BEC Update- The Layout

by Jordi Manchon

As the BEC Library expands and the collection grows, I was recently asked to make scaled
3D plans for additional shelving units, which will be placed in the Silent Study Room.

As I was pondering the infinite possibilities for the room, my mind wandered and
erred, and finally landed on the idea of cruel (and entertaining) layouts (as a side
note, not revealing of character). At that exact moment I knew… I knew what had
to be done.

I remembered the days when I would channel my anger and frustration on the
innocent, naïve and unobserving characters in SIMS. Yes. You are thinking what
I’m thinking.  Put a SIM in a room, then take out the door.

 A large grin appeared on my face.

You all must be wondering how I could relate the relentless torture of a fictional
character to the planning of the BEC library. But don’t worry. I had a plan. 

Swivel-shelves (a registered trademark).

I know... brilliant. We would have shelves lining the windows to block
the light, and two shelves leaning against the columns facing inward, one on each
side. The student enters the room and starts browsing our growing and meticulously chosen collection
including titles such as America Again, Re-Becoming the
Greatness We Never Weren’t by Stephen Colbert, to 1984 by George Orwell, or Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Truly, a collection that would quench the thirst of even the thirstiest of readers.

The student, in awe and wonder of what he sees, is distracted. The shelves
quickly swivel and enclose the student in what could only be called “the room of
knowledge” (or doom, haven’t made up my mind, plus it rhymes).

Sadly, the (dazzling, amazing and remarkable) idea never came to fruition.
I was told something along the line of “cruel”, “illegal” and “swivel-shelves
(registered trademark) don’t exist” (which they do since I just created them).

Alas, I was forced to come up with a “practical”, “useful” and “aesthetically
pleasing” layout. It was a boring task I admit, I think thinking of students as SIMS
is much more interesting. Dare to dream I guess.


To make the layout, I used a wonderful and free software called Floorplanner. It allowed me to create not only a plan in 3D, but to scale. I was commissioned layouts from Dr. Christoph Ott and from Mr. Kantz and Ms. Leonhard. I created those and in the process came up with a few myself. In the end we came to a compromise that pleased all parties involved. It has maximum shelving space, and conserves some of the computer desks. The plan is practical and aesthetically pleasing, to make the other members of the squad happy, but also has some “maze-like” attributes to make me happy.



You can see the plan here:

I hope you all enjoy the new layout, which will be implemented soon. Mrs. Leonhard, Mr. Kantz, fellow Coop Sidonie Ward, Mr.
Johnson, Dr. Christoph Ott and I worked hard to bring to you an
exciting new-and-improved BEC Library.

Accelerated Reader

by Sidonie Ward

If you have visited the Savoy Library recently you may have noticed that some of the fiction books have been marked with orange and red stickers. If you got close enough to the shelves you would have seen that each sticker is marked “AR” followed by a number. AR stands for Accelerated Reader, which is software used by teachers to assess and monitor reading practices of students. It is used to determine a student’s reading level in terms of an AR number, and then suggests books within that student’s ability. A student take a quiz once she has completed a book, which teachers can then use as indication of her progress. LAS Library has been working with ESL and English teachers to make it easy for students to find books within their reading levels, hence the attractive outbreak of red and orange spots among the books. The brightly coloured stickers provide not only a pleasant visual, but also an easy way to identify those books which have been assigned an AR number. Also, despite being touted as a tool for grades K-12, plenty of adult books have AR numbers to the benefit of older students, or even adults that have been assessed using this method.

The AR Finder provides the AR number and summary among other things. Currently, about 75% of our fiction books in Savoy have an AR number. LAS Library is hoping to rearrange the fiction section to further facilitate searching for appropriate books by grouping AR books together.

The Boxes: From Whence They Came

by Sidonie Ward

LAS Library has been fortunate to acquire the amazing contents of the now extinct American College of Switzerland’s [ACS] Library. Under the direction of Head Librarian Dwight Peck, pictured here, the ACS Library collection grew to more than 50 000 books, but when ACS changed ownership in 1991, the purchase of new books all but halted. The library books remained nearly untouched for two decades until they were finally pulled from the shelves and boxed, meticulously, by Mr. Kellett and crew when ACS closed its doors in 2009. These boxes were purchased by LAS and then crammed into closets or packed into classrooms, with just enough of a path for one to squeeze their way from one side of the room to the other, and promptly forgotten about. One classroom - visible from the road outside Savoy - can attest to this as it is no longer filled with desks, chairs, and neglected homework, but is now stuffed with boxes stacked floor to ceiling blocking the windows and a good part of the door.

LAS Library now has the daunting task of sorting through the thousands of books to select those that would be an asset to have in the LAS Library collection. This process involves carefully removing the boxes from their wobbly stacks, all the while trying not to think how long it would take for someone to realize you were gone if one of the stacks fell and you were crushed under a thousand pounds of books. Once life and limb has been risked removing the boxes from their dusty resting place they are lugged upstairs and put in the back room of the library. With a satisfying crack the boxes are opened, their contents exposed to the light for the first time in years. The title of each book is examined, followed by a quick scan of the summary. The book is then placed on the shelf for addition to the library shelves, put into a 'maybe' pile, or it is placed in the pile for recycling. Choosing which books are returned to the shelve is a difficult process. It is particularly difficult to throw books away because a certain value is attached to books, and one can’t help but wonder whether maybe someday someone will want to read Cellulite and You, even though the last time anyone borrowed it from the library it was 1988. Thus it is necessary to sort relentlessly through the boxes, disposing books with archaic scientific explanations, throwing out modern histories from 1969, and chucking out books on subjects already extensively represented in LAS Library.        

So far approximately 2000 books from the ACS collection have been added to the library, with thousands more in line. The added books are split between the Belle Epoque Library and the Savoy Library, depending on where they would be best suited. Each week students in Flex Periods carry books up to the library to be sorted, which has helped speed the process along. Even with student help it is estimated that it will take at least another year before the whole ACS collection has been sorted through.

Check out Mr. Peck's website, http://www.dpeck.info/leysin/acslib1.htm for more information on the ACS Library.