With large lounging stairs, soft couches and chairs, iPad and laptop work stations and private rooms, Stevenson High School students will be returning to school with a library that resembles the kind seen on a college campus, not a suburban high school.
Actually, it’s not even called a library. Stevenson’s former library is now the Information and Learning Center. Head librarian Lisa Dettling said dropping the name was all part of moving the library into the 21st Century.
“We’re in the business of information, and information is more than just books,” she said.
The former library was what Dettling called a “typical 20th Century library” with work tables, lots of books and desktop computers wherever they could squeeze them in.
Students had stronger words for it.
“It was dark and dingy and icky,” said Cassandra Masters, a student who was working to unload boxes as the librarians set up.
The new library is brighter and more welcoming, she said.
The space has, in fact, been opened up. Walls were taken and bookshelves have been reduced as the library shed about 15,000 of its 45,000 volumes, replacing outdated material with online resources.
(PHOTOS: Stevenson sets up new library.)
“I must have had my hands on every book in this library,” Dettling said of her experience checking through books to determine if they were still necessary.
There are more comfortable spaces for students to lounge and stairs that were built by cutting a hole through the floor down to the learning center where students could sit with friends. The school is looking for a painter to create a mural in the white space facing the stairs.
In one room, students can take their laptops, and hook them up to two large television screens and share screens with fellow students. The students can also sign up for private rooms online or using a registry system outside each of the rooms’ doors.
Students can also check out 30 laptops and 70 iPads with keyboards to work during free periods or after school. The library will be open later to accommodate students taking the 6:30 p.m. bus. During finals week, Dettling expects the place to be humming.
But with the online resources, the library is now open 24/7, she said.
“That’s where the library is changing,” she said. “It’s information when you need it, not when somebody says you can have it.”
The library will be nearly ready Aug. 22 when freshmen hit the hallways, and completely ready by the time school starts the next day. Library staff will be making videos to orient students to the new area.
“Every day is a new adventure,” she said. “It’s nice to see it come together a little at a time.”
