It is 11.15 a.m., break at the Lion-Feuchtwanger-Gymnasium in Milbertshofen. You meet few people in the corridors of the school. But then, on the left, a glass door with a poster with portraits of around 30 children and adolescents attached to it. “The library team” is written above it in red letters.
You open the door and suddenly there they are, the students. A line of just under a dozen young people stands in front of a desk, each with a book in hand. Sitting behind the table are two girls whose faces you could already see on the poster on the front door. They eagerly receive the books, read them into the computer and then hand them over again. To the right of the table is a shelf with the books that have just won the German Youth Literature Prize. Directly behind it a rotating stand with funny paperbacks and manga comics.
If you turn right into an area separated from the counter by bookshelves, you will find young people lounging on colorful beanbags, some with a book, others without. Two girls giggle in the corner. A cluster of boys is sitting around a small table with a chess board on it. “Hey dude, it’s your turn!” This school library – it seems like a lot more than a place to borrow books. It is a meeting place.
A popular pastime: lounging on the beanbag chairs and reading.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
“Some come here, they actually don’t read at all,” says library manager Heidrun Thiel. “But they like to pick up the books. And I hope to make them read.” The 51-year-old says she loves working here at the school – precisely because there are also many children and young people who have no contact with books at home. If these girls and boys start to leaf through the Guinness Book of Records or take a funny paperback out of the rotating stand, then Heidrun Thiel is especially happy. Because from the funny paperback to the books of the youth literature award it is sometimes not as far as you might think.
The queue in front of the desk is clearing, the young people have packed their books. You can keep them for three weeks, an extension is possible.
During the break, there is a long line to check out.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
Heidrun Thiel now has a little time to report on her work. Together with a team of schoolchildren and two teachers, the Germanist, who previously worked as a publisher’s lecturer, manages this second largest library at a municipal grammar school in Munich. 22,000 media are available – mainly books, but also magazines, CDs and DVDs. Soon it will also be possible to borrow eBooks.
The offer includes a classic children’s and youth library with around 1300 titles, as well as specialist books for the individual school subjects and literature in various languages. Heidrun Thiel maintains the inventory, adds new items, sorts out old items and digitizes the catalog. She has set up handsets for the upper school students, where the young adults can find literature for their seminar papers. In addition, the library manager organizes readings at the school together with teachers or visits authoring events with pupils such as the Munich Book Show.
Library manager Heidrun Thiel is happy when she brings pupils to read who do not come into contact with books at home.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
“This library is a godsend,” says Heidrun Thiel. She actually means the library as a place of work, but this statement also applies to the pupils. Because a library in the school, and one so large and well-equipped with its own librarian, that is anything but a matter of course. In Munich there are school libraries at all 14 municipal high schools and at the municipal Willy Brandt Comprehensive School. As for the state schools, the grammar schools as well as the elementary, middle, special and secondary schools, there are no statistics.
Many school libraries have to do without trained staff
“The establishment and design of the school libraries is the responsibility of the school,” explains Daniel Otto from the Bavarian Ministry of Culture. For this reason, no statement can be made about the exact number and equipment of school libraries in Bavaria.
It is often committed teachers or parents who initiate a small library in their children’s school. “Unfortunately there are many school libraries that have to be operated without trained staff,” says Irina Schiller-Mehling, school librarian specialist advisor at the State Department for Public Libraries in Munich. “As a rule, a teacher is responsible as a contact person who coordinates a team of volunteers made up of parents and students.” There are many individual solutions, says Schiller-Mehling: “Unfortunately, there is no binding framework with appropriate funding that would ensure professional work.”
As far as primary and secondary schools in Munich are concerned, there is, however, another, special model. For these schools, the Munich City Library has been acting as the “school library” for more than 40 years based on an agreement with the Department for Education and Sport. To the extent that teachers can request media packages on certain topics or books in class sets from the so-called school librarianship.
The district libraries also offer numerous concepts to familiarize schoolchildren with the use of a library. Not to forget the six book buses that serve around 90 primary schools in the city every two weeks. After a pandemic-related break, the book buses should finally start rolling again next week, as the head of the school librarianship, Sabine Schumann, explains.
Bringing books to the children – that’s also what drives Heidrun Thiel. The library manager always organizes a library tour with all fifth grades at the start of the school year. Here she explains how to use your computer to find the location of the book you are looking for. With the result that even the lowest classes are very interested in becoming part of their team.
Sonya loves books and prefers to spend her breaks in the library.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
“I wanted to take part last year, but there was no place,” reports 13-year-old Sonya. She loves working with the books, coordinating the loan. “I’ve always enjoyed reading,” says the girl who prefers to spend her breaks in the library. The same is true of the twelve-year-old Quang. “I have my peace and quiet here and can escape the hustle and bustle,” he says.
The fact that the library has also become a place of retreat – that is primarily thanks to Heidrun Thiel. With her calm, level-headed manner, the library manager has become a trustworthy person for many pupils. “I don’t judge the youngsters,” she says. Therefore, she can treat them differently than a teacher. “Some just come to talk.”