St Benedict’s College Opens Innovative Media Centre

by Kilian SC · November 24, 2018

The new media centre at St Benedict’s College in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, houses its fiction collection on colourful, wavy shelves.

Saint Benedict’s College in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, has a new media centre, offering “not just books on shelves but a space for collaboration and innovation”.

Fr J Robert de Sylva Media Centre was officially opened with a prayer and blessing by school chaplain Fr Thabo Mothiba.

The media centre, also called BOB or the Bibliobox, is a social meeting point, a study centre, a movie studio, a music studio, a computer lab, a conference centre, and a place where boys can come in to take out videos.

It is designed to be a multipurpose space, and most of the furniture has built-in castors, so that the library can be rearranged to suit various purposes.

At the new St Benedict’s media centre’s entrance is an amphitheatre with seating for students to enjoy casual reading, catching up with friends, poetry jam sessions, and informal talks.

University-style cubicles provide ample study space for individuals who prefer to study alone. However, the dividers above the cubicles can be removed to allow for two boys to study together.

White, shaped shelving houses the non-fiction collection, while fiction, subdivided by colour coding, is arranged on the colourful wavy shelves on the walls. The fiction collection includes graphic novels, Pan-African literature, and Afrikaans, English and isiZulu novels.

There are 28 computers available for research or casual use, and two conference rooms for meetings, group discussions, and exams.

The school’s new media centre also has an audiovisual room, fitted with Green Screen technology, to make films and videos, and a music studio for recording songs.