When I inherited the AISB Elementary School Library I was ecstatic. It was welcoming, it had new and interesting books that kids were actually interested in reading, it had big, bright windows to let in the beautiful Romanian sunlight, and more importantly, it felt like there was opportunity for me to add my own mark to it. AISB is very lucky to have three separate libraries: the Early Childhood library which is in an open atrium, our ES/PYP library which serves grades 1-5, and the newly renovated Secondary library which houses the collection for students in middle and high school.
Our ES library has approximately 15,000 items in our collection: a fantastic picture book collection, a good amount of graphic novels, a robust non-fiction section, chapter books, and a healthy mother-tongue selection as well.
The space that we are in is an old community room. Originally, the three libraries at AISB were all located in what is now the Secondary library. As school numbers grew they decided to split the Secondary and the ES library and then two years ago the ELC library separated as well, leaving our ES library in its own space. The room covers a small footprint but has high vaulted ceilings and as mentioned, big, bright windows.
The problem with the library really comes down to space...and location (it's quite out of the way from the main body of the elementary school classrooms). Stationary shelving meant that the space couldn't be adapted to different programming needs and lack of space to add more wooden shelving also meant that books had to be placed in plastic bins and were stacked on top of and along the base of shelves in the chapter book/fiction section.
The fact that not all the books fit on the shelves was something that bothered me and once I found out that there were brand new, wheeled Raeco shelving units sitting in storage, I put together a few floor plan options for how the library space could be transformed.
For two days we closed the library and with the help of the entire school maintenance team, we were able to put together all 14 shelving units. We then transferred all of the books from the old shelves to the new shelves and then stored them in the other community room next door for the winter break.
During the winter break, maintenance removed the stationary shelving, repaired holes in the walls, repainted, and generally tidied up the room.
The last week of winter break, my husband and I came into school and spent a few hours wheeling the shelves back into the library and set them up into the layout that we are still using today.
So far students are enjoying the new library design. We created two "reading nooks" set back into some of the shelves and these are very popular with the kids. The space feels a bit more empty and sterile and I did have the idea to do a mural on the tall back wall (with the help of some high school art students), but administration decided that it would make the space too busy.
We hope that we will be able to make these reading nooks cozier and more welcoming in the coming months!