January 2017 Story Hour: Animals in Winter

I'm always looking for themes for story hour. Sometimes I find a really awesome theme, but can't find books to go with it. Other times, I find the perfect book(s), but can't find or create a craft to go along. That was my problem with Animals in Winter. The books I picked were

• Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams
• One Snowy Rescue by Christina M. Butler
• The Mitten by Jan Brett

I love all these  books. They are perfect for a non-Christmas themed Winter story time. But it took me ages to come up with a craft. Finally, one of my regular patrons, who sometimes helps me cut out shapes for the story time crafts, suggested animal masks. It was perfect! 

For the craft, you will need

• foam sheets
• Sticky-back foam (unless you'd rather use glue)
• hole puncher
• 8" strips of ribbon
• Mask templates, found HERE (or create your own!)
• Exacto knife

I looked around Pinterest for some ideas and found some really great templates, but I chose to do a bear mask, the template for which I had to create myself. However, after cutting out all the necessary parts for the bear and actually having story hour, I found that the original bear template was nowhere to be found, and for that I apologize. 

Basically all I did was freehand half a bear, fold the paper in 

half, and cut it out. I did the same for the snout. 

How to create foam masks: 

• If you are using sticky back foam, cut the mask bases out of regular foam, and the rest out of the sticky-back foam.
• Use and Exacto knife to cut out the eyes
• Use a hole puncher to punch holes for the ribbon

The kids can do the rest, which is basically just sticking the masks together and tying on the ribbon. Ta-da! Animal masks the kids will love.

Back in the Game

I took a small (almost 1 year) break to have a baby and adjust to my new position as library director. It was a busy year. On top of being a mom and new boss, my children's librarian left to go work at the school library (no hard feelings, she loves it there), so I've been doing the children's librarian duties as well. But I thought now that I'm used to all three positions, I should get back to blogging.

I'll be focusing most of my future posts on story time and the summer reading program, but you may see a post every now and then about being a director or about the crafts and things I create with my free time.

If you want to see what I've been up to lately, you can check out my Pinterest pages or my library Facebook Page, located on the right-hand side of the screen.

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!