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I
t’s hard to not to be attracted to it. And that’s the idea. It
beckons and the children heed its call. There are no walls
and no partitions. The shelves, barely two meters tall, make
up a circular shape in an open area. Branches from the shelves
“grow” inwards. Overhead cascading light from solar windows
filters through. The library at Ain Aar preschool has taken cen-
ter stage – literally. Students are practically in it as soon as they
step out of class.
“It’s the center of education,” said Pascale Hitti, a teacher/li-
brarian at Ain Aar. “It’s the center of our school.”
Hitti (French section) and another teacher/ librarian, Nabila
Aramouni (English section), head the library.
The design is the brainchild of Rick Barter, head librarian
in 2000. The big empty central hall was, in essence, a waste of
space. The idea was simple: put up short shelves reachable to any
three to seven-year-olds. Arrange them in a circular shape and
fill them with relevant books. As the collection grew, so did the
library.
Adopting the Dewey system (and teaching it to children
through color coordination classification), today, the library
boasts
nearly 7,000 thousand titles.
Throughout the day, classes file in and out. Students seemed
know exactly what to do.
Strangers, in their precious library, are eyed with curiosity.
“Come,” said Nai Christi Abu Chahla, 5. “I’ll show you how to
check out a book.”
Taking a long arrow colored shaped plastic ruler from a box,
she carefully placed it between two books on the shelves.
“This is ‘snoopy’, “she said of the book marker. “You place it
behind the book that you want. Then you
take the book
and look at it. If you don’t like it you
put it back in
front of the snoopy and look for another book. See?”
As Nai wandered around the shelves thoughtfully, Alessandra
Gargour, 5, lovingly held out a book about rabbits. “We had two
rabbits at home,” she declared. “One didn’t eat enough and died.
And the other ate too much and died.”
She took out the ‘snoopy’ from the shelf. “I want this one,” she
said and took her selections to Hitti at the counter.
Meanwhile, Nai, has made her decision. “Come see what I do
now,” she said as she put the snoopy back in its box.
She took out the library cards from the two books, handed
them to Hitti who stamped them and sat down to sign her name
on each card – one in French and one in Arabic.
“Just tell me which card is the French one and which is the
Arabic one,” she whispered. “I can’t remember.”
The names completed, Nai took the cards and carefully placed
them in an envelope bearing her name.
“Now, I read quietly until my friends are finished then I go to
class,” she explained.
Hitti looked pleased.
“It’s a good feeling to see them understanding the system and
enjoying the books,” she said.
Since noise can be rather troublesome as children move in
and out of their classrooms, a special ‘quiet’ room nearby is des-
ignated for listening to story time.
“Our children really understand that through a library they
can learn a lot,” said Hitti. “They have so much respect for the
books as they’ve been coming here since the age of three. They
love to read. It’s amazing.”
The library at Ain Aar is located on the first floor of the preschool
building.
A loved library
IC Features