Coombabah State High School

Out of the ashes: Coombabah State High School Library

Scott Dickinson, Coombabah State High School, Head of Resources, 2002.

In August of 2000 our library at Coombabah State High School was destroyed by fire. The resources within the building were totally lost and the building itself was left a gutted shell that was demolished a few days later. All we were able to salvage was the contents of two filing cabinets and enough bits and pieces to fill two wheelie bins. A collection that had taken fifteen years to build was lost in fifteen minutes.

As devastating as the fire was, in one sense we were lucky. The fact that the devastation was so complete meant rebuilding the library from scratch and we were promised that the architects would consult closely with us. From the despair came an exciting, almost unique prospect: if we could design our own library, what did we want?

We had an established school, we knew our staff and students, we had a very significant lump sum to replace our collection and we had the opportunity to rethink all our past practices. What should a library do? What services should it provide? What role does it play within the school? How much should it rely on online resources? How large should the print collection be? These are the kinds of questions good librarians ask themselves all the time, but suddenly they became very real for us and they needed answers!

At the same time we were attempting to resolve these questions for ourselves, we faced decisions regarding the layout of the building. We quickly realised how physical structures govern activity. Walls define spaces and as soon as you define a space you are in effect defining an activity that will occur within it. This seems self-evident but defining activity in a library and building a space to accommodate it is fraught with pitfalls. Fifteen years ago when our first library was built, who could have foreseen the rise of the Internet?

Most of the layout decisions were taken at the school level and input was provided to the architects by library staff, the Principal and Registrar. We received some input from staff but virtually none from the broader community. In retrospect, I find it difficult to explain our failure to consult more widely or substantively. Such consultation, had it occurred, would need to have been early. Partly our failure may have been because of the sheer complexity of the planning. Beyond an initial design stage, once the logistics of construction and outfitting began, numerous people from the state government became involved and the library grew from an abstract exercise to a detailed building project and less subject to impulsive change. Whilst there were compromises and constraints as the project proceeded, I am confident the final outcome was ours.

The library we now have is not a ‘radical’ building and it provides most of the same functions expected of any school library. It has computers (30), books and classrooms. Much of the thought behind it would not be evident to an observer walking through the door but there are some departures from what I suppose is the norm. The core piece of thinking is reflected in its official title: Information Services. The first idea to be rejected was that the building was going to be a Resource Centre. This carries with it, as far as I am concerned, the connotation that the building is a repository for things. That was definitely not our main purpose. Early on, the Principal suggested the name “Information Centre.” I very much liked the concept of ‘Information’ – that is, after all, the value of a resource – but I became increasingly uncomfortable with the notion of a ‘Centre’. Can information even have a centre? Our focus is how we can support staff and students with the information and help they need. It is what we can offer all students, whether they are OP bound, needing help with technology to complete assignments, looking for a vocation or just needing help with life beyond their studies. The kind of information school students need is growing ever more diverse and complex.

To meet this need, we instigated the biggest single departure from our old library by accommodating not just the teacher-librarian and library aides but as well a range of support staff with specialist skills. One section of the building houses a suite of offices with its own entrance and is serviced by a reception area. Here students can find the Industry Liaison Officer, Guidance Officer, School Nurse and ATSIC Aide. These staff were previously scattered across our campus but bringing them together has made them less isolated, increased the sharing of information and resources and made them more accessible to students. Also located in the new building are the Curriculum Network Co-ordinator and the IT Support teacher whose job is to help students and teachers with integrating IT into the curriculum. The other member of staff located in the building is the Middle School Co-ordinator who is responsible for a range of middle school initiatives involving selected classes and teachers across a number of subject areas.

Housing so many support staff helps us be an integral part of planning and curriculum development within the school. This perception is enhanced with the location in the building of a Multi-Conference room. This room is the venue for professional development, departmental planning sessions, Management meetings, Team meetings, P&C meetings, Student Executive meetings, and the list goes on.

The Multi-Conference room is the first of four rooms which together run the length of one side of the library. Each of these rooms is connected by soundproof partitions which can be folded back to join rooms or create a single large space if needed. Such was the case recently when the school’s Interact club held its annual dinner for fifty people in this area. The middle two rooms are furnished as classrooms and the fourth is designated as a filming/viewing space but all the furniture, including desks, is stackable to facilitate the rooms being used for a variety of purposes. My feeling was that if the rooms are flexible, if the walls no longer delineated spaces, then they must inevitably be put to more and better uses now and into the future.

We did, of course, have to create areas with a specific purpose in mind. One such was a small multimedia room. One piece of future guessing I did indulge was the potential for multimedia to become a more mainstream activity. In the same way that over the last ten years computers have found their way from the IT department out across the curriculum, so it is envisaged that video and multimedia will do the same.

To a large extent whether or not this happens will depend on the kind of support we are able to offer both students and those trailblazing teachers who will provide them with the opportunity.

The lengthy and complex job of constructing and furnishing the Information Services building is largely complete. But setting up systems, nailing down all the software, installing all the hardware, educating users and of course purchasing adequate resources is far from complete and to these tasks I can see no end in sight. As every teacher-librarian knows, libraries are dynamic things which are constantly evolving. Our facility is no different from most. The print collection will be smaller. I would like it to house fewer ‘resources’ – let them be located throughout the school where they will best be used. If individual departments request satellite collections then they will be developed. Our foyer is designated as an art space. I have told the Art department that I want our building to be a gallery and a celebration of our students’ creativity. I want our building to be the venue for dinners. I want our building to have as many uses as people can find for it. If this happens then it doesn’t matter if our original ideas survive. Frankly it doesn’t matter if we are called Information Services or not. In common parlance we are still ‘the library’ and it is a term I happily use every day.

Last updated July 2002