Our school will be embarking on a new building which will house the K-12 library. But there will be period of about 2-3 years where the Junior Library will be relocated and the senior Library will be squashed up.
I came across this link via an article in the UK Guardian and thought "yes" ...
I think that often we take our library spaces too seriously and forget that for kids they are a place to dream and imagine. So why not transport them into an environment where they can do just that.
My daughters school is moving most of their fiction collection out of the library into learning zones throughout the school as part of their strategy to encourage recreational reading. Students will be able to check out and check in books via RFID technology.
The primary school library will then evolve to host the non-fiction section with a focus on information literacy.
At my secondary school where I work as a teacher librarian, we have a calm reading program in the library. English classes from Years 7 - 10 spend a lesson every fortnight in the library reading. "But they could do that in their classrooms" I hear you say! But coming to our library gives them access to the entire fiction collection, specialist librarians that can assist with book choices and try and build a love of reading.
One way to create atmosphere is to build displays that inspire students to pick up a book, or even better, borrow and read one. One of our librarians is quite skilled at creating interesting displays that encourage recreational reading. Her recent display, from book to movie is forever changing whenever a new adaptation comes out.
Here are some really cool links to some blogs and pinterest boards to inspire you.
We are slowly doing up our calm reading section of the library, so I had a play around on illustrator and made the following sign. I am initially going to print it to A4 colour and put it up above the shelf. But I could imagine that you could modge podge it to lumps of wood or canvas and create some depth to the sign. All crafty fun!
Luciano Floridi talks about the Fourth Revolution in his 2011 Ted talk. Primarily he talks about the impact of this revolution on health, but there are direct implications for teaching and learning.
But what is the impact of this expanding info-sphere on teaching and learning?
How are schools dealing with the decentralisation of information access?
The intention for this blog is that it remains "porn free", but a friend of mine pushed through this link to me and I had a to take a few minutes to record which images I find titillating ...
Our new house, will have a 4 metre x 4 metre library space. In it there will be ceiling to floor bookcases and spaces to store all the little nicnacs that we have collected during our life. Our reading space is peaceful, evokes harmony but at the same time can accommodate an interested child with a thirst for knowledge.
I still profess that reading is a physical act and for students, most require a tangible multi-modal experience when they read or learn. A sterile library environment provides no curious intent beyond the text. I can't count the amount of times that I have picked up a book purely because the front cover has sparked an interest. The mashable article on why printed books will never die, raises some interesting points.
One of the greatest pleasures is to stroll through a book shop serendipitously discovering new perspectives, stories or ideas. I fondly look back upon the time before kids when my hubby and I used to visit Readings in Carlton multiple times a week.
Second hand bookshops have another layer on top of them. The smell, the feel of a worn book in your hands. The name of the last owner written on the first page. Sometimes you are lucky and the last owner might have left something in the book as a reminder of who they were; .an old tram ticket, movie ticket or receipt.
Reading is such a physical act. If the story is good you relax, if there is suspense then you tense up and I have found myself many times rejoicing, laughing and crying at the end of a story. So the environment in which you read matters. Comfortable, cushions, temperature have to be just right.
So what if the world was void of stories and physical books?
This lovely 20 minute movie imagines a future where physical books have disappeared.
I own a Kindle, I love my Kindle (except the DRM part). Since getting my Kindle about a year ago I have never read so much as I do now. The speed at which I can download via Amazon a new book to read is mind blowing. I have found that I struggle with concentrating on a non-fiction read as I like to flip back and forth; check the index, look at the contents, compare chapters. A lot of what I read relates to either my teaching or study so I tend to like to highlight, mark, use post-it references. I have tried doing this in an electronic environment, but for me, it doesn't seem to work! My Kindle was initially bought to read academic papers when I was a the start of my degree and even though the technology worked well, reading academic papers didn't work for me. I still read off hardcopy with a pen, a highlighter, post-its and a good cup of coffee!!
But there is nothing to replace sitting down with a cup of tea and picking up a good book (physical or ebook). I recently rescued some books that we weeded from the library; poetry and short stories. The incidental way in which I came into possession of these books, ones that I might not normally look at, has fuelled another interest and set me off on another reading adventure.
What do you think?
Will bookshops die off?
Will eBooks take over the physical form of books?
I love the tips and hints that Neil Gaiman gives us in his keynote for the London Book Fair about the changing face of authors and publishers.
It struck me that his talk was similar to the essay that John Perry Barlow wrote years ago about the impact of mp3s on the music industry. Both Neil and John Perry remark on the economy of uniqueness where people are willing to pay for unique experiences. In the case of music, it is the live experience and the limited band t-shirts.
How does this relate to our school library? People are willing to use the space if it offers them something unique, something that they can't get online. Atmosphere, enthusiasm, experiences. What feelings or emotions does our school library evoke when we walk through the front door?
Our Senior Library has a photocopier right next to the entrance. So you walk in and you are greeted with a grey giant that frequently has people making angry sounds in front of it. Where is the happiness in that?
But what if the entrance to your library held ideas, inspirations, give aways or opportunities? Just like a book store, your entrance should be inciting and should frequently change to keep people on their toes. What if we used costume to allude to the content of a book?
As part of the Teacher Librarian degree that I am doing, I wish that they had a unit on marketing and merchandising. Because it is not enough that you should "house resources", you need to create experiences for the students and teachers. Experiences to discover, learn and resolve frustrations. You need to understand what drives the human spirit to want to enter a space and engage with it. You need to create a dandelion ...
