56 Pocket Revolving Book Display. Untitled. Lots of cute / inexpensive movable school furniture.... Hurry Up! Table : KI. UXL Nest and Fold Rectangle Table. Rethinking our Library Space. Over the past five years, we have redesigned our media center and transformed it into a more flexible, collaborative space.
This is the story of how we got there, and how you can apply what we learned as you rethink your library space. Want to learn even more about transforming your library space? Check out my book, Reimagining Library Spaces: Transform Your Space on Any Budget The Maker Corner – 2010 vs 2015 Note: Post contains affiliate links. Rethink Your Library Space When I first arrived at Stewart in 2010, the library was in pretty dismal shape. Remove Obstacles and Clutter – Sometimes less is more Removing obstacles and clutter When I first got to Stewart in 2010, the collection hadn’t been weeded in decades. Open up your space I began massively weeding the collection, paring it down to the books that students were actually reading. Color can be an easy and effective way to brighten up your space Adding Color Movable and flexible furniture is key Movement and Flexibility.
Donut Reading Cushion and Trolley Sets. Tables & Chairs Archives - Demco Interiors. Mural. Sprucing Up My School Library for Less than $600. One built a whiteboard tabletop out of shower board.
Another painted a wall to create an easy green screen. Librarians dream up ingenious ways to save money and get creative in their libraries, and they’re more than willing to share ideas. You, too, can be part of this thrifty crowdsourced design movement, inspired in part by Jennifer LaGarde and Mark Samberg, who hosted the presentation “MacGyver Librarianship: The Art of Doing More with Less” (#macgyverlibrarianship) at the NCTIES ed tech conference in March in Raleigh, NC.
After attending, I was inspired to transform my school library with a little help from our school’s Interior Design II class. the power of paint Our library had institution white walls, so we decided to paint our drop ceilings to pull in more color. A Circ desk that rules For a fun focal point, we tiled our circulation desk with rulers we had transformed with our donated paint. The quickest update was spray-painting four of our dull gray library carts. How to transform your library space on a budget. Recently, I’ve been looking back through photos of my media center at Stewart Middle Magnet from the past five years.
I’m working on a conference presentation for the Florida Association for Media in Education about transforming library spaces. As I look back over these photos, I’m struck by how the space slowly evolved over this span of time. It’s easy to just focus on all the big sweeping changes we made in the summer of 2014 when we got our Lowes Toolbox Grant for $5,000 and used several DonorsChoose projects to create a makerspace and flexible learning commons area. But a lot of important changes happened before 2014, and I realized that many of them are very budget friendly and easy for anyone to do, no matter what situation they’re in. So rather than focusing on the big, overarching themes about learning space design or big, transformative renovations, I want to focus on simple changes that are approachable for anyone.
Ditching reference made room for more comfy reading areas. Libspace. Untitled. Clock. Notes. Divine Design: How to create the 21st-century school library of your dreams. Things are changing.
For starters, ebooks, apps, and the web are now a part of your students’ daily lives. So how do you determine the best way to turn your library space into a learning center that’s right for today’s rapidly changing digital world? Take it from me, a longtime designer of school libraries, it’s not easy. Things are looking up at P.S. 189, in Manhattan’s Washington Heights, where a flock of books (fabricated from sheet metal) soars beneath a digitally printed sky, turning florescent light fixtures into inspiring works of art. The libraries shown in this article are located in some of New York City’s poorest neighborhoods, and were created as part of an initiative by the Robin Hood Foundation-a leader in school library design-and the New York City Department of Education. I’ve discovered that the things I used to labor over just five year ago don’t seem as important anymore. 1.
Learning models are changing, and school libraries need to take the lead. 2. The John J. 3.