MODERN LIBRARIES FOR PCSTITCH FULL
The school also has a full coverage wireless network and all students have personal devices, but rather than having common areas used as library space, Auburn wanted their library to be a large, multi-use space. The decision at the recently opened Auburn Middle School was much different. The media center will be about the size of two classrooms to hold the book collection, so that in the future the space could be repurposed as classrooms, if needed. With these more dispersed facilities, the size of the central media center could be reduced.
The thinking at Mountview was that each student would have their own laptop, and that common areas throughout the school could be equipped as “internet cafés” with movable carts of books and a school-wide wireless network. LPA has been involved in a number of library design projects recently, including numerous public school projects, the Shrewsbury Public Library, and academic libraries like the Gordon Library at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Dinand Library at the College of the Holy Cross.Īt Mountview Middle School in Holden, which is slated to open later this year, the administration wanted to take a unique approach to the design of the media center/library facilities. School, public and academic libraries are all being transformed and serving their respective communities in some new and different ways. Changes in technology have impacted how libraries are used, but library circulation and visits have not seen major declines in recent years. Many predicted that the growth of the internet and e-readers would create an accompanying decline in the use of libraries, but so far this has not proven to be the case.