To Whom It May Concern: Over my time working at White Oak Middle School Media Center, I have come to understand

what does and does not work about our space. As we are expecting a large population increase for over the next couple of years, we would lie to remodel the media center to better accommodate students learning, and I am excited to give you some input. Our media center at White Oak Middle School currently has 17,952 items in its inventory. Approximately 16,700 of those items require shelf space, which is limited at the moment. We have one full-time media specialist and one full-time media assistant; though neither have appropriate work space. We have areas of the media center that are hidden, which is a problem for monitoring students. Also, while we technically have two instructional areas, their placement is conducive to using them both. Briefly put, our needs are: storage and shelf space, private areas for staff to work in, line of sight, and separation of classroom and computer areas. Below is a rough diagram of our current space. Ive used a scale where each box is 1.5 feet squared. The longest wall across the top of the diagram is 76 and the wall along the left is 52. This is what our space currently looks like:

One of the biggest problems that we have is seeing all of our space. We have a kind of hallway at our entrance. The hallway makes seeing across the space from our current circulation counter extremely difficult. Almost all of our entire non-fiction space is a blind spot because of these walls. With middle school students, this is quite a large problem. Even with the windows through part of these walls, seeing is difficult. I definitely feel these walls should go. Also blocking line of sight are large pillars throughout the room. If these are not structurally necessary, it would be beneficial for them to be removed as well. In addition to clearing sight lines, this would open up the space and allow for a new layout. Right now (as you can see from my above diagram), the classroom area and computer lab area of the media center are right on top of each other. With a growing population, it would be prudent to separate these two areas so that two classes of 25 to 30 students could conceivably be held in our space at the same time. I would also like to move the circulation desk to where our nonfiction section is currently (top right corner of the above diagram). This would give the circulation desk a better view of the media center itself. It would also allow for work space for both media specialist and assistant. Often, I need to meet with teachers, but as I have no private office, only a desk beside our circulation counter, it is difficult to talk about anything that could be considered confidential. Also, a work space for processing materials would be extremely helpful. I believe my thoughts of creating a little staff nook in that corner would solve these issues, allowing for greater privacy and more work space without sacrificing square footage. Below is my proposal for the new floor plan.

With this new floor plan, I would house fiction on the shelves on the bottom half of the diagram and non-fiction on the shelves on the top half. If I have measured decently, this would allow for more shelf space for both sections. It would also fiction to be less spread around, as well as keep friction and non-fiction separated from each other. To facilitate more shelf space, our shelves will need to resized.. I feel that the shelves lining walls can continue to be the height they are or slightly higher. However, we will have many free standing shelves that I have labeled as short shelves in the floor plan of my thoughts. These shelves should not be as short as the ones labeled short shelves in the current floor plan diagram, rather they should strike a balance between maximizing shelf space and allowing for people (including, at times, short students) to see over. Another thing that I feel need to be taken into account when designing our new space is instructional furniture. Our current furniture is oversized for our needs and space. Simply using tables that were meant for students and computer desks meant for computers would save on space. I would also like extra power outlets included where ever possible, not only to support our current computer area, but allow the classroom area to be converted to house computers or other technology as well. Intermittent floor outlets would be helpful. I hope that my above ideas and suggestions are clear. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. I look forward to working with you.