Physical space
OPening Bellaire High School LIbrary (2022-Present)
Bellaire High School library had been closed since 2020, due to the world wide pandemic, and a school renovation. During this time the previous librarian retired, and the school did not rehire until 2022. Kaitlyn Carpenter took on the challenge of bringing library services back to the Bellaire community as we ramped into opening the new library space. Below you will see images and infographics that show you the timeline and project management it took to re-open a library that serves 3,200 students.
Since reopening the Bellaire High School Library, The Library averaged 300 student visits a day. The library circulation has increased by nearly 164% this school year, from 5,510 in10 months (2022-2023 school year) increased to 4,521 in only the first 5 months of 2023-2024 school year.
Transformation of Dulles HS Physical Space (2019-2022)
Kaitlyn Carpenter took on the challenge to update a space that had not been weeded or renovated since 1998.
My goal was to bring my school community a library that they could be proud of while not impacting the library budget. I wanted to think outside the box to reimagine the library space: from the furniture, programming, signage, and policies to reflect our diverse population.
Library- Pronouns Welcome.pdf
These pictures show the DHS Library in the summer of 2019 as Ms. Carpenter started working on the space. The library collection had 19k in the physical collection with the average age of 2001.
Over three years (including a world wide pandemic), the Library transformed from a dark unwelcoming space to a light and reinvigorated space for all students and staff.
This change happened through several stages:
Changing layout of furniture (not including shelving)
Secured short cantilever double faced shelving from another district Librarian after massive weeding project.
Weeded nonfiction section of the library by about 7k volumes and improved average age of nonfiction section by about 5 years.
Shifted collection to make room for the breakdown of tall island shelving and replacement with the short cantilever shelving.
Secured New Lighting for the library using Bond funds (FBISD 2018) installed March 2020
Worked on weeding and Genre-fying the Fiction section into 5 major sublocations: Realistic Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Thriller, and Science Fiction
Secured Tall cantilever shelving from another district librarian
Secured 5k Grant from Fort Bend Education foundation to create a Board Game Cafe including a self serve coffee bar (Spring/Summer 2021)
Coordinated with Maintenance, custodial staff, and administration for the installation of the cantilever shelving (Spring/Summer 2021)
Purchased Materials and created policy & procedures for the Board Game Cafe
These pictures show the DHS Library in the spring 2022 as Ms. Carpenter during the Library Lock in (see programming page for more details). The library collection had 12k in the physical collection with the average age of 2008.
