Ideas from elsewhere: why bother spiffing up your library?

Interesting results from a homeless shelter that renovated - read Adele Horin's article from the Sydney Morning Herald.
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The point, for me, of sprucing and spiffing and working on our library space is not only to make it dynamic and interesting and colourful and fun and engaging and welcoming.  Of course, to do all those things: but also to make it educationally effective, to have a positive impact on students and their learning.  And thus improve their lives and opportunities and futures.
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I was intrigued to learn from this article that their research shows the positive impact that the changes at the homeless shelter have had on the people who have used their facilities; it seems most reasonable to assume that this would be the case for a school library, too.
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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS. Major topic for conversation right now: The Hair Trial.  Yup, the Year 10 formal's only a week or two away, and after the Oscars, well, it's THE Event.  If you're in Year 10...!!
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