LaterPost: What Did You Do on Unofficial?

Every year on the University of Illinois campus, a couple of weeks before Spring Break, Unofficial St. Patrick's Day "celebrations" take place.  This is basically an excuse for all-day binge drinking, or in some cases all-weekend binge drinking.  Since our school is on the UIUC campus, we can't help but be directly affected by this yearly gathering of green beer drinking yahoos...I mean, celebrants.  This year was different, though: this year the Uni campus was on lockdown.

The students were inside ALL DAY.  This was difficult for these young minds, who are used to being able to roam free throughout the campus for lunch and during their free period.  We did the best to keep them occupied.

We had an impromptu Game Day, which had pretty good attendance.  (And, during which I got to see faces I didn't even know.  Hey, when the chips are down, guess you better go to the library, huh?)

Amy gets in on the Bananagram fun! 

Here's the winning hand.

I also put up a lovely new Author Spotlight display for students to gaze upon.  (Pretty sure I saw ONE student notice.)  This month we're having a Pisces Party and spotlighting five different authors born in March under the Pisces sign.  (That title Amy's awesome idea.)

And, if those two efforts weren't enough, Paul created a new poetry contest to whet the students' appetites for National Poetry Month in April.  He's always had Poems of the Week posted, but few students ever take notice.  He brainstormed with another teacher to get ideas on how to highlight these awesome works of poetry he so carefully selects.  The display is now called Poem of the Whenever, and it comes with a quiz!  We've cleared the library doors of clutter, and the poems are now the focal point of the entryway.  Students can now read the poems, complete a quick quiz, and get a prize when they have all the correct answers.  (Yes, we let them use the poems while they take the quiz.  Yes, we let them correct the answers until they have them all right.)

It was a long day, but we all muddled through.  If anything, the students probably appreciate their freedom even more this week...at least I'd like to think they do.



SPECIAL NOTE: We had one student come in and complete the Poem of the Whenever quiz today.  He walked out with a pencil, a piece of chocolate, and a high degree of self satisfaction.

Fancy a February Display?

Oh, I have to admit...I kind of REALLY loved putting together our two February displays.

Our Author Spotlight is on THREE authors this month.  I knew I wanted to have a female author.  I was super stoked when I found three awesome YA female authors with birthdays in February: Meg Cabot, Donna Jo Napoli, and Jane Yolen.  I love the varied styles and themes of these authors' works, but they all have one thing in common: they champion female characters and give girls something amazing to read.

I didn't want to do a humdrum Valentine's Day display.  I'm not anti-Valentine's Day: it's all about the LOVE, people!  But, at the same time, I didn't want to do drippy, sappy romances, or anti-romances, or anything like that.  Then, I finally hit on it: BOOKS WE LOVE.  Since Valentine's IS all about love (as I previously stated), I wanted students and staff to celebrate the books they love.  I sent out a couple of emails asking for titles.  All that was needed was a simple reply: no summary, no huge effort, just the title.  I think this helped drum up initial support.  

I think the display looks great.  I wanted to give props to all the books that I was sent, even if they aren't in the Uni collection.  I took old magazine boxes, attached construction paper to dress them up a bit, and made little book bouquets for the ones we don't have in our onsite collection.  I think these book bouquets add an extra fun element to the display, and if someone is interested in those books, we can still get them from another library.

"Book Bouquets" on the top shelf.

 We put our three picks on the bottom shelf, so the students could see their peers' selections easier.

The coolest part about Books We Love?  As more and more students notice it, they want to add their own favorites to the display.  I love this participation!  Yippee!!!

New Year, New Displays

After a sluggish start to the New Year I finally got up two new displays this week.

Our January Author Spotlight is on Isaac Asimov...& Friends!  I found out a few interesting facts about Asimov in my research:

• His date of birth could be anywhere from October 4, 1919-January 2, 1920.  He chose to celebrate his birthday on January 2, hence the Author Spotlight status for this month.
• He died from complications from AIDS.  He contracted HIV from a blood transfusion, but his doctors advised his family not to publicize this at the time of his passing in 1992, since there was still extreme prejudice about AIDS at the time.
• Amy suggested making the display "& Friends," which is perfect, since Asimov is considered one of the "Big Three" of hard science fiction (sci-fi that is steeped in scientific accuracy).  The others of the Big Three are Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein.

I finally took down our trilogies display.  I was sad to see it go.  I replaced it with a display called By the Numbers.  When I was weeding the fiction collection way back in August, I noticed how many books we had with numbers in the title.  It's been in the back of my mind to do a numbers display since then, and I thought now was as good a time as any.  In addition to YA fiction titles, I also pulled a couple of graphic novels and Shakespeare plays (only three of them, even though there could be more).  Most genres are represented as well: realistic fiction, sci-fi, classics, historical, mystery.  I think this display is very well rounded.

Finally, I updated our Let's Go to the Movies display sign.  This month I re-introduced some titles from November and January that are still in theaters.  In lieu of the recently aired Golden Globes, I also indicated which titles were nominated or won. 

This is just practice for the BIG SHOW at the end of February...the Oscars!  I don't know quite yet what that display will be, but I'm excited to start thinking about it!

I can't wait to see what other displays come to my mind in 2015.  If you're interested in them as well, keep checking back! 

Dashing December Displays

They're dashing for a couple of reasons.  Number One, I just wanted to use a form of Dasher in my title.  Number Two, December is short around these here parts, so they won't be here for long.  And, Number Three, I had to find a way to triple alliterate the title. 

Author Spotlight was a no-brainer for December: the fair Miss Austen, without a doubt.  It is her birthday month, after all.  I took her original works with the newest covers (paperbacks in permabound), and then I pulled other Austen-esque titles: some non-fiction works about her works, one of the graphic novel adaptations, and a few of the recent fiction works inspired by her life or works.  (I still need to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  The day I created this display, I came home to find that my father had actually brought me that exact title for me to read, for a friend had given it to him.)  I had lots of fun--AGAIN--creating info slides to put up around the display, too. 

Because we had already spotlighted two males for author of the month, I knew I wanted to do a female for December.  When I started looking in our collection, and before I had remembered December was Jane Austen's birthday month, I noticed a lot of the female authors in our collection have written trilogies.  Trilogies are too small for an author display, and when I brought this up to my supervisor she said, "Why not do trilogies for Christmas...Like the Twelve Days of Christmas, but Twelve TRILOGIES?"  Um.  Yes.  That's why she's in charge.  She makes my ideas so much better.  (What will I do without her??)

And, so, Twelve Trilogies for Christmas display was born.  Some of the trilogies are rather established, like the Inkworld Trilogy or the Bartimaeus Trilogy, and some are rather new, like Lisa McMann's WAKE Trilogy and Jeff Sampson's Deviants Trilogy.  This display had books flying off of it faster than any other yet.  Marie Lu's Legend Series was checked out within the first few days.  Other quick check outs included selections from Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games (no shocker there) and Marisa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles. The best part was fitting them into the display space.  I got to experiment with lay out, book stacks, and still keep the display pleasing to the eye.  Finally, I did make one sign to give students a little bit of reason why all of these random series were stacked up together.

The first semester of displays have been pretty great, I think.  I've tried to keep them interesting, eye catching, and always focused on different types of books.  I may have fallen short of that last goals a few times, but with winter break coming up, I have a few weeks to think of and create new displays for the new year. 

Food & Gaiman

I made a diary entry about how "unfortunate" I was to create displays about food and Neil Gaiman.  I hope you know I was kidding!  I just realized I never posted the finished products.

I've known since the beginning of the year that I would do a food display for the Thanksgiving season.  I had fun just roaming around our collection pulling books that had to do with food: I pulled fiction, graphic novels, memoirs, and non-fiction.  I couldn't fit all of the cookbooks we have, so I tried to put a good variety.  Praise be to the heavens that the Uni Collection does have what I think is my most favorite food book of all time: The Gallery of Regrettable Food.  When I worked at Pages for All Ages, we used to pour over this book at the Info Desk.  It is one of my all-time ultimate favorites.

I also made some signage for the display, encouraging students to ask for help if they need to find more food books or want to search for them at one of the public libraries.  I had to use a still from Oliver for this...of course.  This is also how I got a photo of Jamie Oliver included.

The Neil Gaiman display also turned out well and included signage.  Since he's the author of the month, I included info about him: vital stats, his work, his social media sites, etc.  It was great fun collecting his books for the display, but a lot of his books are checked out--no shocker there. 

He's one of the biggest advocates for libraries, and for some great personal stories he has about libraries and being a book nerd, check out these links:

• Libraries are Cultural "Seed Corn"
• Reading Agency Lecture

Library Diary

Dear Library Diary,

What a traumatic day I'm having.  Currently I'm in the middle of two book displays...TWO.  Both of them so hard and tasking to complete.  The first one is a display for food books, aptly titled Food, GLORIOUS, Food.  What with Thanksgiving right around the corner and Christmas, too, I thought our aspiring young chefs at Uni might like some cookery books to peruse.  I've managed to cull fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels for the display.  But, THEN, when I came in to work today, my thoughtful co-worker, Paul, had placed a copy of Michael Pollan's Cooked on the circ desk for me.  He knew it would be good for the display, and he knew I would like to look through it, too.  I do enjoy Michael Pollan immensely, but now all I want to do is read the book, not work.  Oh, woe is me.  Librarian problems! 

Then, after shifting some displays around, we now have room for THREE different displays to be going at once.  Fun, yes?  Well, sure, but NOW I have to come up with a new Author Spotlight display.  Supervisor Amy suggested Neil Gaiman, which will result in one of the most well-rounded displays I've done, since it will include novels, graphic novels, and picture books.  Neil Gaiman?  Really!?  I have to spend the day looking up information on Neil Gaiman, the man who encourages parents to always read to their children, and everyone to read, read, READ as much as they can. I also have to look up images of him for the display signage? 

UGH!  This job is ridiculous!  Librarian problems ALL DAY, son!

Here's to a better day tomorrow, Library Diary,
amanda

Author Spotlight: October 2014

Maybe it was too easy to choose Stephen King for my first Author Spotlight Display, since it's October...but I did it anyway.  Our King books are pretty popular, and they often go out to the UIUC masses, but not a lot of our students check them out.  I hope this display will change that. 

I got the Author Spotlight idea from Pinterest, but I jazzed mine up a bit.  I added some signage with Vital Statistics, info on His Work, a Did You Know? sheet, and a sheet on how to listen to King's NPR Fresh Air interviews. 

You might be wondering how I could possibly decide which King books to display.  He's got so many!  Well, it was easy: I just pulled all of the ones off our shelves.  We have a few King titles that were originally paperback, but they have been rebound in less flattering Reader's Digest-like binding.  To solve this problem, I simply put the three of them together in between a couple of book ends.  I think they look alright that way! 

I am super glad we own one of my favorite Stephen King books, and the first one I read, Insomnia.  That along with his classic clown terror IT were nice book ends to one of his short story collections, Full Dark, No Stars (which I still need to read).

Our collection contains King's Green Mile in the original novella form, so I also put those together in between a couple of book ends.  Again, I think it has a lovely effect...I just hope students aren't afraid to break up the collection. 

It's a good start for the Author Spotlight Display.  I still have to work out a few kinks: I hope to do this once/month, but I don't how long it will stay up.  I want other displays to go here, too, so maybe I'll put this up for a couple of weeks each month.  That being said...WHO WILL BE MY NEXT AUTHOR OF NOTE???