You're an awesome Librarian! But does the world know it?

 Part Two: Move Around

Designing or re-arranging library spaces calls for an understanding of the students' varying needs and demands - both individually and as a group.

We generally arrange books class number wise as per the Dewey Decimal Classification. Well, I am not asking anyone to change this! But there may be a few changes here and there, might add that extra flavour to our library.

Re-arranging furniture is a good idea but not always feasible. Colouring the library with vibrant and extravagant colours is another option, although it will bite into our budget.

Here are some of the things that we have been doing in our library:

• Re-arrange existing tables periodically, thanks to our huge space. Amusing as it may seem, but we display all our red colour books in our show-cases in the month of February (Valentine's Day = Love for Books)
• Faculty publications such as books are sometimes arranged on the Display Rack and at other times on a table which says - " I bet you know them".
• Many of you would know that B.E. students (Final Year of Engineering) need to submit a project report as part of their degree course. we request respective departments to share with us the "Top Three Best Projects" every year. We then compile these with abstracts and keep them on the table saying "Best Project Reports" with the group photo of the students, if possible. Students actually flock to see their seniors projects.
• If library wall space is limited, then convert the back side of that periodical rack into a lovely wall journal. May be you can utilize this space for:
• 1) Feedback about library
• 2) Novel Idea for library
• 3) A Quote (Quotations) Wall

Nowadays, people live a very busy life. We do not have time to read the book reviews available on Amazon or GoodReads. We go by the number of star ratings. Taking this forward, the story book shelf (novels and classics) which are mostly read can be grouped together on a centre table in the library and displayed with a 5-star rating. If you are a creative nerd, you can have short one-liners from these books embedded into bubbles or cut-outs which can be easily pinned to the books using cloth-pins.

With libraries becoming a hub of all activities, there are few more ways to redesign our libraries. Some of them are:

• Coloured Zones incorporated with IT facilities
• Makerspaces having 3D printing facilities
• Interview Cubicles: These may be considered as very useful for students who have to appear for online interviews as part of their recruitments but do not have the added advantage of high bandwidth.
• Research Space: An area recognized specially for research scholars which includes a Desktop / Laptop space, charging points, baggage area etc....can be likened to a personal space in the library.
• Idea Space: An area to discuss the feasibility of a project in a group, basically for brainstorming.

Cite as: 

Bhange, C., 2021. You're An Awesome Librarian! But Does The World Know It?. [online] Innovating Libraries. Available at: <https://chinmayeebhange.blogspot.com/2021/01/youre-awesome-librarian-but-does-world.html> 

You're an awesome Librarian! But does the world know it?

 PART 1: SOME TYPICAL INSTANCES AND WAYS TO RE-CONNECT

(Image Source: https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2019/03/bad-libraries-build-collections-good.html)

No.	INSTANCES YOU MIGHT RELATE TO	WAYS TO RE-CONNECT
1	Manual User Register at Entry Points	Jump start to Online! a)   Connect with the ERP of your Institute b)  Simplest way is to ask all users to enter their Roll No. in excel and maintain a date-wise sheet. c)    Alternatively, install biometric machines.
2	Two Library cards for two books	Do not restrict to only two books! We have so many books in the library. And even if we do not have sufficient number of study books, no worries. Re-shelve all your story books and biographies. Let the users have the feeling and trust that they can derive maximum benefit from the library.
3	Extra books to Toppers	It’s a common rule everywhere that toppers are given extra books as a token of appreciation. I feel, the students who have not been able to make it to success are in actual need of books to study harder. Why deprive them of their library? Work it out with your management and library committee. I am sure students will bless us with all their heart.
4	No Library Card = No books	ID card = Library books If you have a bar-coded ID card, do away with library cards.
5	Periodicals cannot be issued	Display magazines with trendy topics at the counter. Let students flip through them. Dedicate one day in a week, preferably Friday, to issue Periodicals.
6	Donations of old books not allowed	Accept book donations with a smiling face. We segregate these books as under: a)   Rare books b)  Children and Young Fiction c)    Little Free Library d)  Reading Inspiration Day Event Our library members are actually waiting for the event of “Take Away of Books” on Reading Inspiration Day. And this has become a habit!
7	Library does not know about students’ projects	Magazines such as Electronics For You, Open Source For You have many Do-It-Yourself sections. Compile the projects and make a list. Share it in Google Classroom of your Library and on the blog.
8	No one comes to the library to read periodicals	a)   Now this is something where you need to invest your time and expertise. b)  Select a few periodicals which have trending topics or ask faculties to suggest a few topics. c)    Make a gist of two articles from these selected periodicals. d)  Give a nice catchy title to your service and introduce it your users. Let your users have two mails from the library every week.
9	Library Orientation	Re-design and Rename the traditional library orientation to “Information Literacy Hour”. Take the freshers around the library in small batches and tell them what they would like to know most – books and internet access. To start with, show them story books section as most new students are not aware of their syllabus content.
10	Writing Quotes on Whiteboard	This is gateway to the library! So try playing with different options such as: a)   Today In History b)  Today in Science c)    Today is National ----- Day You may get to know more about this from Google Doodle which is dedicated to each day.

Cite as: 

Bhange, C., 2021. You're An Awesome Librarian! But Does The World Know It?. [online] Innovating Libraries. Available at: <https://chinmayeebhange.blogspot.com/2021/01/youre-awesome-librarian-but-does-world.html>