A few weeks ago, I shared our facilities homework assignment for school library management class.  I asked for your feedback and promised that I’d share some of the students’ clever makeover ideas.  Here they are!

• Add accordion-style movable walls to subdivide the space into smaller, more intimate learning spaces as needed.
• Move the tech assistant’s office so it adjoins the two labs.
• Get rid of periodical storage!
• Eliminate one of the two circulation desks. Move the circ desk closer to the front door.
• Add comfortable, upholstered furniture for pleasure reading and socializing. Position this furniture close to the door so the library looks more open and inviting.
• Remake the empty classroom into a multimedia mini-auditorium or audion.
• Keep the staff work/copy room as part of the library so you have constant traffic from your classroom colleagues.
• Weed and consolidate reference.
• Add a bank of computers on high counters for quick come-in-check-your-email-and-leave use that is separate from computers used for projects or research.

And here was my red herring when designing the project …  The original floor plan below shows two offices: one for the librarian … and one for the clerk.  Pray tell, does the clerk need a private office?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Library Makeover, Library as Place. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.