Friday, April 03, 2009

Library Design Challenge

I have become obsessed with optimizing my library and am curious about where others work. I'd like to take a virtual tour of some other school or public libraries and get some ideas for my own! (Thanks for the suggestion, Mary Ison!)

Here's the challenge:
1. List the number of students in your school and volumes in your collection.
2. State the year your library was built and/or refurbished.
3. List one BEST feature and one worst feature of your library.
4. Tell us one dream you have for your library.
5. Include a picture(s) if possible.
6. Leave a comment on this posting so I make sure to drop by!

I don't have enough mental functioning to have a contest (It's 5:14 a.m. and I'm about to go put masking tape "tables" down on the floor), but I have a fabulous prize: a pristine copy of Genevieve Foster's 1959 book, The World of Captain John Smith, 1580-1631. It was checked out exactly once, in 1974.

Here are my answers to the above.

1. 580 students, 13,000 books
2. 1969 (I was four!)
3. Best feature: open and maleable floor plan. Worst feature: 12 entrances. Security nightmare!
4. All library space dedicated to library functions and not storage.
(Left: facing away from entrance. Some book display.)
(Right: facing entrance. Rows of shelves.)
(Left: Computers- 15 total.)
(Right: Biography wall-- future home of fiction!)
Thanks for stopping by! I love my library!

5 comments:

  1. I sent the questions to my elementary school SLMS:

    How many students do we have? 1400ish now....have had close to 2000 at one point

    How many books do we have in the library? 30000 includes prof. and audio

    What year was the library built? (1996?) yes

    What year was the library refurbished? (2006?) summer before 2005/2006 school year

    What is the BEST feature of the library? openness and room to have different areas of instruction

    What is the WORST feature of the library? lack of equipment storage near by. Used to have it where the DRA room is but we were losing too many books when teachers were asked to check them in and out on their own....part was due to computer issues.

    What is one dream you have for the library? To have teachers utilize the resources to the fullest...databases, software, books. Some feel like there is not enough time to teach this. Not feel like it is a place only to get books or to send their kids when they want to get "a break" from them (yes they do this!).

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  2. Oh, I love your idea for this post! I work at a public library, and our branch is currently under renovation. So we are in a teeny-tiny temporary location with about 20% of our collection (the rest in storage). So I won't be very helpful with this one!

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  3. Hi, Ms. Yingling. It was fun to see your library. Come see mine at http://daybyday12101.blogspot.com/


    Mary

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  4. Check it out!

    http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/blogboard/archives/2009/04/the_state_of_li.html

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  5. I took the challenge - take a look :)

    http://westorientbooksblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/library-challenge.html

    Erin

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