CAPE ELIZABETH – Guided by input from students and staff, the Cape Elizabeth Middle School library debuts a fresh look this fall when it comes back to life as the library and learning commons.

“Almost all of our design ideas have come from students,” said Amanda Kozaka, library and instructional technology specialist. “We were working on budgeting for the renovations and trying to pick out shelves. Kids were naturally curious so we would pull them in and ask them for advice. In our roles, we are constantly interacting with students.”

The library staff had decided, after several years of observing how students learn in the facility, that it was time to renovate. With a $28,000 grant received last year from the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation, work began to transform the outdated facility into a more student-centered, flexible learning space for students following the so-called “learning commons” model. Renovations this summer include painted walls, new carpet and tile flooring, more comfortable and mobile workstations, as well as space-saving shelving and a new audio and visual presentation system.

According to the library’s grant proposal, the library staff sought input from the community for the renovation project, and some of the suggestions included comfortable seats, student art displays, a reading nook and a “genius bar,” which is also referred to as a technology support station.

Students in Laura Ellis’ fifth-grade math class engaged in a project that required them to take measurements of the library space and to create “blueprints” to be considered as part of the renovations. Students also helped to choose a font for the new learning commons signs, and one student, Lila Gaudrault, designed a new logo.

“It was an amazing experience for (the students), and we got a lot of ideas being able to see the space from the perspective of a student,” Kozaka said.

“It had a real-life value to it,” Ellis said of the math project. “They took their math skills and applied it to a real-life situation. They were very excited about doing it.”

Lily Tower, a student at Cape Elizabeth Middle School who participated in the project, said the old library “was kind of outdated and needed a new look. It was crowded. There were too many tables and chairs next to each other.”

Aside from seeing her friends, Tower was looking forward to seeing the new learning commons when she returned to school.

“A new style will make more people want to come (to the library),” she said.

“It needed a lift,” her mother, Lisa Tower, said of the library.

Kozaka said that the books and other reading material would be grouped together by “related themes” instead of being organized alphabetically, which will help readers find the titles they are looking for and help them navigate the space more easily.

For example, she said, the sports fiction books would be located next to the sports non-fiction books.

According to Kozaka, the new learning commons, which was still being reconfigured last week, is expected to officially reopen in mid-September.

A library grand reopening is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 16 and 18 during the open houses at the school from 6-7:30 p.m.

A week or two before school ended in June, the library closed so staff could start renovating and reorganizing the space, Kozaka said.

“For the last several years, we have made observations in the middle school about the kind of work that students are doing and the kind of creative processes they go through,” said Kozaka, when asked what sparked the idea for renovating the library. Middle school staff determined from those observations that students’ “work is very focused on working in a group, collaborating and expressing themselves in different ways,” Kozaka said.

Until this summer, the middle school didn’t have a designated space that served multiple functions simultaneously, she said. For example, the new learning commons will allow students to film a high-quality video for a class in a recording and production studio, while at the same time, provide a comfortable, quiet place for students to read and do research.

“This is a huge shift,” said Kozaka.

A few years ago, library staff read an article in the School Library Journal that got them thinking about adopting the learning-commons model.

Kozaka’s and Werner’s job description has also changed to include technology, which Kozaka said was another step toward improving the library’s operations.

“We are also the tech specialists of the school, so we needed a place that houses and shares books, but also a place where kids come to learn about using an iPad or to film a video or work on a group slide show,” said Kozaka.

She added that evolving into the learning commons “reflects the kinds of activities that get students motivated and interested, and involved in school.”

As part of the renovations, bookshelves are being wall-mounted around the library; classroom space is being expanded; the library will have quieter, brightly lit study areas; and new furniture will provide for more comfortable seating, said Kozaka.

Before, classroom space, which included a projection and presentation area, was located toward one end of the library, while rows of tall bookshelves were located on another end.

“The open area of the library has been largely cleared of the tall imposing bookshelves and replaced with mobile desks and chairs and mobile shelves, and there is a new audio-visual presentation space,” she said.

Groups in the community outside of the school will be able to use the new library and learning commons as a space to hold meetings and presentations, she said.

A model for collaboration

The learning-commons model also encourages collaborative teaching and learning, said Kozaka.

It’s not that the students needed to change their learning habits, said Kozaka, but that the library had to redevelop its existing space to accommodate 21st-century learning.

Jonathan Werner, another library and instructional technology specialist at the middle school, said as part of the upgrades, the space has not been physically expanded. The main renovations included new carpet and tile flooring with a “CE” emblem (which stands for Cape Elizabeth), freshly painted walls, and wall-mounted bookshelves.

An old storage space will be renovated into a staff work area, said Kozaka, and the circulation desk will be moved front and center to provide for better supervision of the students.

“The bigger picture that we’ve been trying to reflect is that the more libraries stay the same the more obsolete they become,” Werner said.

Last week, library staff spent time unpacking boxes, and said they were anticipating the last shipment of the new furniture to be delivered within a couple weeks.

“Students will be in there as soon as school is open; we just won’t officially, be completely done” with renovations, Kozaka said.

Transforming the library into a learning commons, according to the library staff, will help the school realize its vision of an innovative, open-access, student-centered learning space.

Mike Tracy, assistant principal at the middle school, said the school is “immensely grateful” for the generous support of the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation and its confidence in “innovation and a shift in philosophy and the way we do things in terms of libraries merging with media.”

“There is financial support, but also, we see it much as a vote of confidence in the work of our library instructional technology support staff,” said Tracy.

“They’ve put a substantial amount of support into our ability to do this philosophical shift,” he said of the Cape Elizabeth Education Foundation.

He added that the learning-commons model of merging technology and informational literacy is “built around a 21st century view of learning, finding information and collaborating.”

The new library and learning commons, “will be the real learning hub of the school,” he said.

Jonathan Werner, a library and instructional technology specialist at the middle school in Cape Elizabeth, stocks the wall-mounted shelves inside the library and learning commons. New tile flooring, which includes an emblem representing Cape Elizabeth, was installed as part of the library and learning commons renovations at the Cape Elizabeth Middle School.  Along with a new layout, the Cape Elizabeth Middle School’s library and learning commons also has a new logo, created by fifth-grade student Lila Gaudrault. The logo design received the most votes by staff during a school-wide logo contest last school year.