La Biblio Beairsto
Libraries are rapidly changing on a global scale. As the digital world expands, libraries and its patrons are brought closer together, connected through the information and technology that is available. To help our students become future-ready citizens, we need to be ensuring that our library learning commons are reflecting the needs of 21st Century Learning and are accessing the resources that will best support our young learners. The 2017 NMC Horizon Project Library Expert Panel has prepared a framework that librarians and library committees can use when planning and setting goals for their library learning commons. They suggest a five year framework that reflects on the key trends for technology adoption and the challenges that may impede these adoptions at three levels: Solvable, Difficult, and Wicked (see figure below).
As Beairsto is in the midst of a library to learning commons overhaul, many of the trends are already in play, and may even be realized over the next couple of years; however other trends have not been considered.
Short-Term (1-2 Years)
Research Data Management:
At Beairsto we have already moved forward with determining the resource needs of our students and teachers. Much work has been done to purge both print and electronic resources in order to provide better and increased access to more relevant resources. Through careful analysis of our print collection using our library circulation program, the purchasing and curating of these resources can better reflect our learning community, and can evolve as needs evolve. Digital resources do not have a specific evaluation criteria or a means to track user access; however with the support of the district tech department and our teacher librarian, discussions at our monthly curriculum meetings allow us to ensure that the best apps, web services and technology can be made available.
Solvable – This is an ongoing process that can easily be kept up-to-date and accurate. We now need to determine a more efficient means to track digital resources.
Valuing the User Experience:
In discussion with staff and students, it was brought to our attention that our library lacks a sense of community and culture. This is reflected in my mission statement for our library and again in the design challenge for determining the true problems. Our library needs to focus on representing that it values the user experience. We need to ensure that the needs of our users are being met both in terms of the space and the resources available, including print and digital media, and technology and tools.
Solvable – This process needs to begin right away and will likely take two years to see a true shift. It will require the support of the entire staff and student community, but should be spearheaded by the library committee.
Beairsto Mission Statement) Bibliothèque Beairsto is the dynamic hub of our community, providing cultural and personal experiences for our diverse learners while fostering future ready digital citizens.
Challenge 1) We need to create a flexible space that allows for students and teachers to work/read quietly, while still having opportunities for groups and classes to collaborate and design to support all our community members.
Challenge 2) We need to develop a system that supports and promotes student access to the technology they need or want to explore so they can empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test their designs for more personalized learning experiences.
Mid-Term (3-5 years)
Patrons as Creators:
The library learning commons as a place to create is an exciting movement in 21st century learning environment. Our libraries current transformation is to embrace the design, creative and maker process as a central idea for teaching and learning. Our goal is to build a space with room to explore technology, collaborate with others, prototype and test designs, and conduct research using print and digital resources, so that our students can personalize their learning in a meaningful way. Some of the steps we are taking include: Optimizing access to technology, bringing in district wide tech opportunities, improving access and instruction of digital resources, providing access to the tools and materials students need, redesigning the space to meet the needs of our learners, and increasing collaborative partnerships between staff and students.
Solvable: We are already on the mark for a three year transformation to help our patrons be creators in the LLC. A next step needs to be to bring in professional community members who are experts in their field and can support student’s personal discoveries.
Rethinking Library Spaces:
La Biblio Beairsto underwent a massive renovation over the summer to embrace a more learner driven environment reflective of their 21st century needs. Some of these changes have included making/purchasing of more flexible furniture and seating, reorganizing the storage room to create a Green Screen/News room, creating new book displays so that the books students are interested in can be made visible (not just shelves), moving and downsizing the circulation desk to make room for active classes and collaboration, and making the technology more mobile so that the TL can be made more available to support classes. Additionally we have redesigned the hallway beside the library to serve as an extension to the LLC. There are still improvements that need to be made including better WiFi, completion of a MakerSpace, and a continued effort to get meaningful technologies into the hands of our students through purchasing, physical access, training, and scheduling student exploration into the timetable.
Difficult: Due to budget limitations, not all of our dreams will be met at the same time and some may take creative ways to be realized. These changes are also limited by district policies, and administrative and board office approvals.
Long-Term (5+ years)
Cross-Institution Collaboration:
Being a single track French Immersion school with over 600 students presents its own set of challenges. Our TL reaches out to schools in Quebec to learn about the best resource options that they are using with their elementary students, however many of these resources are costly and do not represent the BC curriculum. Additionally, our local municipal library currently does not allow use of their digital resources in public schools (home access only). To best serve our students we need to find ways to better collaborate with our local municipal library, college and even UBCOkanagan. Students from UBCO have come to our school to showcase innovative technologies in neuroscience; however it is not a recurring experience. Experiences like those are hands-on and meaningful to our students, and need to be encouraged. It will be important for our school to team up with other French Immersion schools in the surrounding districts to improve access to digital French resources that are both curriculum and culturally relevant for our students.
Difficult: I believe that all of this can be realized if the discussions take place. It may be a timely endeavor, but a hugely beneficial one for our community of learners.
Evolving Nature of the Scholarly Record:
Our district already has access to a great number of ERAC and other digital publication sources, has purchased many App licenses, and is moving forward with Google for Education and Google Classroom. Our challenge is that there is a continued lack of urgency and importance put on having equal access to the same resources in French. Our TL does an amazing job at finding free and low-cost resources for our school, but is limited by budget and has to go through the tech department (which can be timely) to make any big purchases. The big problem now though, is the poor access to these resources. Our district, school and library all have very poor websites, so access to a digital library is challenging and not user friendly. Many of our students get frustrated having to remember the 10 step path to find World Book, and would rather just use Google. I feel that before continuing to search for MORE digital resources, the ones currently in use need to be set up in a more user friendly online environment.
Solvable & Wicked: This frustrates me because I feel that this is a no-brainer and could be better managed so easily; however our district policies are outdated, our tech department is underfunded/staffed, and for some reason there is not a push for better digital libraries.
When reviewing the 5 year plan for my schools library, I agree that many of the challenges are in line with those found in the NMC Horizon Report. We are lucky that many of our changes are supported by the economic and political pressures that may be impeding other LLC transformations, and that our librarian and library committee already have a good handle on the changes and goals for our LLC.
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