Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal February 2005 Volume 3 (1)

School LRCs

A learning experience

At Govan High School in Glasgow Headteacher Iain White is remarkably enthusiastic about the Learning Resource Centre. Eighteen months after its opening Iain and the LRC Manager, Ian McCracken, answer questions about its development and how they have engaged the whole of the school with its aims.

Q. This article is a result of the presentation you made at a School Library Association in Scotland event - why did you go to the event and what were you trying to do?

Iain White: A number of reasons - to show that there are headteachers who are interested beyond paying lip service and are actually working together with their librarian. I realised that some people listening might find this unusual - but maybe gain some encouragement from it. It also appeared to me as a stimulating & challenging thing to do.

Ian McCracken: I thought we’d be able to show people how we got from an almost farcical refurbishment situation with such things as seven-foot high shelves, and the ‘wrong carpet’ to a forward-looking Learning Resource Centre. I also hoped that people would gain some insight from hearing, seeing and meeting a headteacher other than and (dare I say) possibly somewhat different from their own.

Q. According to the evaluation forms, people either ‘loved it or hated it’ - why do you think some people hated it?

IW: The approach and what was said were perhaps outside of some people’s ‘comfort zone’. If people disagreed with what we said it at least got people thinking, talking and maybe reassessing their own views.

IMcC: What we were trying to do was to challenge people to look at things differently. And I’m fairly certain we achieved that!

Q. Why ‘Learning Resource Centre’? Isn’t that just cosmetic rebranding?

IMcC: It was named both because we are a centre - and because we’re at the centre. We also wanted clearly to associate the idea of a centre with ‘learning’, and to recognise that the LRC had many different types of resources (including me!)

IW: But it’s also more than that - we wanted to enforce upon people the notion that everything, both physically and in terms of resources and services, was different - and that there was more of it.

IW/IMcC: We spent a lot of time thinking about rebranding & both believe it does have a value. To many people libraries equal books and we wanted to impart that we had more than that During an earlier survey about the ‘library’, one department (which will remain nameless) sent us back the reply: “we don’t use books”!

Q. How did you get your new ideas across to the Senior Management Team (SMT)?

IW: We set up a workshop for the SMT. We posed some challenging questions using common misconceptions concerning libraries in an effort to get them thinking differently. It’s an ongoing challenge to get people to appreciate everything that’s involved in setting up a learning resource. The members of the SMT were asked to consider implications and possible solutions.

IMcC: One example of the questions we posed: “A large group of pupils arrive in the LRC unexpectedly saying ‘we’ve been planning this project for a while and now the teacher needs all your books on shopping in Govan for the next bit of the project.’”

Implications being that the ‘planning’ did not include informing the LRC about the project (involving it); considering whether the books actually existed (they didn’t); or liaising over timetabling.

Q. How do you get departments thinking about the LRC and their subject?

IW: We had a very successful Open Day, with an excellent range of books, activities and tasks for staff to do. Although I knew it might have disadvantages as well as advantages, I made it a ‘three-line whip’. Since then, we have had positive one-to-one or group chats with individuals and departments about encouraging LRC liaison

IMcC: We want to change the way people have been doing things day-to-day, but - and this is much more challenging - we want to change the way people look at things. One of my colleagues says that teachers work on the ‘surely’ principle: “surely the LRC will have that book”; “surely pupils can find information about...”; whereas I want people to find out for themselves first, or get me to find out myself. I’m also more than happy to go into classroom - for example, to do a PowerPoint presentation - or to try something different. I also find outside contacts valuable in exchanging ideas and information.

Q. You had a long and ‘eventful’ refurbishment period. What did you learn from this

IW: It made us work even harder to achieve our objectives. There were more than a few people who thought it a priority to “get the books on the shelves”. The paradox is that if we had done that first, then we wouldn’t have been able to be as effective at creating a new, more impressive centre.

IMcC: It was certainly a stressful period, and I prefer to look back at the enthusiastic and supportive pupil helpers who did a sterling job in getting things back together. I would rather forget the surreal discussions I had with some officials about ludicrously high shelves, or whether a new carpet in the LRC with 300 boxes of books ready to be shelved sitting on it needed to be lifted and replaced with another (it did!).

Q. Your area doesn’t look very different from other libraries/learning resource centres - what do you think makes you special?

IW: Both as a centre and in terms of our LRC Manager, Ian, the LRC is involved not only in the day-to-day learning process, but also the future development of the school as a learning organisation. For example, we have a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) area for staff with a wide range of technology and resources - and of course Ian’s expertise. Obviously there is the conventional curriculum, but we have our own ‘Skills, Thrills & Fun’ programme for taking pupils beyond the curriculum.

IMcC: Things have been moving at a fast pace since we reopened in August. We are stretching pupils’ abilities, and giving them new skills. I get a great deal of satisfaction from seeing how some pupils have developed through some of the work we’ve done - the mentors who ended up running the show for our Primary Induction last year, for instance.

Q. How do you encourage people to think along the same lines as you about the LRC?

IW: We involve people on a day-to-day classroom basis as well as make them realise that the LRC is a long-term development. We invite people to the LRC to show them the potential benefits to them and their pupils.

IMcC: We don’t have a set plan; rather, we look for the best approaches. For example, to emphasise the links between the LRC and different subjects, we commissioned a number of posters from a talented designer.
www.alanrafferty.net/lrcposters.html.

We’ve found in practice that people come along with their own ideas. Even if these are not what we expected, in fact especially if they are not what we expected, we are very pleased to hear what they have to say.

Q. Have you any evidence to back up the popularity of the new centre?

IMcC: At the end of our first academic year with the new centre (June 04) I reviewed usage, which was diverse and widespread. The ‘tugs-of war’ that I have over the LRC timetable shows only too well how much we are in demand. We have also been keeping a register of Homework Club usage, and this has been on average 15-20 pupils per week.

IW: The LRC was not included in a recent local review of the school, which I was unhappy about. Once the revised Quality Indicators come out, Ian McC and some other staff are going to look at these and see whether we can use them - perhaps by carrying out a survey of pupils who are using a reflective practice model that we're developing.

Q. What stage do you think you are at now and what of the future?

IMcC: We’re already getting to the limit of what we can supply, but still facing increasing demand - both on the LRC itself and on my time. We’re having to make challenging decisions about competing (and equally valid) priorities.

IW: The LRC has created a spider’s web effect, with consequences ‘vibrating’ throughout the school. It has reinforced the school’s commitment to learning rather than teaching; and the ethos that learning doesn’t just happen in a formal, classroom situation. IS

You may contact Iain McCracken at:
IMcCracken@govanhigh.glasgow.sch.uk

Information Scotland Vol. 3 (1) February 2005

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