AASL Knowledge Quest published an article today: 6 Active Learning Spaces Your Library Should Have | Knowledge Quest.
Our media center has active spaces, large group spaces, group spaces, technology and a MakerSpace. The piece that is hard to balance with the busy media center is the “Quiet, solitary areas.”
Once upon a time, all of our libraries were pristinely quiet, intended solely for students to come in and read a book quietly. However, that paradigm has shifted, and many of our libraries are quite loud now.
Our quietest space is to the side of the entry of the media center. It has room for three or four tables. It is the space that we put testers: in our vision and away from the bustle group and instructional spaces. Because it’s by the door, students entering the media center can be a sudden distraction to the quiet(er) space. Today, as a young man was engrossed in his test, the graphic novel class came in to check out books— from the shelves just behind where he sat.
If I had won the lottery recently, I would have donated glass walls to create a glass study room like you may see in a college library.
Since the billion dollar lottery ticket did not fall in my lap, the big dreams will have to wait.
This article suggests the following:
Designating a quiet room.
We actually have spaces like this. We have a very small conference room that’s used sparingly. But, it’s not a space that I would put a testing student who’s teacher hopes we can monitor.
We have an video studio that we are establishing, also. But this is in the back of the media center and out of adult monitoring, too.
I am processing the ideas that they suggest such as a “cave” area or rearranging furniture.
How have you established a quiet zone in your library media center?