Taking the First Steps to Fulfill a Vision
On our first day, we had a tour of the campus. Starting at the top of the hill, we made our way through pens of chickens alongside cows and sheep grazing. We walked through student dorms and the teacher’s living spaces. We popped into classrooms and teacher work spaces. We walked through an orchard, a field of maize, and a greenhouse packed with tomato plants. And then we entered the library.
We had seen the library in photos. One of us had even been here on her first visit a few years ago. But now we were in the space. But this was different. This was more.
As we entered the library, we had a vision to fulfill.
That vision was Dr. Teresa Wasonga’s. We had talked with her about the space. She wanted the library to be organized so that students could find what they wanted. It should be an appealing space to her students, not only in having a place to relax, but in having books they wanted to read. That transformed space would help grow the culture of reading they have at the school. And the students would take ownership of the space, shelving books, preparing new books for the shelves, and checking out books using a catalog.
As we entered the library, we had work to do.
That vision wasn’t being fulfilled, not yet. But we were there to help. Yes, many of those suitcases we brought were filled with books. But they were also filled with scanners and spine labels, book easels and barcodes, posters and puzzles. But all of those things could have been shipped to Jane Adeny Memorial School. We stood there too. We were another resource, our understanding of school library collections and space, our ability to ask the right questions and listen carefully for the answers, our communication skills to explain not only how the new library would work, but the why.
We had students to talk to, space to rethink, a collection to evaluate, a library management system to set up, books to process, and teaching to do. And we had less than three weeks to do it.
As we entered the library, we were ready.
Learn more about us and our journey at buildinglibraries.org