Research Reports

In a constantly information-saturated, technologically-mediated global world, a strong foundation for reading is essential for lifelong learning. At the same time, with widening income and educational gaps between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, there are concerns with how to better ensure equitable access to reading resources and opportunities.

Internationally and in Singapore, children from low-income homes tend to perform below their advantaged peers due to a combination of factors, including a lack of access to literacy-rich environments and role models. Community efforts to close the reading gap may include book gifting and weekly or holiday reading programmes. Within Singapore, one such initiative is MOLLY, a mobile library bus which serves various Singapore neighbourhoods.

The Designing School Libraries of the Future toolkit emerged from our desire to offer resources for schools working to improve their school libraries. The principles are informed by findings drawn from our studies, OER5/16 Building a Reading Culture Study (2016 to 2020) and DEV02/20 Designing School Libraries of the Future study (2020 to 2024), as well as informal consultations with schools.

With the toolkit, we hope to offer a resource to guide schools through the complicated business of refreshing their school library space, collection and programming to meet their school’s needs.

The toolkit is divided into three sections. While each section can be utilised independently, they work best as complementary resources.

To deal with societal, technological and educational changes, school libraries must continually evolve to meet these changing needs. We hope that this toolkit is helpful for you, whether you are embarking on a redesign journey or looking for a way to evaluate your school library for evidence-based change.