To Whom It May Concern: Over my time working in White Oak Middle School Media Center, I have come to understand

what does and does not work about our space. As we are expecting a large population increase for over the next couple of years, we are preparing to remodel the school. I and excited to give you some input as to the design of the renovated school library space. Our media center at White Oak Middle School currently has 17,952 items in its inventory. Approximately 16,700 of those items require shelf space, which is limited at the moment. We have one full-time media specialist and one full-time media assistant; neither have an appropriate work space to perform administrative duties. We have areas of the media center that are hidden, which is a problem for monitoring students. Also, while we technically have two instructional areas, their placement directly adjacent to one another is not conducive to using them both simultaneously, which limits our ability to accommodate classes. Briefly put, our needs are: increased storage and shelf space, private areas for staff to complete administrative tasks, line of sight, and separation of classroom and computer areas. Below is a rough diagram of our current space. I have used a scale where each box is 1.5 squared. The longest wall across the top of the diagram is 76 and the wall along the left is 52. This is our space currently:

One of the biggest problems that we have is visibility. With middle school students, this is quite a large problem as they are prone to mischief. We have a short hallway at our entrance. The hallway makes seeing across the space from our current circulation counter extremely difficult. Almost all of our entire non-fiction space is a blind spot because of these walls. Even with the windows through part of these walls, seeing is difficult. These walls must go. Also blocking lines of sight are large pillars throughout the room. If these are not structurally necessary, it would be beneficial for them to be removed as well. In addition to clearing sight lines, this would open up the space and allow for a more flexible layout. Right now (as you can see from the above diagram), the classroom area and computer lab area of the media center are crowded. With a growing population, it would be prudent to separate these two areas so that two classes of 25 to 30 students each could conceivably be held in our space at the same time. To give the circulation desk a better view of the media center itself, I would also like to move it to where our non-fiction section is currently (top. It would also allow for work space for both media specialist and assistant. Often, I need to meet with teachers, but as I have no private office, only a desk beside our circulation counter, it is difficult to talk about anything that could be considered confidential. Also, a work space for processing materials would be extremely helpful because we are currently using our circulation desk for these duties, which makes the media center look cluttered and disorganized and also causes distractions. I believe my thoughts of creating a small staff nook in that corner would solve these issues, allowing for greater privacy and more work space without sacrificing square footage. Below is my proposal for the new floor plan.

With this new floor plan, I would house fiction on the shelves on the bottom half of the diagram and non-fiction on the shelves on the top half. If I have estimated correctly, this would allow for more shelf space for both sections. It would also make fiction to be less dispersed, as well as keep fiction and non-fiction separated. To make more shelf space, our shelves will need to be resized. I feel that the shelves lining the walls can remain the height they are or become slightly higher. However, we will have many free standing shelves that I have labeled as short shelves in the floor plan of my thoughts. These shelves should not be as short as the ones that we currently, rather they should strike a balance between maximizing shelf space and maximizing visibility for everyone (including, at times, short students). They should also be easily movable so that we may reconfigure them as needed. Another thing that should be taken into account when designing our new space is instructional furniture. Our current furniture is oversized for our needs and space. Simply using tables that were meant for students and computer desks meant for computers would save on space. I would also like extra power outlets included where ever possible, not only to support our current computer area, but allow the classroom area to be converted to house computers or other technology as well. Intermittent floor outlets would be helpful to accommodate laptops and other devices throughout the space. I hope that my above ideas and suggestions are clear. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. I look forward to working with you.