I attended this invaluable PD today and still thinking about the ideas……
I was inspired and very much admired Bialik College Principal Joseph Gurassi whose actions are speaking much louder than words. What a wonderful library they have created – certainly a place students and teachers would want to relax, read, gather and learn in. Excellent point Joseph made: we must not drag students back to the world we lived in, create a next generation learning space of flexible connected spaces used to think, talk and collaborate.
Erica McWilliam ( Co-leader Creative Workforce Programs in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation) has lead me to believe I’m not just reconfiguring the space students are to learn in but how we think about learning and how we work when we are learning. T/Ls are to meddle in the middle of learning groups. It’s time to reinvent the library to reflect the needs, style and preferences of today’s learners.
Lyn Hay (Lecturer in Teacher Librarianship at Charles Sturt University) reinforced my belief that function will inform the form of our library. What do we want the library to do? We must relate this back to the teaching and learning goals of SMC College. Once this space is built, the size, colour, appearance, layout, resources, technology and staffing should reflect the message “this is a place we value”. And most importantly, we must not build a library space without library staff who are prepared to use it according to its function. Library staff must move with the times.
Linda Angeloni (Writer/researcher for the Ergo website) unpackaged the revamped Ergo State Library website showcasing a sample of the excellent SLV primary resources that have been digitized and can use used as valuable research and discussion spring boards with students. This will be a site I recommmend and remind our SOSE facililty to utilise. I look forward to Linda visiting SMC at an ERF meeting – SOSE faculty to be invited?
Pictures certainly tell a thousand words. And Susan La Marca (Head of Library, Genazzano FCJ College) used a great , inspiring collection of contemporary library spaces to stimulate a thousand thoughts about library design in terms of five key areas: Flexibility; Collaboration; Creativity; Efficiency and Inclusiveness. We must ensure our goals and planning are human centred, that is, we keep people at the fore front and not let technology drive our PCL design decisions.
We are entering an exciting time to reinvent the Pamela Coyne Library located at the Dalton Road Campus of St Monica’s College, Epping. To make it a place and space where students want to learn and be in, a space that is progressive in thinking and design, a place other schools will visit for inspiration, a space that has flexiblity to change arrangement if it doesn’t meet the learning needs of a group, a meeting place for planning and sharing, a space that still holds dear library features that are and will always be, and a place that Monicans will be proud of.
Time now to think, talk and plan………….
books@pcl 