Environment

Component A

Component A: Flexible and Adaptable Space

A highly effective teacher librarian creates a flexible and adaptable library space that meets the needs of the school community.

Library Redesign

Last year was my first year in the Teacher Librarian position at Castle View High School. A librarian friend of mine told me before the year began "In your first year, make friends. In your second year, make changes." Through the last 15 months, our library team has worked diligently to create a library environment that suits our needs but, more importantly, supports the learning and community of our students and school.

In our first school year, we noted many issues with the layout of our library. One of our biggest issues was that the variable heights of seating and shelving made for poor visibility in the library. Additionally, the variable heights of table arrangements made it impossible to host a class all at one time in the library (where 30 students could sit and work, listen to a lesson, or participate in a seated activity at the same time). There weren't clear lines of sight and the layout was not conducive to a flexible-use space. Before we moved any furniture, we sketched out what we hoped the space could look like and sought out student input and feedback about how they prefer to use the library space.

We began by tallying where stuents sat in the library when they arrived. We mapped out the library space and marked where students sat in the library. This data collection gave us a sense of which specific seats and parts of the library were most popular and what types of seats and areas students avoided.

Below, you can see our sketch of the library layout. As students came into the library, we would tally where they sat -- noticing immediately that students tended to prefer the seats that were more private and independent, defaulting last to seats next to other students. We collected this data for several weeks to determine whether our impressions of where students like to sit were, in fact, accurate.

We then surveyed our students about what they wanted out of the library space. We had 100 students respond to the survey, a smaller sample size than we had hoped, but we got awesome feedback from students.

Some of the feedback we received included things like:

More seating options/spaces for studying and independent work
Moving seating away from the center of the library and onto the perimeter
Rearranging so that students can sit more privately and like they're not being watched
Bigger tables for large-group studying

As we began designing the new layout, we knew that we had no money to spend and had to use what we had. (The library received a makeover with new furniture in the last five years.) We partnered with our custodial staff to get hand-me-down library shelves from another school, but otherwise simply rearranged the furniture we already owned.

Based on student input and our professional opinions, we designed the new library layout with a few goals in mind:

Create flexible zones in the library -- one for quieter, more independent work, another for group studying and class visits
Provide more options for quiet, independent seating (put individual chairs throughout the space) for students who want to feel a sense of privacy (instead of having large rows of chairs all together)
Organize furniture by height so tables can easily be moved together for modular seating and sight-lines are easier throughout the library
Move the printers away from the front doors to provide less immediate noise as students enter the library
Group books/genres more intuitively by rearranging shelving so that there is a clear nonfiction section and fiction like-genres are closer to one another
Create a sign in/out station at the main entrance and a look-up station for independent browsing

As you'll see in my reflection and data below, our library is utilized regularly by the community, classes, and individual students. It's not uncommon for students and colleagues to come into the library and say "wow, it's magic in here" or "the library is incredible now." It's not uncommon to see a teacher hiding at a table during a plan period grading papers or an administrator taking care of emails or student meetings in the library. Our library recently hosted a meeting of Instructional Coaches throughout the district and one of the coaches (and a former Teacher Librarian) came up to me and said, "Gretchen, this place is awesome." We are the first place in the building open for students and the last student-oriented space to close at the end of the day. We have students waiting to come into the library each day at 7am and always tell students "Friends, the library closes at 3:30, we'll see you tomorrow" as we turn off the lights.

This anecdotal feedback solidifies that we accomplished our goal... now, our library is now one that is productive, welcoming, and full.

Library Before Redesign (2023-2024 school year)

This photo is a great example of some of the wasted space in the library last year. You can see that the red modular couches are in long rows (like an airport) and are nestled immediately next to the tall tables. Students who sat on the low couches would face the legs of students sitting at the bar-top tables. In the back corners near the windows, students would hide by sitting on the red couches away from eyesight. Additionally, because all of the tables were scrambled by height, it was a classroom management nightmare to host a class in the library because all of the students sat in different seats and at different heights.

Here, you can see the difficult sight-lines in the library. Behind the shelves and tall tables (in the back of this photo) are short, red chairs. It was impossible to see who was in the library because the shortest furniture was in the back. Students were also reluctant to browse these short shelves because they were so close to circulation and the walkway. The genres on these shelves were confusing becuase it was a blend of fiction and nonfiction. Students struggled to find science fiction up here (so far away from dystopian and fantasy) and biographies and memoirs (because they weren't with the rest of the nonfiction).

Library After Redesign (2024-2025 school year)

In this photo, you can see that we have a section of the library near the windows with all high-top tables. This space works as our flexible classroom and printing area. These tables are conducive to small and large group studying and hosts our morning tutoring sessions. This photo was taken from the back wall of the library and you can see how the library is zoned into tall, group study spaces and lower, independent spaces. Since we rearranged seating, we have had far fewer students try to move the furniture on their own because students can easily find a spot that fits their needs, be it a group study session or an independent time to read or work on homework.

Here, you can see the other half of the library that is much more independent with individual chairs spread out throughout the bookshelves and displays. There are little corners and nooks where students can sit independently. These chairs are some of the first to fill up each period, demonstrating their popularity among our students. By sitting near the books -- nestled in bookshelf areas and near displays -- increases the visability of our books and has possibly been a reason for our increased circulation this year! Students say that this side of the library feels more like a bookstore than a school library.

Meeting the needs of the CVHS School Community:

The CVHS Library is the heart of the school. Physically, we are in the center of the building, but we are a hub for so many building activities and academics.

We are accessible to students every day:

Before and after school (7:00-3:30)
During lunch (with a pass after eating lunch, only -- we are not a secondary lunch room)
During student off hours
During late-start mornings (7:00-8:10 on Tuesdays and Thursdays)
During Advisement/home room (a change as of October 21st, due to student and teacher feedback about students needing access to the library resources during Advisement)

We reserve space for conferences and back-to-school night. The PTO and various sports teams use our space for evening meetings. On an as-needed basis, our school Cultural Liaison and Gifted and Talented Coordinator host parent meetings in the library. Additionally, we host district-programming like the yearly Hearing and Vision screening. The meeting space in the library ("The Beach" conference room) is constantly used for district-meetings, administrator meetings, and teacher coaching sessions. The library is almost always booked and full. Knowing that our space is always on display and accessible to the community, I feel a huge need to make the space tidy, intuitive, and welcoming.

Our library team manages the various uses of the library using three Google Calendar reservation systems:

Printing Reservations
Tutoring Reservations
Space Reservation for class visits/book clubs/after-hours library use by community members

By creating more structure for the way that our school community uses the library's physical space, we've enabled me to be out in classrooms with more regularity as I co-plan, co-teach, and support student learning as the Teacher Librarian. The systems we've put in place have built capacity among our students and faculty to be independent users of our space. By laying out the terms of using the library and building in reservations, we've encouraged teachers to plan ahead and our team is able to be present in our library projects and working with individual students, rather than doing crowd control for classes that drop-in unexpectedly.

In this video, you can see our interview with the CVHS TV station (CVTV). Student journalists wanted to highlight some of the changes that we've made in the library space and we jumped at the opportunity to educate our student body about the "why" behind some of the changes they've seen happen in our library environment this year. (Video timestamp at 7 min)

Prioritizing Flexible & Adaptable Spaces

Multiple (Book Club) Meeting Spaces

The library hosts multiple student book clubs each month including The Book GALS (Girls Amplifying Literature) and a Spanish Reading Club for native Spanish speakers (or aspiring Spanish speakers) who read novels together in Spanish. We wanted to create a space in the library that could cater to independent seating during the day and easily be flipped into a communal space. Our tiered display is on wheels and can easily transform this seating area into a book club space that seats up to 20 students (featured in middle picture above). We are also able to move our tall tables together for lunch book clubs, as pictured above for our Spanish Reading Club. We always ask students where they'd like their groups and clubs to meet so that we can reserve a space that feels appropriate for their needs.

Moveable Shelving

& Displays

The blueprint of our library can be rearranged almost instantly due to our shelving and furniture on wheels. This three-tiered display easily moves to create a discussion space for a class or book club. Many of our display shelves are on casters and can be moved to open or close the library space to accommodate a presentation or class visit. Some of our book displays live on small, three-tiered book trucks that can be wheeled around the library as little bookshelf end-cap displays. The furniture really allows us to respond to the needs of our library space on a day-by-day basis.

Flexible Classroom Space

We created an "Appointment Scheduler" on our Library Google Calendar that allows teachers to plan ahead and reserve the classroom space and printing area for their entire class. Oftentimes, teachers want their entire class to print a paper or assignment. We only have two printers in the building available to students. Instead of having teachers send all of their students down at once for us to manage without teacher supervision, we now ask that teachers reserve a printing date on our calendar and come down with their students. It's allowed our team to work on other projects, book talk, and host other classes while another class shares the library space. This part of the library easily sits around 30 students at the same level. Already this fall, our library has hosted nearly 25 classes for library visits (printing, research time, book talks, etc.)

Flexible Speaker Space

Part of the library was designed to easily pivot into a "speaker space," where we could host guest speakers or panels when classes come to the library to watch a presentation. Many of the bookshelves on the "quiet" side of the library are on casters and all of our chairs are lightweight or on wheels. We can easily turn one entire half of the library into a lecture/presenter space for visiting authors, panels of educators, or student presenters.

Here, you can see a group of students watching a counseling presentation in the library (the presentation was presented on Zoom and projected on the screen).

This section of the library has already proven versitle as we can easily move between book clubs, meeting spaces, and speakers. Our library space has worked to meet the needs of our school and has affirmed the benefits of having furniture that is easily moveable.

Student-Driven Tech Support

Our tech department is not housed in the library, but most students come directly to the library seeking tech help. Our library team supports with internet access, Canvas troubleshooting, and general computer problems. However, the library staff is unable to fix a lot of tech problems, including resetting passwords, troubleshooting personal vs. school Google profiles, and locked devices. When students come in with computer problems that the library team cannot fix, we pass it along to the tech department. In a student body of 2,000 students, it became untenable for the library staff to fill out the form for students each time a student needed tech help.

We needed a place where students could fill out the IT Student Tech Support Google Form and our tech person wanted to be able to come into the library to follow up with students who waited around for help. We decided to set up a tech-help table in the library so that students and all of the involved adults can easily see -- visually -- who is in need of tech help.

Component B

Component B: Appealing Space

A highly effective teacher librarian creates a library space with décor, furniture and materials that are irresistible, foster curiosity and learning, and reflect students’ needs and interests.

Additional criteria that indicate an appealing space: shelves with ample “breathing room;” out-facing books and eye-catching displays; comfortable seating conducive to different types of learning; natural light (when possible); zones for quiet study and collaborative learning.

Independent Seating Nooks

Our 2023-2024 Library Survey results highlighted the need to both maintain seating for small groups and provide more independent, solo seating in the library. By rearranging our bookshelves, we were able to create little sitting nooks for seating, as well as provide individual seating around the perimeter of the library.

We have four of these gray chairs throughout the library. These independent seats are the first to fill up most days and are sprinkled all throughout the library.

Students are particularly drawn to this private nook in the nonfiction section with big windows to the main hallway, a neon sign that says "Read More Books," and a large snake plant.

Look Up Station

We wanted to empower students to look up and find their own books, especially to honor and recognize our more introverted and private students. The look up station is preset to our Destiny Catalog, as well as our SORA website. Students are able to write down the important information for their book (call number, genre, etc.) so that they can easily find their book without forgetting its information. Additionally, we reorganized our genre locations so that genres are located near their closely-related genres (science fiction is now near dystopian, and mystery is near horror now, as opposed to organizing the genres alphabetically).

Window Displays

We wanted to extend the library beyond the doors of our physical space and invite students in. We ordered acrylic shelves that suction to our windows and paint pens that allow us to draw on the windows. We rotate displays that face into the hallway like this one, in honor of last spring's Solar Eclipse.

Supply Cubbies

We want to empower our students to find and use the supplies and library materials they need without needing to ask for help. We repurposed a cubby from another part of the building to create a supply spot for students. Now, students are able to use materials like staplers, tape, scissors, colored pencils, and highlighters without asking the librarians. The cubby system is near a counter where students can easily work on projects.

Puzzles, Games, & Crafts

We keep a supply of puzzles, games, and crafts for students to use in the library. Here are some of our puzzlers. They work on a puzzle together each day. Based on their requests, we order new puzzles and types of activities for them to do together. Some of this money is written into our budget. We will continue to apply for grants to supplement this programming at our school.

Whimsy & Curiosity in the Library

We strive to make the library a place that fosters curiosity and intrigue. We look for fun, interesting ways to get students enaged with the space, books, and each other! Here are some of our recent additions to the library that have engaged students.

Call Me Ishmael Phone

This year, we rented an old fashioned payphone from the company "Call Me Ishmael." This phone is full of 1,000 book recommendations. Students can flip through the phone book, dial a 4-digit code, and listen to someone talk about their favorite book. It is an eye-catching part of our library and students and teachers love picking up the phone to hear a story. We will add our own voice recordings onto the phone this year so that our teachers and students can leave their own recommendations.

Book Recommendation Gum-Ball Machine

In the 2023-2024 school year, we purchased an old-fashioned gumball machine as a whimsical way to provide book recommendations. Students can bring quarters (or ask the library team for some). Each sphere contains a piece of candy and a book recommendation of a title in our library. Students are able to locate the book using the color of the paper (corresponding to a genre sign) and using the title and call number.

Live Plants

Plants are definitely part of my persona at CVHS. Throughout the years, students have gifted me plants because they know I love to garden. Most of those plants now live in the library. They warm up the space and make our library feel a little more comfortable and cared for. Our library has a full wall of windows to the outside and the students (and plants) benefit from the natural lighting.

Eye-Catching Displays

Taylor Swift Eras Display

Our library team strives to create engaging and eye-catching displays. One of our most successful displays was a Taylor Swift Eras Tour display. Our assistants selected books that match the tone and sentiment of each of Taylor Swift's albums and paired the book with a lyric from a song on the album. Our students couldn't keep their hands off of this display and it was a great example meeting students where they are with their interests and current topics. Currently, we also have a "So You Want to Read Colleen Hoover" display made specifically for our readers who want juicy, "mature" literature and provide alternative suggestions, as we cannot purchase Colleen Hoover due to district policies. We strive to meet students where they are as readers and people!

Built-In Genre Displays

Each genre in our genrefied library has built-in display space. Here, in Realistic Fiction, we have shelving at eye-level dedicated to new and popular books in the genre. These display spaces allow for visual space on the otherwise book-filled shelving and give us a chance to highlight some of our eye-catching, new books. These areas of the library have been a transitional space between "new book" displays and shelving new titles.

Santa Fe International Literary Festival Display

I was lucky enough to be sent to the Santa Fe International Literary Festival in the Spring of 2024. The festival was stacked with author talks from a plethora of relevant, contemporary, living authors. When we returned to school, I was able to display the books of these authors from our library, alongside the books that inspired them or that they recommended to young readers. I want to continue to model lifelong reading in our library, as well as the intertextuality of literature for our students.

Component C

Component C: Safe, Inclusive and Welcoming Space A highly effective teacher librarian collaborates with the school community to create a safe, inclusive and welcoming library environment that meets the needs of all users and reflects students’ identities, languages, and lived experiences.

Scan In/Out System (Safe)

This year, we wanted to collect data about how many students use our library space. We created a Google Sheet that scans student IDs and logs their name, the date, and the time that they enter and exit the library. This change has had a couple of great benefits:

We have a much better sense of how many students use our library throughout the day
During evacuations and emergency situations, we have a log that tells us who is in the library (also accessible by deans)
Asking students to sign in builds in accountability for attendance and encourages students to be in the library during off hours and not when they are supposed to be in class
We were able to learn the names of our students faster by having names to associate with their faces

While the scan in-out system isn't perfect and doesn't account for every single student who uses the space, this system has given us a much better sense of the role we play in the school.

As of October 1, our library has served nearly 4,000 individual students who come into the library without a class (many of these students repeat their visits and, therefore, are counted many times).

Spanish Language Collection Development (Inclusive)

In the 2023-2024 school year, we had a few native Spanish speaker students who wanted to check out books in Spanish from our library. Last year, our "Spanish Language" section in the library included only about a dozen titles. Currently, our Spanish section has nearly 150 titles in it. The books were shelved on a bottom shelf in a dark corner of the library. Our students were wanting to check out contemporary titles like Twilight, Percy Jackson, and titles by John Green. We believe all students can and should be readers, so we began planning a way to make the Spanish language more visible and accessible in our library.

Our team pursued funding in the form of an Acorn Grant from the Indigo Tree Foundation as they piloted their school grant program. We were lucky to be selected for a grant and received $5,000 to build our Spanish section in the library.

Our spending plan includes:

Purchasing novels for the library floor, with a focus on contemporary, YA popular titles that have been translated into Spanish
Purchasing at least two copies of the English Department "common" books in Spanish
- All grades of English read two of the same texts throughout the year. For example, right now all 9th graders are reading Turtles All the Way Down by John Green and all 10th graders are reading The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. We have purchased multiple copes of these mandatory books in Spanish to be a resource for students who might otherwise struggle to access the required content in their English classrooms. (Pictured on right)

After promoting these new titles with our students, Cultural Liaision, Spanish teachers, and English Language Development program, one of our Spanish teachers came to us asking if we would partner with her on building a Spanish Reading Club. We used part of our grant money to purchase 20 copies of Como Agua Para Chocolate for the club to read together this year. Next semester, they will select a new title and our library will purchase copies. This reading club meets in the library with their faculty advisor (Ms. Reyes) twice a month before school and during lunch. It is thrilling to hear conversations about literature happening in Spanish in our library.

Tutoring Program Revisioning (Welcoming)

Historically, the CVHS Library has hosted National Honors Society (NHS) tutors for drop-in tutoring after school.

After watching the drop-in tutoring model fail to be effective in the 2023-2024 school year, my team and I decided to partner with the NHS sponsors to redesign the tutoring model. Fewer than 10 students received tutoring the entirety of last school year. We witnessed how vulnerable it is for students to ask peers -- particularly strangers -- for help. We created a Google Form where students could schedule an appointment for tutoring. The tutoring request goes to the library team and we coordinate a specific tutor to meet with that student on their preferred date and time. The students receive personalized Google Calendar invites before the tutoring session.

We reserve tables for the tutoring sessions (pictured on left) and the library team introduces the students when they arrive for their session.

We've already seen huge success with this program. In the last six weeks of school, more than 50 students have received tutoring, many of whom come back for another session and request to work with their same tutor. This proves to us that students feel like they can ask for help, work with a trusted peer, and build a positive peer relationship. Some of our students have been able to receive tutoring in their native Spanish language, suggesting that lots of different types of students (including minority students) are finding academic support and belonging in the library.

Goals & next steps for our library environment

As we continue to respond to the various needs of the school and community, I hope to:

Add a BenQ or Promethean board (on a cart) to allow for flexible teaching and presentations in the library.
Invite more teachers into the space to hold conferences with students during the day. I'd love to see this space as a hub where students and teachers work and spend time throughout the day.
Bring back book recommendation cards for students to fill out and post next to favorite books throughout the library (like our local bookstores do).
Work out the kinks in the scan in-out system (ethernet connections, finding ways to ensure students scan in and out so I can have better data about how long students typically stay in the space). Right now, my data feels like it just counts the students who come in and out and I'd love to be able to drill down into what periods are most busy, how much time students spend in the library, etc.
Create library floor plan "archetypes" so that we can easily set up the library for different types of meetings (a blueprint that outlines what chairs get moved where for different types of library use)
Purchase more acrylic and standing signs to allow for easy "reservations" of different zones and tables
Build money into our library budget with administrative support to replace furniture as it is damaged or broken. Additionally, we hope to grow our book collection and will expand shelving, as needed.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if we can provide further evidence of our work on this HESTL component.

*Page last updated: Tuesday, February 11
*Credential Awarded: December 2024

Page updated

Report abuse