The Abingdonian 2019

7 www.abingdon.org.uk Summer Term Micha lmas Term If we build it… the first year of Beech Court Library If we build it, they will come. That immortal phrase was uttered by precisely no-one involved in the creation of the new school library, yet it sums up a belief that underpinned the four years of research, imagination, planning, and construction that culminated in the opening of the Beech Court facility in September 2018. The aim was bold: a library which supported equally collaborative learning, private study and reading for pleasure, and that integrated mobile technology, digital resources and printed books. Now, a year on, belief has become reality. We built it, they came – and they are using it in line with our expectations. Responses to a survey sent out in the closing weeks of the 2019 Summer Term suggest that close to 85% of students are visiting the library regularly (at least twice a week), with a third making use of it “every day or almost every day”. The primary purpose of more than half of those visits is “to study with friends”. The survey results reflected what library staff have observed: for independent working, many students make the library their first port of call. While the new library has well over three times the seating capacity of its predecessor – 182 seats rather than 48 – it is certainly not too large. Many afternoons see most if not all seats filled. The substantial increase in use of the library has also translated into a substantial increase in book borrowing, which has risen more than 40% year- on-year. According to the survey results, the purpose of close to half of all visits includes “requesting or borrowing a book”. While the library is far more than a warehouse for books, and many library resources have moved online, the printed page remains critical to independent learning, so the rise in borrowing is a cause for further quiet