. It is within
these learning spaces, with the help of talented librarians, where students
can learn to be self-directed. As learning becomes more personalized and
individually designed, it will be even more important to also include social
spaces where students can work together to construct meaning from their
online experience.
One design recommendation is an online learning centre with glass
walls where students can be engaged alone or with others.

8. Global Collaboration Centres
a collaboration centre that includes a long
conference table with a plasma screen at the
end, level with students who will be seated
around the table—almost removing the
barriers of geography.
Within spaces like these, it will be important for librarians to teach
students how to responsibly and safely connect with others from around
the world. You can show students how to go online and find other
students, professionals and organizations that would be willing to discuss
and debate topics being studied.

9. Design Studios
Imagine students spending hours
creating content alone and with others
and posting that content online.
Design studios are where this can happen and could quite possibly be the
most exciting places within the library. These multiple, small studios will be
areas where students can group together behind glass, soundproof walls
before, during and after school hours to create podcasts, collect and make
sense of scientific and historical data, direct and produce video and most
importantly, expand their personal boundaries of learning.

10. Community Presentation Spaces
a space will be needed where classes and
community members can come together to
become engaged with the student presenters.
This community space will be an open area that can be converted to
accommodate presentations of different types. A screen and LCD projector
will be used as needed and various inputs and outputs will be readily
accessible to accommodate any type of media presentation.
This area could double as a cinema, music rehearsal or performance space,
informal quiet study area or reading lounge.

11. No thanks
Long narrow corridors. Bad
sight lines, waste of space. Lack of useable
collaborative
spaces, forcing
students to clog up
book stacks.

12. Circulation & information Desk
• Centrally located
• Good sight lines
• Access to Workroom
• Disability Discrimination Act compliant

13. Library Workroom
• Flexible, Spacious, Ergonomic, Good sight lines
• Wet area, Desktop PCs
• Access to Circulation Desk

14. Flexible Study and Collaboration Areas
• Accommodates whole class group
• Individual, Pair and small groups
• Space Saving
• Part of Teaching Area

15. Flexible Study and Collaboration Areas
• Accommodates whole class group
• Individual, Pair and small groups
• Space Saving
• Part of Teaching Area

16. Library Redesign
Minimum Operational Considerations
• At least 2 whole class study/Teaching areas. (1 x
Senior Library & 1x 6th Form)
• Multi-function Circulation desk area
• Large and small group soundproof meeting/work
rooms. At least 1 large and 2 small + use of Study
Classroom set up as flexible learning space.
• Senior & Junior School Study Area(s)
• Teacher’s Collaboration Lounge. To incorporate
Teacher Reference Collection (4th Floor Staff Room)

17. Library Design
Ideas to Incorporate
• Acoustic design. Noise control and ambience.
• Sustainable materials where possible.
• Energy efficient design possible including
• Passive Solar
• PV Solar Panels for roof
• Rainwater Harvesting
• Climate Appropriate plantings
• Carbon Offset for Building and running of Libraries.
• Look at Trees for Life to grow carbon offset
• Art Display space. Both 2D (tracking system) and
3D (plinths, installations).

18. Bibliography
Designing Libraries: Learning for a Lifetime 2015, November Learning,
accessed 4 February 2015, <http://novemberlearning.com/educational-
resources-for-educators/teaching-and-learning-articles/designing-
libraries/>.
IFLA School Library Guidelines 2015, International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions, Pdf, accessed 14 September 2015,
<http://www.ifla.org/publications/node/9512>.
https://www.pinterest.com/leregentcollib/library-spaces/
https://www.pinterest.com/leregentcollib/library-furniture/
http://rubble.heppell.net/three/
Links

19. Stephen Bull
College Librarian & Extended Essay Coordinator.
Le Régent International School
4 Rue du Zier,
3963 Crans-Montana,
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 (0)27 480 3201
e: stephentbull@yahoo.com.au
blog: www.leregentcollegelibrary.wordpress.com/
catalogue: http://www.accessitlibraries.net/lrg00/
twitter: https://twitter.com/LeRegentColLib