As May is the Federation of Children’s Book Groups National Share a Story Month it seems like a good idea to think about where we can share stories. Classrooms are great for story sharing – whether to a whole class, or in smaller book corners – but don’t forget some cushions on the floor and colourful displays will add a sense of relaxation to the reading choices. As a Past Director of the School Library Association (SLA) you may not be surprised when I suggest that the school library is a great place for stories! But the issue is that some libraries may be formal, and thus not as comfortable as the story or the audience may demand. So, let’s take a look at a few things that might enhance a library for storytelling and reading for pleasure experiences.

At this point, just an aside, I shall refer to the library throughout – and by this, I mean whatever your school calls its book and resource collection be it book corner, learning resource centre, the hub, learning centre, the ihub, or any other name. It is difficult to say your library will have X, Y and Z as there is no ‘one size fits all’, every library will be different in just the same way as every school will be different – the library needs to serve the needs of its school and community.

To give you some ideas there are lots of pictures available on the web – either from library design companies, looking at libraries abroad, or from somewhere like the SLA – who have held a library design competition (latterly called the Inspiration Award) for quite a few years now. It’s great to see what other schools have done with their spaces – and schools are usually only too pleased to share their ideas with others. There is also a website entirely devoted to Library design – Designing Libraries – this covers all sorts of libraries but there is no reason why you can’t take ideas and adapt them to your own needs.

During my career I have been very lucky to travel abroad for various library events – and have enjoyed seeing other countries interpretations in their libraries. I love the Scandinavian idea that the library – be it school or public – is like an extension to your home sitting room, with comfortable chairs, soft lighting, nooks and crannies, in which to sit and read and even have quiet music on to help. You might want to adopt a similar idea.

Lighting makes a huge difference too. Institutional lighting can be rather unforgiving – a book corner under windows echoes the writing desks of monks illuminating manuscripts before the days of effective lighting! Directional lights are great for reading – making sure you can focus the light just on your book, or use differing light intensities around a room – all make different impacts as you settle down to read.

Whatever your own school’s arrangements don’t think ‘that’s impossible here’ – with a bit of creativity I am sure it will be possible to have a great little space for storytelling and pleasure reading. Plus, it need not cost a great deal of money, many of the simple ideas above have been created on a shoestring!