Determining the True Problems

I wrote a survey, asking my staff the following questions:

• What is one addition you would like to see made to the library?  It could be a physical change, added technology, resources, furniture or something else.

• What is one thing you would like removed from or changed about the library?  It could be scheduling, a physical item such as lighting, or something else.

• Would you bring your students to the Library for collaboration if more ADST "Big Ideas" and "Core Competencies" were present, offered and accessible?  Designing Activities such as Ideating, Brainstorming, Designing and Building?

• How could the library better contribute to meeting the requirements of the designing, making and building aspects of the ADST curriculum.

From the survey results, I gleaned three trends:

3 Trends from the Staff Survey:

1)  Purchase a wider selection of non-fiction books.

2)  Highlight “New Books” to the library and inform classroom teachers.

3)  Provide more programs to understand the ADST Curriculum.

After reading the article “How to Identify and Reframe Design Problems in Your Library Space” https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/identify-reframe-design-problems-library-space/, I reframed the three trends as follows:

3 Reframed Trends from Staff Survey:

1)  Purge the “out-of-date” non-fiction books and complete

     a mass purchase of current non-fiction resources.

2)  Create a “New Books to the School Library” section and email a list to

     staff

3)  Provide ADST “nutshell” packages for each grade level and offer

     Grade-Group “Lunch and Learn” sessions to co-plan and collaborate

on activities to “uncover” the ADST Curriculum.

Of the three trends, I chose the one physical “Design Challenge” of creating a display of “new books”.

Final “Design Challenge” Statement:

Create a “New Books to the School Library” section/display and email a list of new books to staff.

This may sound simple enough, but my library is currently the “home” for a lot of large number of “space-taking” items that don’t belong there.  Our school is undergoing a renovation and a whole new wing will be open this Fall.  Therefore, extra furniture such three large couches, a laptop cart, an iPad cart, and an immovable power pole are cramping up the space. 

I don’t have a practical or spare corner and there is not enough room for another table, on which to display the books.  However, I do have three bookshelves in mind for this project.  When put in a back-to-back triangular configuration, they have a footprint that is not too big.  They could hold enough books to display a large order of new books, which is how they usually arrive.  Similar to these:

https://bit.ly/2xQ8p0g

I have a “Cricut” machine at home, which I will put to good use in making professional and eye-catching and professional looking signs such as “NEW BOOKS” etc.  Check out the Pinterest board I created with these sign ideas:

https://www.pinterest.ca/chriscathyrosa/library-signs/

Cathy

Works cited:

Rendina, Diana. “How to Identify and Reframe Problems in Your Library Space”. American Association of School Librarians, April 27, 2016.

https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/identify-reframe-design-problems-library-space/