IASL's Reviews of Professional Materials

Dubber, Geoff and Kathy Lemaire. Visionary Spaces: Designing & Planning a Secondary School Library (SLA Guidelines Plus). Swindon (UK): The School Library Association, 2007. 62pp.
ISBN: 978-1-903446-38-6 UKP 12.00 (SLA members UKP 9.00).

If your jurisdiction is beginning to refurbish or rebuild your school, where do you begin your thinking in order to influence the place and design of the library in the new structure? What are the things that you think about in the ‘new library thinking’? This volume is an invaluable planning guide. It starts with the basic premise of why a library, and moves on to the kinds of spaces that need to be considered, and for what purpose. The writing is clear and concise. The suggestions are practical and based on sound principles.

Three case studies provide a variety of approaches and designs. The sketches and illustrations are valuable to encourage one to imagine how things might evolve.

Appendices are important here. “A Refurbishment Project” is an enlightened way to look at problems, and consider alternative solutions. The list of suppliers will be useful in UK contexts. Some may well have offices in other countries too.

Lemaire and Dubber are to be highly commended for the quality of this publication. It is a valuable contribution to the "Further Reading” that teacher-librarians need to undertake in order to provide quality consultation and effective leadership with their administration when any re-modeling or refurbishment is undertaken.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Reviewed by Gerald R. Brown, Consultant, School Library & Information Services, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

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Last updated 18 March 2009 (KSB)