A love of learning comes naturally in our library, where students are surrounded by soothing, nature-inspired colors and Wisconsin woodland and water features.

From Reading Forest to Makerspace, the recently renovated Gaenslen Library – completed in spring 2023 as the Barb Campbell Media and Technology Center  – invites every student to (re)connect to literature, nature, and creativity.

Library Collection

The Gaenslen Library and its multimedia collection support a robust library program based on three goals:

• Provide information and literacy instruction that is curriculum-based.
• Maintain a high quality collection of print, digital, and technology resources that supports the educational objectives of the entire school community.
• Create an atmosphere that encourages learning, investigation, making, and a personal passion for reading.

Thanks to the library’s new design, selecting the right book to take home – from more than 17,000 titles – is easier than ever. Students who are vision impaired can choose from a wide selection of audio, Braille and large-print books, and tactile materials. The library’s dynamic shelving gives all students easy access to titles that are arranged by topic the way they are in bookstores for easy browsing and borrowing.

“With the books displayed this way, the children are seeing things they didn’t see before,” explains Susan Plewa, the library media specialist at Gaenslen School.

A full-time certified library media specialist, Plewa collaborates with Gaenslen teachers and designs lessons that introduce students to a wide range of reading materials and learning strategies.

Library Creativity

Eppstein Uhen Architects incorporated suggestions from Gaenslen staff and students for a library that caters to diverse learning styles, different abilities, and welcomes all. There is something for every body/brain thanks to the library’s five breakout spaces, each one designed to provide teachable moments that help library visitors make connections between Indigenous Ecological Knowledge of the Great Lakes and Gaenslen’s own neighborhood along the Milwaukee River.

• Great Lakes Corner: Architects and representatives of Wisconsin First Nations integrated birchwood, freshwater features, and other aspects of Indigenous cultures into this serene space. Readers can set sail in a birchwood boat crafted by Gaenslen students, using a large relief map of our region to navigate journeys of the mind.
• Library Lounge: Students requested a flexible and fun space to sprawl, study, and recharge their busy brains. Architects answered with the popular Library Lounge.
• Makerspace: Repurposed and recycled materials, a Lego wall, guided lessons, and free play have a home here. Students learn to experiment, build, code, design, engineer, and work with others in the Makerspace.
• Reading Forest: The forest’s ten-foot model maple tree is the perfect place to read about animals, nature, and how humans live, work, and play outdoors. Artist Marina Miller designed the tree and surrounding wildlife murals.
• Storyteller Circle: Readers regroup and relax on wooden benches carved from local trees and set under a lighted ceiling feature that resembles the changing night sky.

The Gaenslen Library Story

The completely renovated library is the result of six years of planning, plus contributions from James Patterson School Library Grants, the Milwaukee Public Schools Foundation, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Bader Philanthropies, and other generous donors. Gaenslen staff, students and Milwaukee’s Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA) worked together to create a space that is truly inclusive and welcoming to learners of all abilities and sensitivities.