Students returning to school after February Break were surprised to see that their library space had been completely transformed! The large desk had disappeared, and instead had been replaced with cosy reading nooks, new furniture, and a whole new color scheme.

LS Librarian Joanne Morris explained that the previous desk took up a huge amount of space, and felt like a divide between students and staff. “We felt like it separated us from students, and created a no-go ‘adult only’ area, which isn’t what we wanted—we all want to share this space together.” 

Parent Kelli Montanaro P ’21 ’24 offered her interior design expertise to help create the new space, and together the team decided to re-purpose the old cupboards behind the desk, and transform them into reading nooks for students. In a true team effort, LS art teacher Robert Davis offered his services to provide fantastic artwork for the backdrop in the nooks.

Students have now been introduced to new ‘self-service check-outs,’ enabling them to use laptops to check out their books instead of using the old library desk, leaving staff and volunteers more time and space to mingle and help students with their reading choices.

The library team are still working to develop the spaces in the rest of the library, however they’re thrilled with the positive reactions they have received so far from students, parents, faculty and staff. Joanne and Assistant Librarian Jillian O’Connor commented, “Not only do we want to extend thanks to Kelli and Robert for their creative input, but also a huge thanks to LS Principal Susan Young for providing us with the opportunities to make these changes, and to Director of Operations Jim Heynderickx and Facilities Manager Kevin Moffat for helping us get there!” 

Check out some before and after shots of this fantastic transformation: