Idsall School

In this week’s Princh Library Blog post, we are going to cover the transformation of the Idsall School Library. The school was ‘made to empower young people to explore literature, expand their horizons and improve literacy‘, but their ‘cluttered’ and ‘outdated’ interior prevented staff from achieving this. Read on to see how the school transformed its library, and the results they saw from it!

This article was originally posted on the WF Education Group’s website. You can find the original article here.

The story of Idsall School

Idsall School approached WF Education as they were in need of a complete library re-vamp. Describing their old library as ‘cluttered, ‘dingy’ and ‘outdated’, they wanted a new modern style. They also felt like their space was not utilised to its full potential.

When surveyed, some students said they liked to visit the library, but a large percentage said they didn’t ever visit the library, with some stating it was because it was boring. We set out to work with Idsall to change this perception.

Students at Idsall range from year 7 to year 13, and our aim was that after the new installation, they would want to visit the library more often and enjoy the resources it had to offer. We created an open space with clear dedicated areas to meet different needs.

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Using the Everna™ library system, we designed a library that is exciting, comfortable and welcoming to both students and staff.

We wanted to ensure this space met a variety of needs such as:

• Independent study
• Reading for pleasure
• Playing board games
• Socialising
• Playing games on the internet
• Group and collaborative study

Idsall needed this project completed before students returned from the Summer holidays. Our expert installation team completed the work in 5 working days.

The results

As the students returned from the summer holidays they were stunned by the transformation.

A student commented, ‘I was honestly amazed, I knew they were making a new library but I didn’t expect it to be this much better.’

Vicky, Idsall’s LRC Manager, said the old library was not a very welcoming environment and noticed the students weren’t using the library facilities very often.

‘The old library had been here for 20 years plus, it was old and crowded and not the best environment to study in.’

Since the term started she said she has already noticed an increase in visitors. She said students are eager to come in and see the changes and tend to hang around more to study, use the computers and read.

‘Wow, I love it’, was her first impression.

Vicky also said the new library was a much nicer working environment, not only for the students but for herself too.

‘The library has been transformed from old, dark and crowded to lovely and bright and open – it’s also wonderful to see the kids using it on a daily basis.’

– Vicky, Idsall LRC Manager

We will be back next week with another interesting article from the library world!

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