Library as Gathering Place

If you hang out at Schauffler Library, you may know “the grotto.” It’s a study area in the library’s basement with multi-arched exposed brick walls painted white. You’ll find study carrels and computers to sit at and chairs that can tip back without falling over. It’s usually quiet in the grotto, but it needn’t be. No one will shush you if you talk.

If you want silence, head down the hall to the silent study space, sealed off from the rest of the library by a glass wall and door. That’s where Polly Chow ’09 goes on Monday and Thursday nights to study. She brings cookies and buys a soda and settles in.

This makes NMH Library Director Alison Ernst happy. “We want the library to be a vibrant hot spot, a place where kids come between classes to hang out.”

Ernst, the chair of the Independent School Section of the American Association of School Librarians, recently oversaw the posting of guidelines for librarians on the National Association of Independent Schools website. (Click here to see the guidelines.)

The cozy and inviting space to study falls under No. 7, in which a librarian “maintains a facility that is active, inviting, and conducive to student and faculty learning.”

Lucian Copeland ’11 is at the library “pretty much every weekday.” He found a little area right outside the silent study room that nobody ever uses. “It’s a good place to get last-minute homework done … and I don’t get in trouble if I talk.” Copeland sometimes brings a sandwich from the dining hall and specifies that he cleans up his own mess.

Ivy Santos ’10 and her friends meet in the information commons, the area with the large-screen computers on round tables. “I'm part of the south side info commons clan, aka 1up,” she says. “We all met here because we were attracted to the computer islands and formed an official gaming club.”

Summer Yang ’09 appreciates that the library staff members “know how to help me and remember my interests. They always reserve books, CDs, and movies they think I may like.” That would fall under guideline No. 2, a librarian “motivates and guides students to appreciate literature and reading.” Ernst says she’s on a “stealth mission,” to get kids to be lifelong library users, especially students who are beginners at using a library.

“How do you know what you need to know to find out how to begin a search?” Ernst summarizes the quandary for those unfamiliar with the latest research tools.

She and her staff model for students where to start, and how to discern good source material from not so good. Their LibGuides create a body of web and print material to search organized by subject for speakers, classes, and current events. Ah, No. 8, a librarian “utilizes a variety of interactive tools to provide services, information, and tutorials to the learning community.” It’s nice to know NMH “meets and exceeds the guidelines,” Ernst says. Check out the library blog for even more about the library and its collection.