Avoiding the Pitfalls of School Library Design
The following comment is an extract from the Ofsted report entitled: Good School Libraries – Making a difference to learning.
“When you walk into this learning resource centre, what immediately strikes you is the stimulating, well maintained and eye catching environment. Its spacious and modern layout, with room for 180 students, is the result of 3 previous teaching rooms being recreated into student working areas. The main learning resource centre has been transformed over time to provide specialist areas for sixth form work, careers work, independent work and ICT research…….”
What is identified in this report is how important the library space in any school is for encouraging learning and student development. The report goes on to emphasise the merits of excellent design which includes careful planning of the space, within any school, allocated to this essential environment.
This planning must begin with careful analysis. It would be simplistic, in this 21st Century, to imagine that the library is just about book storage. Indeed, for many pupils in modern classrooms, the book is the “resource when all else fails“. The internet and therefore ready access to IT facilities are no longer a “nice to have” but essential for any library.
However, quantities of books to be stored and displayed form the baseline for any School Library and careful and attractive display is absolutely necessary.
Consequently the first issue to address is the number of books to be accommodated and that quantity translated into linear shelf space. A similar exercise needs to be used with other resource materials such as magazines, cd’s and other key communication forms.
Providing adequate notice areas for posters, pupil materials, announcements, messages etc are all very important. However, beyond this it is essential to provide adequate “people or pupil space”. Seating, reading areas, teaching and study spaces. Quiet areas and areas where classes can be effectively stimulated.
The Ofsted report goes on to say: The best libraries were not necessarily the newest; they were more likely to have been created gradually through imaginative use of space and resources. Many libraries, however, lacked sufficient working space for teachers and pupils.
Getting the mix right is quite a challenge, library design is not something for the faint hearted. Accounting for and providing a balance to account for Bookshelves, IT Desking, Reception and checkout areas, seating, study areas, displays, lockers and storage facilities, all into a restricted space demands analysis, care and design expertise.
