February 20, 2022

5 updates your school library needs in 2022

For years, school libraries were these damp and dark rooms with leaky ceilings and uninviting shelves. As a major source of information back in the days, the poor students didn’t really have much of a choice but to use the gloomy place if they wanted to learn something. Colourful walls, comfy chairs, shiny new computers were all unnecessary because books were still popular, and as long as your library had books, it was going to host as many students. With the digitalized world raging on, however, getting students interested in books, at least the printed ones, is fast becoming a difficult task. And that makes school libraries an endangered phenomenon. To be fair to the students, why would they pick up heavy paper books when anything they need to know is one google search away? They can even carry thousands of books on their phones, why bother visiting a library.

Following this paradigm shift, much effort went into updating school libraries in order to keep up. They are now more engaging, well-decorated, interactive, with easier search systems, enough light, and more comfortable sitting areas. But the crusade continues and many schools are still eager to make the necessary changes to create a library for their students to enjoy and thrive. So let’s take a look at some of the most helpful updates going into 2022.

1. New book arrangement

We can start with a simple change: rearranging the books on the shelves. Up until now, most thoughts that went into organizing books in the library was about how to better categorize or cross-reference them, or how to stuff as many books as possible on shelves. Efficient as it may be, it doesn’t create an appealing sight.

“The science of book arrangement” has expanded in the past few years. There are actually some rules now; like always leave one-third of the shelf empty, or books of the same cover colour must be put together. The most interesting change, however, is abandoning the conventional side-by-side arrangement and exposing the covers instead. Book covers are becoming richer and richer with artistic designs and it might be just the thing to encourage students to pick up the book, especially if you are targeting a younger audience. This certainty takes up more space on your shelves, and if you can’t afford that, you can only rearrange and exhibit some of the more beautiful and popular books.

Iwaki library of picture books, Japan. Exposing the covers creates a magnificent sight.

2. Creating a sense of communication

School libraries have long been the icon of a quiet place, where students could sit and study without any form of communication with the person next to them. With “sharing” being the bedrock of modern social life, it seems like libraries must try to adapt if they want to survive. It is a bit tricky because the library, for the most part, must remain a quiet place for reading. However, it is possible to create a virtual space (like a forum or social media page) for students to go online to talk about or recommend the books they have read. This might take a physical form too, as the school may install a board in the library and ask students to write down their recommendations or favourite quotes and excerpts from the books they have read for everyone else to see. Knowing there are people in your school who enjoy reading as much as you do or having the opportunity to talk about what you read is a precious feeling which only motivates students to spend more time with the books and visit the library more often.

Using creative ways to let student share their favourite books.

3. Using an integrated library management system

In keeping up with the most recent technology, libraries of all kinds found management systems to be very useful, and in some cases, even necessary. An integrated library management system is a comprehensive software that helps library staff to administer a range of responsibilities such as reserving books, keeping records, managing finances, and communicating with patrons.

Ed-admin’s student management system comes with quite an agile library module that is exclusively designed for school libraries. In addition to the essential features, like a full list of resources, circulations, books out on loan, and overdue books, Ed-admin’s library module allows students and parents to log in to their portals and see the books available and reserve them. Since the module is connected to the Student Information, the system automatically sends an overdue notice to students or parents via email if they have forgotten to return a book. All overdue charges are issued and they are payable through integrated payment gateways. And the most interesting feature is the barcode scanner which lets staff have access to all the library information of each student with a simple card scan as soon as they walk through the doors.
We also highly recommend other library management systems such as Alexandria, which have been in this field of business for decades, and Apollo which is a pretty well-known name for those who run public libraries.

Everything you need from library management software!

4. Creating a space for group activities

As mentioned above, school libraries are hardly restricted to a place for study anymore. Schools can dedicate a few days or even hours to other kinds of activities such as meaningful discussions, choral reading, watching movies, playing games, and engaging in social actions. While none of the ideas mentioned here is particularly novel, there is still a great resistance against using the school library for anything else. However, having to deal with self-isolation for quite a long period, students need to know, more than any other time, that they are supported by a community and feel a sense of togetherness. Changing the school library to a community hub could go a long way.

School’s community hub!

5. Go green

Raising the new generation to be more respectful of the environment and nature is one of the primary concerns of many schools and educational institutions. In fact, the movement for becoming more eco-friendly neither starts nor ends in school libraries. Many schools around the world have taken it upon themselves to modify their institutions or the way they run them to become the embodiment of environmental causes, rather than just talk about it with their students. Either way, who’s to say the school library isn’t a good place to start? There are literally a hundred different ways to help your library go green. Yes, that is right! Literary one hundred ways. In her blog 100 Ways to Make Your Library a Little Greener, Meredith Walker lays down an insane number of things you can do to have a greener library, most of which are quite easy and basically costless.

The people at Cordwalles junior school in Surrey have decided to go as far as bringing nature into their libraries with actual plants and creative decoration.