Learning Commons Episode 8: Designing the School Library as a Garden

SUMMARY: To explore learning and change, the idea of the school library as a formal garden is cultivated. A model floor plan that is adaptable by many school library spaces is presented, designed to apply models of inquiry and the concept of the learning commons.


What's in a Name?

Many in the school library profession have agonized over the name we should give to the space we work in: school library, information centre, school library information centre, library media centre, resource centre, or just plain library. The belief is that the name should reflect all that happens in the space and the person making it happen— teacher-librarian, library media specialist, school librarian etc.

I am not too worried any more about such terms but more interested in how the space/vocation nurtures  learning and change. As I continue to use this blog to plant the ideas of models of inquiry and the learning commons developed in Together for Learning (OSLA, 2009), I want to cultivate the idea of the school library as garden and the school librarian as gardener.

The Formal Garden

Chahar Bagh Islamic Garden Garden Design

Now bear with me. Here's my fanciful argument. In (re)designing a school library space, we need a model that is both traditional and innovative. One that is organic, dynamic, and wholistic. We could consider one of the oldest organizing maps: the formal garden. 

A formal garden was specially designed to highten the pleasure and instruction of all who walked in and around her.

The visitor could:

Hillwood Gardens, Washington D.C.

• get to know and distinguish new and familiar objects
• understand the principle used to organize things 
• reflect in a setting conducive to private experience 
• converse socially with others about a common experience
• relate one area  to another for greater understanding
• remember what had been experienced
• appreciate and sensually experience beautiful surroundings 

An education indeed! And if you think about it, these are all qualities we would hope for in our school libraries.

For all the above reasons and a few others, the library as garden is more than just a metaphor. I am not saying we should move earth and fountains into our school libraries (though a few more flowers wouldn't hurt).

The School Library as a Formal Garden

A Formal Plan for the School Library

So let's consider planning a school library, elementary or secondary, as a kind of horticultural learning commons that

• organizes knowledge for meaningful activity and talk
• develops private reflection and social learning through story, inquiry, and conversation
• supports a  model of inquiry and its many features and phases
• allows for rearrangement to meet new challenges

All this within an interior space where form follows and suggests function.

I have chosen a typical layout, often found in elementary schools, to map this library garden: two classrooms knocked together. If my idea works at all, a good test would be if it could work with such a commonly found, if unassuming, architecture. Your own library space may be grander, differently shaped, or better appointed. For instance, my template's entrances, exits, workrooms, and seminar rooms may not match your layout. All the better challenge to see if this design works for you.

Notes on the Design

1. Storytelling, reading, and conversation are all central to the design. The design accommodates a strong storybook program in elementary libraries, as well as a dramatic book talk approach in middle and secondary libraries. Even the process of inquiry might be considered a variation on the telling of stories. On the other hand, a story could lead more naturally to an inquiry activity in the surrounding spaces.
2. The four quadrants reflect the inquiry process outlined in Together for Learning. The design encourages you to walk the talk as it were, just as you walk a labyrinth to experience the mystery at the centre.
3. One area is related to  all other areas within a wholistic context of knowledge and experience. There are epistemological implications here that run deep in the practice of librarianship. 
4. The furniture arrangement in each different areas seeks to reflect the diverse activity in that area. For instance, group work and individual work may look different in each area. I have stuck to low tech options for a start. You may have other ideas depending on experience and budget. 
5. Computers as such are minimalized only because I believe such devices as tablets and PDAs will provide greater flexibility, portability, and social connection, in line with current student practice outside the library/garden.
6. Book shelving is somewhat problematic but the idea is that low shelves encourage space and vision, tall shelves allow for traditional collections (for the present). Imagine different uses for low shelves (e.g., storybooks, reference, media, and displays of student work). Putting castors on low shelves increases flexibility for the whole room, suddenly opening up some areas while defying others.
7. Monitoring meaningful learning behaviour is relatively easy in a formal space such as this, with good sight lines and traffic patterns.
8. The ubiquitous whiteboard is more a metaphor for inquiry-based activity than a preferred technology. Note that it is a common feature in each of the four quadrants.
9. I have imagined the window light shining in particularly on the first and last stage of inquiry and the story centre. I like the symmetry of inspiration here.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoy talking about this idea and forwarding thoughts and variations. Feel free to borrow this idea formally or change it to suit your needs. As Juliet said in Romeo and Juliet:

      What's in a name? that which we call a rose

      By any other name would smell as sweet.