This year Campo has elaborate, expensive refurbishment plans for the library. The funding will be provided by MEF and district funds. The design is being created by librarian Liz Herring, featuring student collaborative areas with Samsung Frame TVs to display student art and other famous artworks. She also hopes teachers who have art integrated in their curriculum, such as AP Euro and AP Art History, will bring their classes to show and discuss artworks.
There will be pull-out tables with chairs and two lounge areas with couches that “have tablet arms [that the students can work on],” according to Herring. The goal with the renovation is to provide a much needed “modernization” in an area often neglected by students.
Herring also plans to take down the large shelves in the nonfiction section. “The goal is to completely renovate the nonfiction wall…Getting rid of all those big tall shelves and making that more collaborative space, and a more accessible space for students,” she said.
Meanwhile, nonfiction books that are no longer checked out due to the rise of technological resources will be donated to a charity working to build libraries in Kenya. The donation is a way to utilize Campo’s privilege in a way that benefits more than just our community. It will help provide less fortunate people with resources they deserve.
Library Media Technician Lisa Triggas added, “we might be moving towards a reservation system where we’re going to…have organized groups coming in especially during lunch time to work collaboratively and not just hang out in the library.”
This project is projected to take two to three years and is something Alvarez believes is “a pressing issue because if you’ve ever gone to the library before school, after school during lunch, or during Academy, it is a space that a lot of students gather at and there have been times we have had to turn students away because there’s not enough capacity to have them in there.”
While plans for the library may create some reservations, Alvarez said, “‘I…find the library to be one of our most endearing buildings on campus. It’s a kind of an architectural masterpiece. And I think it needs to come into the 21st century with us in some ways, but in no way, shape or form, would we ever change the structure or the beauty of our library. I…think that we can make it a space…more students can enjoy.’”
More information on this refurbishment will come as the funding is more specifically worked out amongst administrative staff.
