Another visit to a very nice high school library! And again – it was so fun to see all the neat things here! (Is it just that CMLE libraries are cool? Probably.)

I loved seeing this feature right away – libraries hosting book groups are not only clearly fulfilling their mission to promote books, but are also are doing the important work of connecting with their users! Making those connections, providing programming people want to enjoy in the library – those user-centered ideas are the foundation of any good library.

Check out this cool computer lab! Although more schools are moving toward a 1 to 1 Chromebook/laptop program, reducing the need for labs, there are still good teaching programs to be done in a lab, in addition to other important uses, and providing this in a library is a great resource! (Plus, look how nicely organized this is; maybe it’s the librarian in me, but this makes me happy to see.)

I love these long views over the library! You can see how far-ranging the resources are here, and how many neat things there are available for students in this library. It’s a good perspective to have! Here we are looking out over the fiction collection.

And in this one we are looking at some of the nonfiction collection. I love these shelves!! They provide such a nice line of sight, they give students an easy place to rest their books or notebooks while browsing, and they just look good. (Yes, as always, it was hard to not grab all the books – and I did indeed pick up a few!)

The library was closed for the day when I visited, so it was easy to grab photos of the spacious seating area! I love these comfortable seats, and the cafe-style seating looks like it would be so fun to enjoy.

You can see how busy this library gets, with all these nice tables and chairs! This is an important part of the work of a library – providing places for your patrons to gather. And when you are working with students, providing this kind of space to do group work is a key part of the service you can do to connect with the needs of your patrons!

And I loved this feature! Bethany is setting up a variation on the Little Free Library idea, and providing books here for patrons to take and read, and then to return – but outside the bounds of regular circulation. This would be great for patrons who have stacked up library fines, but still need access to a few titles for their work!

What else could your library do to reach out to patrons in new ways? Libraries need to look for ways to say “YES!” to our community members – not to live down to our stereotype of being fussy over rules!  Innovations are just great!

Have we been to your library yet?? Save us the time in tracking you down, and send us a day or two that will be good for your schedule to have us dropping in for 30-ish minutes!