Designing a new school library focused on diversity

Caroline Gregory, Senior British Educational Consultant at Follett, explains the approach to building a library for students of more than 20 nationalities...

The Arcadia Preparatory School, an international primary school in Dubai, teaches the English National Curriculum and educates children of more than 20 nationalities ranging from ages 3-9. Upon inception in 2016, its principal, Graham Beale, knew its content needs would be vast to support the nationalities and languages of its students. Yet he saw this as an opportunity to create an ideal hub of learning by forming a cutting-edge library of technology and printed materials.

To make his vision a reality, Mr. Beale and his staff turned to Follett, as our company specialises in global educational content, technology and services for American International, British International and International Baccalaureate® schools worldwide.

In this specific case, the library needed to include diverse materials celebrating different cultures, nationalities and languages represented in the school to reflect the international community of Arcadia.

To help meet these objectives, I enlisted the help of our Curriculum Alignment services – a team of expert educators and consultants who work closely with a school to create curriculum parametre and then recommend the best resources to match the criteria – to come up with a collection that fit Arcadia’s needs. Once Mr. Beale and his staff reviewed and approved the recommendations, the Curriculum Alignment team assembled and delivered the selected resources quickly and efficiently.

The new collection included many non-fiction titles about countries from around the world to encourage the growth of intercultural skills among Arcadia's students. “We also focused on ensuring the Arabic area of the library was well stocked and that those books were available for use in our programs throughout the entire curriculum,” said Sanam Bozorgi, Arcadia’s school librarian.

Another service Arcadia relied upon was Follett’s Cataloguing and Processing services, which allowed Arcadia to receive shelf-ready books – saving a tremendous amount of time setting up the library. Books arrived tagged, barcoded and in Dewey Decimal order ready to be placed directly on the library's shelves.

In addition to being a space created from scratch, the new 21st-century library intends to infuse technology and make the space a hub of digital learning. Physically located in the centre of the school, the library showcases its array of diverse books, but also connects students to digital materials so they can access information, conduct research and create at any time using Destiny® Library Manager™.

“Every single child has their own iPad, and they love the process of using Destiny because it’s like they have the library at their fingertips,” says Ms. Bozorgi. This access has turned the library into the hub of the school. As that vortex, the library at Arcadia has become integral to students, teachers and the entire school community. “Teachers at Arcadia use the library to support their curriculum," said Ms. Bozorgi. “Parents attend workshops we host on how to use the library and learn online library skills, including learning about the Destiny system.”

With the help of Follett, the Arcadia library team also created a Makerspace, where students participate in collaborative spaces, get creative with do-it-yourself projects, invent new ones and share ideas to enhance their learning.

Mr. Beale’s vision of a library for Arcadia Preparatory School has surpassed expectations, and we at Follett were honored to be a part of it. Today, it is a bustling hub of activity that serves its students and teachers efficiently; it's a place of creativity and excitement where students are creating, not just consuming.

“Our community is multinational and multicultural, and we celebrate and love that. That is reflected in our library,” says Mr. Beale. “When you walk into our library, you will see it has a warm feeling. It is a welcoming feeling, and it celebrates our multinational globalism.”