New High School Library: From Consumption to Creation

 

This article is part of our “New Learning Spaces” series, a collection of stories highlighting the transformations coming to the WAB campus prior to the start of the 2019-20 school year. The third installment of this series, this article covers the changes coming to WAB’s High School Library.

The roles and functions of libraries are changing and have been for years.

Before the age of the Internet, our public and school libraries were places for information storage. The stereotypical library was a quiet space, lined with tall aisles of books and people silently sitting at tables reading or researching. 

That is not WAB’s library, and it never has been. Since the Internet and our mobile devices continue to change the way people consume information, libraries and librarians have been forced to re-think their role. WAB’s High School Teacher-Librarian Jeri Hurd says the conventional model of libraries as silent, information storage centers is long gone. On the contrary, she says, libraries should be the place where conversations flourish and learning is happening all around.

“Traditional libraries allowed for people to be consumers of information,” Jeri said. “What we want to create is a library where students can be the creators of information. The library should be seen as the center of the learning that is taking place all of the time in the High School.”

Jeri, who also served as the co-head of WAB’s Learning Spaces Committee, has worked with her team to create a space that best supports students’ learning needs as part of our school community’s journey to transform the school for the future, known as FLoW21.They joined forces with the world-famous Rosan Bosch Studio to create a space that would serve the evolving needs of our learners. The team gathered extensive research and used their expert knowledge and experience to decide the types of space, furniture, and organization that will create flexible and dynamic areas that maximize learning and teaching.

They created areas for independent work, like lofted window bays for reading or studying, as well as collaboration spaces with interactive, moveable screens that suit a diverse range of group sizes. It means being equipped with technological resources like iPads, cameras, or microphones that students may need to make learning meaningful. There is a design laboratory, outdoor spaces, and a theater. The new High School Library will host interdisciplinary courses, with combinations of Grade 10 students connecting their learning in Individuals & Societies, English, and Design Technology. (You can see all of the design plans of the space here.)

As one of WAB’s prototype spaces to be completed for the start of the 2019-2020 school year, the way students and teachers use the High School Library will inform the way that we continue to evolve and transform our campus. As Rosan Bosch puts it, the people in these spaces will be ambassadors for the changes coming to all of WAB’s learning spaces in the future.

“We will be collecting extensive data from students and teachers that will give us evidence of how we have used this space and inform the designs of our future spaces,” Jeri said.

Check out the following links to learn more about the changes coming to WAB's Learning Spaces and the Future of Learning at WAB.

 

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