School Library Design in British Columbia
by Joseph Jeffery and British Columbia Teacher-Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) Committee
Older models of school library design may fit with a resource-centric approach that past school libraries utilized, but not with the learner-centric model of the school library learning commons. The author, current Canadian School Libraries (CSL) Chair, provides largely Canadian research that shows it is important that the school library learning commons space is designed with participatory instruction in mind. Includes a recent (November 2023-January 2024) survey conducted by the British Columbia Teacher-Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) with teacher-librarians leading to recommendations that address critical aspects to include in school library design and possible usability issues.
Joseph, thanks for capturing all these almost-contradictory factors that need to be considered when designing school libraries. You mentioned aesthetics vs practicality, school vs library, physical vs digital, recreational vs instructional, individual vs group and so on. (You don't make it sound as "either-or" as I'm portraying here; but there does seem to be a push and pull.) I just had a student dislodge a shelf because he tried to climb it, so the section on page 2 where VESTA and CSL are both addressing the same issue but from different angles made a clear point.
ReplyDeleteI was fascinated with the results of your survey, and the differences between renovations and new builds. My question for you: in the section beginning on page 7, regarding recommendations, if you had to rank or prioritize the items mentioned, which would be #1? (I ask this, because I had to sacrifice display space to improve traffic flow and reconfigure specific areas [such as instructional and collaborative / congregational] so I'm hoping I made the right decision!)
Diana
I don't know that there can be a singular #1. Part of why we chose not to rank things or give any sort of order was that there's so many points at which the correct thing for the community you're building is unique to itself. In Montessori education we have the phrase "Each Child is a Universe of One", that is to say in this context that the community itself is key. For your school improving traffic flow might well be the correct choice. For others it might be that making sure you have collaborative space takes precedence, for others it is making sure that everything is accommodating universal design principles. If we lived in a perfect world we wouldn't have to make choices and sacrifice, but we do and when we make those choices we can only do it with the knowledge of our own user community in mind.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply. This makes a lot of sense. (I didn't know you had Montessori leanings!)
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