This book focuses on planning contemporary school library spaces with user-based design strategies.

With the advent of modern technologies and the rise of participatory and active learning pedagogy, the traditional school library model is no longer as effective as it once was. Reimagining Library Spaces helps librarians rethink the library space, including the changing role of technology, showing ways to transform how students learn in and use these spaces. Find the guidance you need to make smart and efficient updates to your library space that encourage the use of technology to improve student learning. This book includes: tips and strategies for transforming your outdated library space on a small budget, how-to's for addressing the challenges and opportunities brought about by the changing role of technology, including collaborative learning labs, makerspaces and ways to support BYOD, and practical suggestions for finding ideas to improve your space, inventory your library and survey your community.

School libraries stand at the forefront of innovation in education. Yet many teachers and administrators do not know what to make of them, much less how to best utilize their varied and valuable resources. What if school librarians, whose field of practice has transformed in the past few decades, could show us excellent models for innovative teaching? What if the vital adaptations that school librarians have made could help other educators evolve? What if the lessons learned in the library could be scaled up to benefit all fields of practice and all students? The 21st Century School Library takes an in-depth look at the paradigm-shifting work that school libraries are doing to advance student learning, professional development, and school-wide engagement. It explains how library-led, forward-thinking initiatives can guide all educators – teachers and administrators alike – toward transformative educational practices. It is an inspiring survey of 21st century school libraries whose guiding principles also serve as a blueprint for innovation in K-12 education. School libraries – and all the educators associated with them – offer a compelling vision for the future of K-12 education. This book is a roadmap for how to make this vision a reality.

To keep school libraries relevant, their physical spaces need to be reinvented to mirror 21st-century learning models. This book will enable everyone from school librarians and principals to district-level administrators, architects, and interior planners of school library spaces to reconceptualize school libraries. School libraries provide invaluable benefits and services, but many of today's school administrators, parents, and students no longer see their value. Now most students have their own computing devices and the use of eBooks is on the rise; students can gather information anywhere, at any time. This book offers bold new ways to think about library spaces and suggests how libraries can provide the spaces needed to encourage students to explore learning. It also presents librarians with dynamic ideas and plans that can be used as a springboard for planning with school administrators, architects, and builders. The book identifies opportunities for creating spaces that support instructional models such as guided inquiry, examines technology skills needed after graduation, shows digital media hubs complementing maker spaces, and discusses how incorporating social media spaces into library design can encourage learning. The author guides librarians through the process of documenting the district learning goals in order to translate those specific goals into library space plans for an architect or interior designer. Readers will discover templates for flexible, up-to-date library designs that serve to not only improve students' learning and critical thinking skills but also to emphasize the modern school librarian's role in boosting academic achievement.

What are the most important things a 21st-century library should do with its space? Each chapter in this cutting-edge text addresses this critical question, capturing the insights and practical ideas of leading international librarians, educators and designers to offer you a ‘creative resource bank’ that will help to transform your library and learning spaces. This is an innovative and practical toolkit introducing concepts, drawing together opinions and encouraging new ways of thinking about library learning spaces for the future. The book is structured in three parts. Part 1 – Projects and trends describes features of library space around the world through a selection of focused case studies painting a global picture, identifying common directions and ideas as well as highlighting country and regional diversity. Part 2 – Trends and ideas looks at the why and how of library space, covering topics such as contextual factors, current ideas in library space development, and the creative design of new spaces. It examines how library spaces are adapting to new forms of learning, digital literacies and technological fluency. Finally, Part 3 – Ideas and futures looks to the future of libraries and their learning spaces, inviting future-scanning contributions from a diverse range of authors, including librarians, learning specialists, academics, architects, an interior designer, a furniture designer and a management specialist. Readership: This is a must-have text for those involved in designing and developing library and learning spaces, from library and university management to designers and architects. It’s also a useful guide for students taking courses in library and information science to get to grips with the importance of library design.

University libraries struggle to keep up with rapidly changing technology and the associated change in teaching strategy. Most administrators and librarians are often not trained to assess space needs and struggle to reassign library spaces for non-traditional library use. As such, they often embark on expensive and time-consuming feasibility studies, using (typically) hard-earned monies to complete the research or to pilot a new space. What academic research library administrators and staff lack is an analysis tool for discovering and planning needed renovations and improvements in aging library facilities. The purpose of this research project was to determine how students use library spaces for learning in this new high-tech, hands-on education experience (i.e. synthesis of previous research); develop a tool that can be used by library staff to self-analyze existing academic library spaces, identifying areas that could be improved for student benefit (e.g. provide a checklist of potential learning spaces that institutions should carefully consider adding to their facilities); and provide some examples/case studies of potential facility improvements. The end result is a hierarchical self-analysis tool that merges space options, Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and an example of library-user personas. It also provides some general cost guidelines, helpful construction tips, and a synthesis of exploratory questions related to strategy and space. The tool uses evidence-based design to facilitate important conversations, provide an organized checklist of various considerations, and be a quick reference for library administrators and facility managers as they navigate the world of twenty-first century pedagogy and student learning.

Compact yet remarkably comprehensive, this book covers all the major aspects of school library services, from administration to instruction focused from the elementary school librarian perspective—now updated and expanded to include the latest developments in makerspaces, the Common Core, social networking, and eBooks. How do you accomplish a technology transformation at a time when budgets are extremely limited? What is the proper location for web-based social networking in the school library? What are the best practices for working together with students, parents, and educators? The 21st-Century Elementary School Library Program: Managing for Results is an invaluable resource for answers to these and many more questions, as it brings together in one volume the advice and insights you need to bring your library into the new century. This invaluable guide provides tips and techniques, forms and templates, and advice on everything from staffing and budgeting to collaborating with teachers and other libraries, to Web 2.0 and other new computer tools for building collections and devising special programs. Whether you are just getting started or are a library veteran seeking effective program renewal, this book belongs on your shelf.