When I started as a school librarian at Avon (Indiana) High School fifteen years ago, I felt that I was lucky enough to have one of the most beautiful school libraries that I had ever seen. The walls and columns were brick, and the custom designed oak bookshelves had a carved “A” (for Avon) at the end of each row. There were thirty-six huge computer desks, a huge circulation desk, an attached computer lab, and plenty of room for three to four classes (when the class sizes maxed out at about eighteen students).

Fast-forward fifteen years to the present: my school has grown from 1,100 students to almost 3,000. Most classes contain thirty to thirty-six students and those heavy, immovable computer desks take up most of the space in the library. I can only fit two classes in the library at a time, with one of them having to be in a separate computer lab. I still believe the library is beautiful, but the medium oak maybe looks a little dated (although a fellow teacher calls it cozy), and much of the learning space is no longer conducive to the needs of my staff or students. Tie all of that in with a lack of funding due to state mandated budget restraints, along with the implementation of 1:1, and my beautiful library is in need of a little updating for the almost 500 students who come into the library each day.

The library was originally designed mostly by an architect, with some input from the librarian; however, it appeared that there had been little student input on this. As I thought about transforming the facility, I really wanted to make certain that students were at the center of the changes that were going to be made in the library. I wanted not only to get and utilize their ideas on the library, but also have them help design the way the library was set up. With the blessing of my principals, some enthusiastic National Honor Society students, and a wonderful custodial staff, we were able to make some significant changes to the existing setup, while using very little money.

As we moved to a 1:1 environment, I also wanted to make sure that we had plenty of charging stations for students to use to recharge all devices. I purchased some inexpensive stations and gave them to the students to determine their location and where they felt they would most be used. Throughout the course of the year, they have been heavily used in the locations where the students placed them. Asking for student input worked well because it was not where I would have originally placed the chargers.

The students also suggested that the tables that were moved to make room for the comfortable seating should be placed in the center area where we removed the bookshelves. They wanted these to be separate from one another and could be a location where students could study individually or be used for different activities. We actually ended up using these as a spot for students to unwind using adult coloring books and markers, game boards, puzzles, and Legos. There is now always someone in this area using the tables that were moved there by the students.

All of this was done with minimal funding and some effort from the students, but I really wanted to gather ideas from even more students once school started. I needed to see if they liked the changes that were made and if there were other ideas with which they could help. However, when I started asking students individually, they didn’t seem comfortable responding with any additional information other than they liked the way that the library was. To help students feel comfortable and to allow them anonymity, I instead used a large whiteboard to pose questions. I put out plenty of dry-erase markers and wrote down that everyone was welcome to answer. The first question I posted (What would you like to see in your library?) was only answered by a couple of students, but each week I posted a new question (some relating to the library and some not) and more and more students began to respond. Much of the information was silly, but I found some things were really important to the students. They wanted a comfortable place to work, they wanted it relatively quiet so they could read or work on what they wanted to, and they wanted to be able to eat in the library. I’m still wrestling with the eating part of it since we have previously had an ant issue when food was spilled by students, but having separate spaces to do things was a really great idea. As I began to research setting up libraries in different ways, I really liked the concept of having designated spaces. Traci Lesneski discusses zoning your interior and creating a variety of experiences (Lesneski 2011). The students came up with this concept intuitively and let me know that it was a really important aspect of any additional redesign that is done. 

As we move forward with full implementation of 1:1, I’m trying to think of the existing library space as differently as I can, but still need the students’ help to re-imagine what is there. To gather additional input on the space, I sent out a survey to staff and students asking their opinion on what we had done so far this year and also seeking information about what we can do in the future. One of the most interesting things to come out of the survey from the students is that they want more color. The wallpaper is currently a muted beige—and I thought that it looked great— but I can definitely understand their reasoning of wanting to have more color throughout. Paint is inexpensive and that seems like something that could easily be done. Overwhelmingly, the students who took the survey also want an uncarpeted area where they can eat food. A lively discussion about where this should be located within the library also ensued. They said that it didn’t need to be large, but it would be helpful to them.

My beautiful, medium oak and brick library of fifteen years ago is slowly transforming into a place that has flexible spaces, comfortable seating, and maybe even that eating area. I will continue to work with both staff and students to create a place that is conducive to learning, both for classes and for individual students. By gathering information in different ways, and putting the user at the forefront, I was able to think about the library space in a way that I hadn’t done before, and will continue to utilize these methods in the future.

Works Cited:

Lesneski, Traci. "10 Steps to a Better Library Interior: Tips that Don’t Have to Cost a Lot | Library by Design." Library Journal. September 9, 2011.http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2011/08/buildings/10-steps-to-a-better-library-interior-tips-that-dont-have-to-cost-a-lot-library-by-design/ (accessed March 11, 2016).