Mrs. Rebecca Delhi, Learning Resource Center assistant and LHS alumni, shared insight about her previous experience with LHS and described her goals about the LRC’s exciting new design features.

Mrs. Delhi graduated from Lemont High School in 2000, and this year she has come back to her high school roots. She is working as an LRC assistant to Mrs. Dawn Scuderi.

Delhi said, “My freshman year had A and B days instead of G and B days. There’s a lot more variety – no Chromebooks, Help Desk, robots or science and technology programs back in the 2000s.”

It seems that the most prevalent issue in the LRC is reading.

According to Delhi, today it seems that “Most students come into the LRC to study or print, a lot come in to pass through to the helpdesk. The Speech Team and NHS students meet here after school. We want to get more clubs to meet after school.”

The problem is most students don’t visit the LRC to check out books anymore, and that’s something that needs to change.

Delhi and Scuderi want students and teachers to feel free to use the space. They want students to use the databases and encyclopedias more; they want teachers to collaborate more to avail themselves and their peers of the LRC’s resources.

Delhi said, “Get the circulation out – read more. We want to start a student and teacher book club, a lot is based on the remodeling. We want it to be more than just a hang-out space and utilize it for clubs, studying and more activities.”

She also said, “We want students to check out more books. Some of the activities to get students more involved are: the Halloween display, a display for banned books, and ‘genre speed-dating’ with classes to find out student’s’ book interests.”

One way Delhi and Scuderi plan on improving the LRC to get more students to read and utilize the space academically is by reconstructing the design and atmosphere.

Mrs. Delhi and Mrs. Scuderi are in the processing of making plans for a future makerspace, changing seating, and remodeling to create a more colorful space. The different seating arrangements will help use the space more effectively, the future makerspace will have board games and a relaxing setting, and the white walls will be replaced with vibrant paints.

Scuderi said, “We would love to have service projects.”

These service projects would help out shelving books, making displays and circulating processing materials (checking books in/out, etc.). They would also assist in the re-design process.

Delhi said, “We want to start a gaming club, people seem to like the puzzle, maybe Dungeons and Dragons and board games for the Game Club. The makerspace will bring more programs things up in the air. They are waiting to see what the space would be.”