From April Showers to National Library Week

National Library week is April 10-16th this year. To celebrate, my display this week is all about reading and the library. I created a "Pinterest" board, only it is an actual board with physical pins. How else to show diverse enthusiasm for reading? 

The books on display are actually just pictures pinned to the board with their locations in the description. There are eight altogether. 

Among the pins are several with information about the library. I included contact info, the April Newsletter, and a pin of online resources.

And of course, what Pinterest board would be complete without humor and inspiration?

It's April!

My time at Beulah Public Library may be limited due to college and health stuff, so this will most likely be one of the last few displays I make. There is about a week before National Library Week (yay!) so I want to use this time to display some of our gardening and landscaping books and magazines. It is getting close to planting time, and this area is big into gardening. I would do a gardening display in May, but I don't know if I will still be here by then.

Easter Display

It feels a little early to be putting up an Easter display, but Easter comes early this year, and Beulah Public Library is closed the weekend before starting Friday the 25th. This display will be up for roughly two weeks, which I think is appropriate.

Since there are already plenty of Easter books on display around the stacks, I decided to take the Easter-themed title "Reading with my 'Peeps!'" and use it for a Young Adult Fiction display.

 I found the book covers online and printed them out, making sure all of them had a description on the back.

I used seven books for this display:

• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children--Ransom Riggs
• Losers Take All--David Klass
• A Wrinkle in Time--Madeleine L'Engle
• Gossamer--Lois Lowry
• Stormbreaker (Alex Rider)--Anthony Horowitz
• All Things Hidden--Heather Gudenkauf
• The Book Thief--Markus Zusak
• The Book Thief isn't actually in our Youth Fiction collection. We shelve it in our main collection. However, it is also considered a Young Adult Fiction book, so I added it. 

READERS: Do you have an idea for a book display? I'm looking for new ideas to show off the collection. I also appreciate any ideas for improving each display. Is there anything more I could do to make the displays any better? Let me know in the comments because any ideas would be appreciated! 

March Display: Women's History Month

I was going to put up a St. Patrick's day display, but there are already a few St. Patrick's Day books on display around the library. I decided instead to dedicate the whole month to Women's History, since it is Women's History Month and we have quite a few books in that area. I chose 11 books, both adult and Junior for this display. There were many from which to choose, so I chose the few I thought would stand out:

• Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl
• Lakota Women: Mary Crow Dog
• First of All--Significant "Firsts" of American Women: Joan McCullough
• Helen and Teacher: Joseph P. Lash
• The 100 Most Influential Women of all Time: Deborah G. Felder
• The Queen-- Life of Elizabeth II: Elizabeth Langford
• Louisa May Alcott: Carol Green (J)
• Mythmaker-- The Story of J.K. Rowling (J)
• Marie Curie: Sean M. Grady (J)
• Susan B. Anthony: Brenda Stalcup (Editor) (J)
• You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? : Jean Fritz (J)

This Month's display also features some quotes by famous historical women. Here are two of my favorites:

"Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood." -Marie Curie
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." -Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Women's History Month display will be up until around the 18th, after which the rest of March will be dedicated to Easter. After Easter, Spring! And did you know that April is National Poetry Month? 

READERS: Do you have an idea for a book display? I'm looking for new ideas to show off the collection. I also appreciate any ideas for improving each display. Is there anything more I could do to make the displays any better? Let me know in the comments because any ideas would be appreciated! 

Library Display 3: Art!

What kid doesn't like to draw/paint? And who could resist "How to Draw Frozen?" Since this part of February has no really significant holidays or observances, I decided to put up an art display. There will probably be more of these subject displays in the future. There is no shortage of children's drawing books in the library, and there are also a few adult art books. I selected a few of each for my display.

This display has been up for 5 days. Here's what it looks like now:

I took this photo in the morning of Wednesday, 24 February. By the afternoon, all the books had been checked out. I went into the stacks and grabbed a few more books so the display would actually have some substance until the other books got returned. 

I noticed a few patrons looking through the art sections in the stacks as well, so I figure my sign about where the rest of the art books are was a good idea. 

READERS: Do you have an idea for a book display? I'm looking for new ideas to show off the collection. I will be doing a St. Patrick's day display in a few weeks, but until then I have no special events to showcase. I also appreciate any ideas for improving each display. Is there anything more I could do to make the displays any better? Let me know in the comments because any ideas would be appreciated! 

Library Displays: President's Day and Valentine's Day

There's a lot going on this week! I sure hope this week's display will be popular. Last week, three of the football books on display got checked out, and the super bowl team flag jars were teeming! 

This Week's Display:

I was really torn between doing a Valentine's Day display and a President's Day display, so I went with both. I had some really fun ideas for both, so I couldn't choose just one. For President's Day, I chose a biography of George Washington, a biography of Abraham Lincoln, as well as a few general books about the Presidents. Our library has a copy of the HBO drama John Adams, so I included that for a little variety (Libraries are no longer just for books!). I thought some presidential quotes on the bulletin board would also be appropriate.

Valentine's Day is always fun for crafts and displays, but everyone can find books about Valentine's Day or books about love, and we already have some children's books displayed elsewhere. So I decided to put up a special display of "Books the Librarians 'LOVE'". There are 5 of us, so 5 books seemed like enough for the display.

But wait! I wasn't done. To add some fun to this display, I threw some paper hearts, a pen, and some thumbtacks onto the shelf and put up this sign:

There's plenty of space on the board for people to write down their favorite books or reasons why they love reading and pin them on the board. 

Books used: 

President's Day

• The Presidents of the United States of America by Frank Freidel
• Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President by Allen C. Guelzo
• Andrew Jackson and His America by Milton Meltzer
• The American Presidents by David C. Whitney
• Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Presidents and their times by David Rubel
• The Real George Washington by J.A. Parry & Andrew M. Allison
• HBO's John Adams (DVD)

Valentine's Day

• Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
• Mark of the Lion Series by Francine Rivers
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (my choice)

Library Displays: Football/ Super Bowl 50

I recently started working (Interning actually) at Beulah Public Library in Beulah, ND. I thought displays would be a cool way to show off our collection. Using current events and holidays, I will be putting up weekly/biweekly displays throughout the next few months.  With the Super Bowl coming up, I figured a football display would be a popular beginning. 

I made a pendant template in Powerpoint and printed the pendants on construction paper. After cutting out over 100 dark blue, light blue, orange, black, green, and brown little pendants, I made three strings of pendants (bottom of display). Using more of the light blue and orange pendants and some shortened wooden skewers, I created little flags for an interactive part of the display. Patrons could choose a flag and stick it in their respective football team's jar. 

I chose what I thought to be the best football books to display, using both Adult Nonfiction and Junior Nonfiction. The books I chose were

1. 100 Greatest Quarterbacks by Ronald Lazenby
2. SPorts Illustrated Winning Offense by Bud Wilkinson
3. Sports Illustrated Winning Defense by Bud Wilkinson
4. Friday Night Lights H.G. Bissenger
5. Inside the NFL-- AFC North--J by Brian Peterson
6. Inside the NFL-- North--J by K.C. Kelley
7. The Denver Broncos--J by Mark Stewart

The Library director recently ordered a few more Junior Nonfiction books about the different football teams, and they should arrive before the Super Bowl. When they do, I will be adding a book on the Carolina Panthers to go along with the book I already have on the Denver Broncos.

Thoughts? Suggestions/creative ideas for displays? Comment and let me know!