Library Facility Design
Course
Assessing Community Needs [2:58]
Learn how you can use mission, observation, data, and analysis to gather information for a thoughtfully conducted library redesign.
How are you going to gather this information? It can be done in four simple and concurrent steps: focusing on mission, observation, data, and analysis.
First, refocus on your school's mission statement and core values. These will be guiding principles for you to ensure that the space integrates into the school as a whole. For instance, if your school's mission is to create "active and engaged citizens of a global society," your designs should include space for student collaboration and discussion.
Second, observe your students and teachers in the library. How do they move through the space? Where do they congregate? When do they get frustrated or seem at a loss? Where do they seem animated and/or productive? What questions about the space do they ask you? For instance, are students consistently congested at the makerspace cart? Does the new book display rarely get noticed? Make observations and notes over a period of time to pick up on patterns.
As part of this step, spend a few moments each day observing students in other areas of the school...classrooms, the cafeteria, outdoor spaces, hallways, etc. Notice how their behavior relates to the space they are in. What patterns do you see? How might these behaviors apply to the library setting?
Third, conduct a needs assessment by gathering data directly from the students, parents, teachers, and administrators. It is important to get input from all of these stakeholders. We've got a downloadable template for you to get started with and adapt to your school's community. Find out what their priorities are for learning in the library and what values are important to them. Discover what ideas they have for their ideal library space.
When talking with or surveying teachers, find out what they would want in the space for them to teach a class in the library or to use it as a workspace. The more connected the space is to teachers' needs, the more likely they will be to use it on a regular basis, increasing opportunities for collaboration.
Don't forget to include the needs of you and your library assistants in this as well. Consider what is important to you for workflow management.
Fourth, analyze the activities that will happen in the library space. They might include: full class and small group instruction, small group collaboration, individual work, quiet reading, storytelling, browsing, special events, makerspace projects, and more.
With the information you've gathered in hand, you're ready to start exploring how to adjust your collection, technology, and instructional spaces to meet your community's needs.
It's time to document your stakeholders' needs. What's important to them in a learning space? Start the process by making a copy of the form in the Resources below and adapting it to fit your school community. Then go out and implement it! Use the responses you collect to begin your redesign process.
After collecting responses from your community via surveys, informal conversations, and/or focus groups, use the second page of the above form to reflect on what you learned from their voices.
MLA Citation
Editorial Team, SLC. "Library Facility Design: Assessing Your Community's Needs." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2171560?learningModuleId=2170983&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2171984
When you listen to the ideas and opinions of students, it can positively impact all areas of the school library. Turning the solicitation process into a part of the curriculum takes the learning one step further. Read the article, "Involving Students in the Library Redesign Process" (in the Resources below), and then complete the Reflect & Practice activity.
How could you gather library design input from students in a way that connects it to your school's curriculum? Use the above form to brainstorm five possibilities. Choose the most promising and write a unit overview and/or a lesson plan for the introductory lesson. Present it to a potential collaborating teacher.
MLA Citation
Editorial Team, SLC. "Library Facility Design: Student Voices." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2171560?learningModuleId=2170983&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2171985
The physical environment exerts a strong influence on student behavior. In their book Positive Classroom Management Skills for School Librarians, Kay Bishop and Jenny Cahall discuss techniques and examples of best practices for managing students in a school library, including the role that library design can play. Read the excerpt from their book in the Resources below and then complete the Reflect & Practice activity.
Use the above form to list five common behavioral issues that surface in your library. Thinking about what you just read from Positive Classroom Management Skills for School Librarians, what changes to the physical space could help alleviate these?
MLA Citation
Editorial Team, SLC. "Library Facility Design: Managing Behavior through Design." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2171560?learningModuleId=2170983&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2172002
Additional Resources
About the Authors
Email: rmorris@schoollibraryconnection.com
Twitter: @rebeccajm87.
MLA Citation
Editorial Team, SLC. "Library Facility Design. Assessing Community Needs [2:58]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2171560?learningModuleId=2170983&topicCenterId=2247902.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2171560?learningModuleId=2170983&topicCenterId=2247902
Entry ID: 2171560