Loh, Chin Ee

Students need to prepare for 21st century literacies and skills of collaboration, research and lifelong learning to be ready for future life and work, and the school library is often overlooked as a potential space for facilitation of future-ready learning. This case study examines through how Design Thinking can be used to understand the reading and learning needs of adolescent students in one secondary school in order to provide insights to improve their school library. Through the use of observational data, interviews and journey maps, the researchers track the reading and learning habits of two secondary school students. Specifically, the journey mapping process allowed the researchers to better understand the students’ reading and learning needs in terms of physical and technological requirements. The findings demonstrate the vital role technology plays in meeting the students’ learning needs through providing avenues for research and online collaboration. School libraries, supported with technology can position its relevance in the 21st century school such as setting up an online library system, positioning itself as a research library and by expanding its resources to meet the needs of the school.

School libraries around the world need to revitalise their spaces, collections and programming to continue to be relevant for teachers and students living and learning in an information-saturated technological global age. Efforts in the rethinking of library usage and design are most effective when they are contextualised and localised, based on user needs and country or school budgets. Design thinking is a useful approach for schools to understand the needs of their populations and design targeted improvements for their libraries’ specific users. This article explains how one secondary school collaborated with university researchers to use design thinking to re-envision the role and functions of its school library. The evidence collected through the process was integrated into the redesign of an improved library for the students. This article provides a model for evidence-driven school library improvement projects.