Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Facilities Project
Cara E. Humphries
Reese Road Leadership Academy (RRLA) is an elementary school that serves about 500 students
from kindergarten to fifth grade. All students visit the library weekly through a scheduled library time.
FACILITIES PROJECT 3
The school was built in the early 1990’s. The library has had few updates as far as shelving and tables are
concerned. The library walls have been painted a bright green to be more inviting and attractive to
students and teachers. The media center at RRLA has an office, two storage rooms, and an office for the
speech therapist to serve students in as well. One of the storage rooms is used for video production for
morning announcements. Since I’ve taken the role of the media specialist this year, I’ve cleaned that
space out so that it’s easier for students to use for recording of morning broadcasts. Currently there is
not a check-out station built into the library design, but is much needed in order to better serve
students that are checking in and out books. Since there isn’t a space for that right now, one of the
student tables is used as a space for checking out books and a small rolling desk is used for checking in
books.
The current set up in the library is not the best use of space conducive to learning. There are too
many shelving units scattered throughout the library and as a result, much of the space in the library is
wasted. The shelves are also very tall, which makes it hard for students to reach books. Because of this,
the entire shelf isn’t used, resulting in wasted shelf space. The area in the back of the library that has an
“L-Shaped” shelf needs to be removed in order to have a sitting area for reading.
Since the library was built several years ago, there is very few electrical outlets. There are a few
outlets in the floor and two areas that have outlets within the entire library. This hinders the use of
devices that need an electrical outlet. There is only certain areas in the library that would allow for
computer and SMART board connections. Our school has iPod carts, Chromebook carts, and a tablet
cart. These resources are not being fully utilized because they are housed in the office in order to stay
charged. If there were more outlets in the library itself, these devices would be used by students and
teachers more often. With the proposed library design, there would be room for 8 student computers.
FACILITIES PROJECT 4
The current set up in the library does allow for large and small group instruction. During large
group instruction, students sit on the rug in the front of the library, and the tables are used for small
group instruction. When students visit the library, they usually participate in library stations such as
Lego challenges, learning games on tablets or computers, robotics, or STEAM-related stations. The
tables that are currently in the library are very large and rectangular, limiting space for stations.
Purchasing smaller, round tables would allow for more student learning to take place. The round tables
would also be appropriate for adults during professional learning that takes place in the media center.
We have 8 beanbag chairs in the media center at this time, but with the new set up I would be able to
incorporate more flexible seating options for students. Allowing for flexible seating would meet the
I would also like to create a makerspace in the library that could be used by students that are
scheduled to come to the library or by teachers that sign up to allow their students to come. Currently I
have a Makerspace cart that has materials on it for students to use during stations. With the purchase of
rolling shelves, I would be able to implement makerspace and STEAM activities more efficiently.
I have made several changes to the arrangement of the collections in the media center at RRLA
this year. All of the non-fiction texts, including reference materials, are at the front of the library
arranged by Dewy Decimal System. The fiction picture books are arranged in the back of the library
along with fiction chapter books. The two are separated by shelves. With this set-up, students are able
to find books easily. With the proposed design, fiction and non-fiction books would still be separated.
The shelves near the circle area would be fiction and the shelves towards the back of the library would
References
Woolls, B., Weeks, A. C., & Coatney, S. (2014). The school library manager. (5th ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries
Unlimited.