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.