The story of the new COLAI library

My name is Miss Robinson and I am your new librarian, I arrived at COLAI on Monday 19th April and over the next 10 weeks I will be working hard to develop the library to ensure it meets the needs of the Academy community, so although this is my second week at COLAI it is week 1 of the new library development. I aim to keep you all updated as the library develops by putting regular updates on the website.

‘Reading area and space for group work’

In my first week I started to get-to-know the school community and systems and I talked to staff and students informally about their ideas for the library. I liaised with Academy staff to support co-ordination of the project and I started to write a wish list of things that I think we need to make the library successful, including books of course.

Some of the plans and lists I created this week included:

• A draft action plan
• A collection development policy which describes how the books will be selected and by which criteria
• An equipment wish list

‘space for non fiction and study books’

What makes a good library?

Is a room full of books enough to create a successful library or are there more elements to consider?

Here are a few of my ideas:

• Book displays to encourage you to read something different
• Clear and logical signs so you can locate the resource you want to use
• A complete electronic catalogue with consistent key words to help you search
• A library handbook so everyone knows how to use it properly
• E resources to help with your research and independent learning skills.
• A qualified librarian to help you find what you need.

‘the help desk and view’

Week 1. 26/04/2010

This week I visited the City Academy Hackney to meet the new librarian there, I asked her many questions including what she would do differently if she was starting all over again just so I didn’t make the same mistakes. I also created a budget planner for the library, investigated how much of a discount we can get from the book suppliers and put together a proposal stating how much I think we need to spend to create a fantastic library.

‘the empty desk which will soon be full of catalogues and books’

We now have 45 books in the library which didn’t cost a penny, 15 books were given to us for free from the Enjoying reading campaign and the rest were given to me as review books from different publishing companies.

‘Enjoying reading free books’

‘Miss Robinson’s free books from Publishers'

For the rest of the week I will be choosing books to ensure they fit into the Academy curriculum and on Friday I will spend the morning with a visitor where we will discuss the Accelerated reader scheme ‘Star reads’ and how we can get you all reading. To end the day on Friday we will be planning the security system for the library so that we can look after all the books that we will eventually have available.