Mrs Kristine Cooke, Director of Information Services
It has been claimed that moving house is one of the most stressful events in life. Therefore, how traumatic would moving a library be, with all of its resources, facilities, personnel and furniture? It is an imminent task for the staff of the Beanland Library. Throughout 2014, it has been impossible to ignore the construction of the new Research Learning Centre emerging out of the ground right on the boundary of the current library. As we prepare to relocate there in time for the 2015 School year, it is an ever-present reminder of the opportunities for innovation and challenges it presents.
Thus, the move is not simply an exercise in relocation: the planners of the new Centre have invested a great deal of thought and expertise into creating a venue with more space, more light, more interactivity and more originality — but, more importantly, a significantly enhanced experience for the students. The new library will enable library staff to use the rich physical collection and their informational and digital expertise to encourage successful scholarship because, as a recent study by the American Association of School Librarians has found, ’School libraries with more staff and larger collections lead to stronger academic performance’ (DeNisco, 2014).
The new building and the efforts to enhance the library experience are validated not only by the School’s impressive usage figures, but also by another comprehensive study conducted in the United Kingdom which found a ‘significant association’ between ‘frequent library use and reported wellbeing’ (Fujiwara, Kudrna & Dolan, 2014, p. 9). The current Beanland Library is always well populated with students from every year level who love, as one current student said, to ‘make the space our own’. This sense of belonging must be promoted in the new spaces so they too become a new home with all the attendant warmth, security and support. It must become that special place that encapsulates the essence of scholarship.
However, there are some commentators who claim the modern student does not need a designated physical library space; that she shows a clear preference for the digital. In the education field, where universities are leading the way in online learning, it has been ascertained that it is not a simple ‘either/or’ choice. It is ‘progressively less about crafting a stand-alone digital experience, and more about ensuring that digital and physical play to their respective strengths and provide a blended experience that is relevant and consistent’ for what has been labelled the ‘location-agnostic’ student (McMahon, 2013, November, p. 6). This is the type of whole-library approach planned for our new Centre. It is one that offers the full range of preferred student working methods, while maintaining professional assistance, support and teaching, especially for younger students who come to this School with a range of digital backgrounds and require guidance in dealing with information strategies of increasing sophistication.
This is why the new Centre cannot afford to ignore the digital ‘space’. It must be designed and managed as carefully and as thoughtfully as the rooms and the shelves but its main advantage is the ease with which it can be changed and enhanced — more readily than a building. Therefore, the physical move will also be reflected in a ‘digital move’. The library pages on our intranet and on Moodle will transition to create an enhanced experience for digital users. The catalogue is constantly being upgraded to ensure it is responsive to user needs and can be accessed from any device and any location. Users will be able to download a wider range of digitised resources and access information assistance specifically tailored to each particular task and the needs of individual students.
While students now have access to more data than would ever fit on a library shelf, the emphasis has shifted from simply finding the information, to discerning what is the most relevant and effective information for the specific task. This generally means selecting a judicious blend of books as well as digital, and unlocking that special secret of librarians: metadata. If the youngest student has even a basic understanding of this concept, she will be able to ‘……winnow down a huge set of results to manageable proportions’ (Manifold, 2014, April 23, p. 4). It is within this research and information process that students generally discover that Google and Wikipedia are not necessarily their best friends and the library staff members are generally the bearers of these sad tidings.
In addition to the volume of data available, students have myriad ways of thinking, working, and approaching information and the learning tasks they are given. It is the responsibility of the modern library, and especially the school library, where the users are still developing their information attitudes and skills, to encourage, welcome and cater to individual differences and preferences. This means the flexible application and integration of thinking strategies, technology, and physical spaces. Students need the wisdom of educators, both within the classroom and the library, to help them understand and explore how to use these tools in a positive and productive way.
Allied with this variety of users and data formats, there is also a corresponding and complicating variety of access media: a laptop, a page, an iPad, a phone, a desktop and a projection. This list will continue to grow and the interesting aspect of modern information is that, in texts and on screens, it is generally presented as an increasingly complex combination of visuals, text and sound bites etc. Professional library staff members are aware of the challenges of today’s information environment and work to select resources that are relevant, suitable and varied. However, they also work with users, helping them develop the skills to curate their own information. By encouraging discerning use of digital tools and information management, students learn to develop a sense of control over what they learn and how they learn it. While the School has invested in bricks, concrete and glass, it continues to value human interaction — there is no ‘you have your own laptop; you’re on your own’ at Girls Grammar — our students are assisted by trusted, qualified teachers and support staff.
The new Research Learning Centre is, therefore, an opportunity to craft a new and cohesive library experience. If a school library is viewed in the terms that Dubner used in his opinion piece to the American Library Association, it is now a ‘different sort of institution’ with a new mission, ‘a sort of public square … where we meet, where we mix, where we consume and produce whatever we need to consume and produce at (any) given point in (our education)’ (2014, May 5). Our new home will allow us to continue the traditional partnerships in innovative ways, promoting excellence in scholarship and preparing students for a smooth transition into tertiary courses.
References
DeNisco, A. (2014). School librarian cutbacks widen digital divide. http://www.districtadministration.com/article/school-librarian-cutbacks-widen-digital-divide
Dubner, S. J. (2014, May 5). What I Told the American Library Association. [Web log message]. http://freakonomics.com/2014/05/05/what-i-told-the-american-library-association/
Fujiwara D, Kudrna, L., & Dolan, P. (2014). Quantifying and Valuing the Wellbeing Impacts of Culture and Sport. 9. United Kingdom: Department for Culture. Media & Sport.
Manifold A. (2014, April 23). Libraries and metadata in a sea of information. In Connections. [Newsletter]. (89). 4. Schools Catalogue Information Service, Victoria, Australia
McMahon P. (2013 November 1). Are we ready for a truly seamless digital future. INCITE. 34(11). 6.