At the Luderitz Blue School, we believe that teaching a child to love reading is one of the best gifts you can give them. Reading has so many benefits for a child's developing brain - from improved concentration and vocabulary to cognitive and emotional development, deeper empathy and a better understanding of others. We dream of creating a school full of bookworms.
Earlier this year, we received a generous donation to help turn this dream into a reality by expanding our school library. We had already received a number of books donated by St. Georges, The British International School, Cologne, but we were running out of space and had nowhere to display them in a way that made it enticing for children to find and choose a new book.
We decided to bring in some expert help to work with Cynthia Nehemiah, the school’s librarian, to organize the books and make them searchable for library users. We were lucky enough to find Emil Lundkvist, who holds a master’s degree in library and information science and works as a librarian at Harrow Appi International School in Japan. Emil arrived for a three month volunteer placement at the end of July and immediately set to work.
Together Emil and Cynthia catalogued, classified and labelled all the existing work. The school's oldest students also helped with attaching spine labels. The library catalogue includes a lending system that is accessible to the public. If you would like to take look at the school catalogue, it is available here: https://www.librarycat.org/lib/TheReef
Emil not only carried out the more traditional librarian tasks such as classification. Together with the school's music teacher, Gernot Fritze, he also hand-built the interior of the school library. They planned, created and drew the design that makes use of the beautiful features of the room with high ceilings and large windows that let in plenty of light. And over the school holidays they set to work building the space.
Emil surveying his blank canvas
To make as many books as possible reachable and browsable for children, a loft has been built along one of the walls. The construction makes books accessible to everyone from floor to ceiling. The loft also has a counter which can be used to read and take notes.
The library has also been designed to be used for small events and performances. Audience members can sit on chairs on the floor but also stand on the loft and sit on the stairs that lead up to the loft. Under the loft, a "reading cave" has been created for the younger children.
The Library Team consisting of staff from the school and the Visiting Librarian also decided on the name for the Library: The Reef – Lüderitz Blue School Library. This name captures the marine theme of the school as well as bringing to mind a place of wonder, full of surprises and inviting to browse and explore.
We are enormously grateful to the sponsors of the library for making all this possible. This resource will have a significant impact on the development of literacy and creating a love of reading in the Luderitz Blue School and can also be used by the wider community.
We now have the library system, with a searchable online catalogue in place making interesting books available and accessible to our learners. However, there is still plenty of shelf space that needs to be filled with even more quality literature. So, if you have, or know someone who has books suitable for a school library that they would be willing to donate, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Books in place
Introducing the learners to the new space
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