22 Oct 2016
In October 2015, the school Principal – Mr Charles Borg – asked me to develop a plan to redevelop the school library to take it from a 1970's look – when it was first built – into a library for the 21st Century. 12 months later, as I write this, the physical redevelopment of the school Library is about 95% complete. The process took 12 months and would not have occurred without the tremendous support that the school Library received from Mr Borg, Ms Knapmann - Our Deputy Principal, Mr Prica - our IT coordinator, and a number of other staff.
The process involved visiting a number of libraries – school, public and university libraries – to get ideas for the redevelopment; reading a number of articles on the internet, both from here and overseas, on how to redevelop a school library and talking to a number of colleagues re their ideas. On February 10th 2016, the school engaged the services of Kevin Hennah – a Library design expert – to draw up such a plan. We then took his ideas and those other ideas that we had developed, and asked three different companies to tender for the process of redeveloping the school Library. After a number of discussions with these companies, we decided to grant the tender to Abax King Fisher. The result is what you see in the photos. A Library for the 21st Century with the emphasis on mobile flexible learning spaces.
The plans for the library are not yet completed. In 2017, we plan to add a number of other features including the provision for our students to book the seminar rooms at the back of the library to use as collaborative learning spaces.
Those are the physical changes to our school Library. Also, in 2016, Fairfield High School has played a Leading role in the development of Oliver – the Library Management system – to be updated to Build 8. This will allow our staff and students access to a number of other online features to assist with Teaching and Learning. This includes access to over 2,000 eBooks which are fully integrated with Oliver. The challenge for 2017 and beyond is to promote the Library to our staff and students so that they can maximise its use and their learning potential. See the gallery below for more amazing photos.
A. Downie
Teacher – Librarian.