Renovation: creating a reading retreat

In our multi-level library, the narrow mezzanine on the entry level has, for several years, housed the reference collection.

The blue chairs on the left are often occupied at lunchtime by someone looking for a corner in which to read.  The graphic novels are here, too, on the first shelf on the left - it's only a small collection at present, but we're working on it.  We've just painted these two pillars to match the other one (just out of shot on the left).

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At lunchtime, it was usual to find little clumps of kids, or individuals, sitting between the reference book bays on the left, little groups reading/sharing books in small spaces.  How could we facilitate this, in a better space?

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A couple of ideas came together in my mind.  At a colleague's school, now 7-10 and in one of the 1970s libraries featuring a mezzanine most often used as a senior area, the teacher librarian had made this area into a 'reading lounge' used by class groups, with comfy seating - this is a separate area to fiction.  It was very popular, she said.  I filed that one away, with all the other stuff I'd read and seen  about library renovations catering to teenagers liking lounges in which to read.  Our fiction area has, and needs to keep, tables and chairs for class work, so although it has a few comfy seats, more there isn't possible right now.  Another colleague had mentioned her interfiled reference collection, interfiled with nonfiction, that is.  That idea brewed, too.  We've been doing some culling of old/outdated books, and have created some space on our nonfiction shelves; but I wasn't sure how we'd go, transferring an entire reference collection from this mezzanine, to make something else of the space.

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In various areas of the library, we've been working on making the space as inviting as possible, user-friendly, inspiring, encouraging, a good place to be.

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So a couple of weeks ago, we started making changes, not quite sure how it would work out, but taking the leap that it would...

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The interfiling took several days of hard work, moving books and consolidating - most shelves in nonfiction downstairs needed some shuffling/rejigging.

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We also needed some comfy seating.  I thought of a couple of places from which I could borrow, and then our lovely cleaner mentioned some comfy chairs which were just marking time elsewhere in the school.  I asked if we could borrow them, and here is how the space looked a day or two later:

The lounge was from elsewhere in the school, too, and as you can see we still had some reference books to move.  The seating layout was arrived at after some trial and error.  We didn't want a waiting room look, but we only had a certain width with which to work - this is also a throughway to the steps to the senior study upstairs.  This layout also doesn't encourage huge groups - it's a quiet reading retreat, not a group hangout.  The sofa arms aren't happy to be sat on, either, so this layout also discourages that (or at least, so far so good).

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A couple of days later, and the reference books were all reshelved - a huge task completed in a little over a week.  Yay for the library staff! (yes,the library was open and being used)

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We're adding face-out books to those shelves, on rather horrid wire stands, but the plan is to get sloping shelves to put here.  Some reference books particularly identified as having browsing potential have remained (eg. visual guides to Lord of the Rings/Star Wars) and we're aiming to cycle nonfiction through here too, to catch students' eyes for browsing and alert them to what the library has to offer (eg. books about bugs and sharks).

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To give you a lunchtime view (with faces obscured for privacy reasons - and this particular lunchtime in our co-ed school it seems to have been mostly boys there):

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It's a work in progress, but the progress has been good.  We need to organised the shelf change, for a better display look than our old wire easels.  The balcony wall (there are Aboriginal artworks done by students on the other side) doesn't look up to much, so we'll look at getting some mdf cut and work on painting some panels to match our wall words as used elsewhere in the library - probably in aqua background to match the foyer, which is on this level of the library behind the photographer.  We can then screw the panels in place. 

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We've left a stand of dictionaries and one of large atlases in the space, partly because there isn't an obvious location for them downstairs and partly for easy access for fast questions.  They can also provide buffer/barriers in separating these seating pods.  Downstairs, we have a double-sided shelf housing several encyclopedia sets, to keep them easily visible and also because we didn't have space for them in the nonfiction Dewey run.

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Right now, our dollar expenditure has been nil.  We're allowed to borrow the green chairs indefinitely, but if they are required elsewhere then we'll have to organise seating.  The green chairs may be standard school issue, but they're pretty new and are more comfortable than school chairs as found at desks.  We may have to pay for the sloping shelves, and will have to pay for the mdf, although we can then paint it (a job to fit in when we can) and can get it installed at no cost.  We're also working on signage - of which more later.

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The pluses?  A new area to encourage reading and browsing.  Some seniors are using it during study periods as well, to read and study when they don't need a desk/table.  We hope that the interfiled reference books will make them more useful and used, on the same floor as the nonfiction books.

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Sprucing up the library, one step at a time.  Any questions? Comments?  Want more library photos?!

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