More Display Talk: A Later Post

For the first time since starting this crazy librarian stuff (that would be since August 2014 at Uni High in Urbana when I was grad assistant), I forgot to take a photo of a display as soon as I was done with it.  This was a big display, too.  The biggest one I had ever compiled, since my space at Uni tended to be so limited.  Why is this so bad?  Because students actually came and checked out books before I could document it!  (Darn kids.  Wantin' to read and stuff.)

My display is entitled Back to School.  All of the books have to do with starting middle school, starting a new school, school drama/problems, bullies in school, schools of magic and princesses, etc.  It was a lot of fun going through the collection to find books like this.  Because our collection is pretty small, I was worried I wouldn't find enough, but I shouldn't have worried so much.  I found plenty--enough to fill up three big shelves.

Here are a few photos of the display, its space, and the different organizations I've done to keep the display looking good as books are checked out:

Here it is after one period of students had been through.  Several holes already!  Good library problem.  The first display day was Monday, August 24, 2015. 

  
So many of the books had been checked out after one day that I re-organized all of the books onto the middle shelf, and left the two side shelves empty. 

  
A few of the books had been read and returned by Tuesday, September 1, so I was able to spread them out a bit.  This is a week after I put up the display.

And, of course I made some signage for the collection.  Because the display area is so big, though, the sign gets kind of lost.  I'll have to work on that in the future.  

Did you really think I WOULDN'T use this Billy Madison quote for my Back to School display?  If you did, you haven't been reading my blog for very long.

I've learned a few things from this first big display of the year:
1)  Students actually check out books here, because they want to, have time to read, or are forced to.  ;)
2)  If I want a photo of a display, I better take one QUICKLY...before the kids come and ransack it!
3)  Once again, gathering books for a display is the best way to learn about your collection.  I can also learn what I need to add to the collection. 

First Lines

A couple of weeks ago I created my best bulletin board/display combo to date.  It was so much fun, and everything came together in a totally pleasing way. 

I love first lines of books.  When I was a freshman in college, looking forward to my first semester as an undergraduate at the great University of Illinois, one of my friends came over and looked at all of the literature I had to read for that semester.  I was taking a British Literature class, so there was lots of Austens, Brontes, and Kiplings in the mix.  She said she always loved to read the first paragraphs of books to imagine and predict what might happen.  This has stuck with me for almost two decades (!), and I employed this strategy for my newest board/display combo.

I combed through books in our fiction collection and pulled titles at random.  I read the FIRST LINE only.  Was it interesting, intriguing, gross, outlandish???  Would it get the attention of students?  Most importantly...would it fit on a single piece of paper for the bulletin board?  ;)  I found many titles, but I knew the board wouldn't be able to hold very many, so I narrowed my selection down to a dozen.  As always, I tried to get different genres, time periods, and authors represented.  Then came the fun part.

I recently created an account at Canva.  This is an amazing place to create posters, signage, and any other type of advertisement you could want.  And, it's free.  (I mentioned Canva a few weeks ago in a post.  For more info, see that post.)  I found a simple, yet bold, option to put the first line of the book, along with the author, title, and publication year.  I printed these and put them on the bulletin board.

 The small "bubble burst" sign at top center directs the students to come inside and find the book that matches their 

favorite First Line.

Next, I displayed all of the books on one of our display areas inside the library.  If a line on the bulletin board outside catches a student's attention, they can come inside, find the book on the display, and check it out.

So far I've seen several students looking at the bulletin board and reading the lines aloud, but so far none of checked out any books.  This is an extremely busy time of the year for these Uni students, so I'm not offended.  This was a great board/display combo to put together, and one I will try to replicate in my future place of employment.   

Can You Find the Face Out?

It's amazing what a little face out will do.

Our fiction shelves had gotten very uneven: too many books on one shelf, just a few books on another, etc.  Amy has always said she wanted more face outs on the shelves, so I went through and shifted our entire fiction collection to even out the shelves and make room on the ends for face out books.  I think just a simple face out at the end of the shelves make them look so much more appealing:

For the face outs I tried to pick a wide variety of genres, and I also tried to pick books that might not have been as popular as Amy or I think they should.  I tried to find some that should have more
attention than they currently receive.  

It's too bad I didn't take before pictures.  Of course I wasn't thinking that far ahead.  :(  It is kind of hard to tell with the pictures, but the shelves look quite attractive, and when you walk into the fiction room, your eye is immediately drawn to the shelves quicker.

Since the face outs have been put in place, I've had to replace three of them.  That means three face outs have already been checked out!  I know that's not hard scientific data, but it gives us some indication that they are actually working!

So, if your shelves look a little drab, just do a little shifting and face outing...you won't be sorry! 

I Had No Idea: National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Eating disorders are not something to be ignored.  In order to shed light on them and help those that might be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help in a one-on-one manner, we have planned a couple of things to raise awareness of eating disorders.

Amy has been working with the school social worker to sponsor a Uni Period talk about eating disorders, and a registered dietician will be in attendance to lead the talk/discussion.  This year's NEDA focus is I Had No Idea. 

 Signage on our library doors for our Uni Period talk on eating disorders that Amy created.

I also did my best to create a display with information and fiction texts on eating disorders.  One student said that she is concerned with fiction texts that focus on eating disorders, because she fears that they give students who are in the throes of one ideas.  This is a valid point, and after this I was hesitant to put any fiction texts up.  However, after thinking about it for a bit, I felt that these fiction texts could help those recovering to know that authors are aware of eating disorders, and that if needed, they can find themselves reflected in some texts.

I sourced some titles from a Goodreads list on YA Eating Disorders, but this list was filled with books that would do more harm than good (giving "ideas," as the one student who raised concerns stated).  I tried to find some fiction titles in our collection and other collections from around the university that would give a more realistic picture of what eating disorders entail.  The signage posted here was downloaded and printed from the NEDA website.  

Eating disorders are easy to ignore, can be easy to hide, and easy to push to the side in order to worry about other diseases.  They are still life threatening and affect many more than one may realize.  This week, we hope to offer guidance, help, and hope to one, two, or many who may be grappling with an eating disorder. 

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. 

ALL the New Fiction

Remember all of the awesome new fiction books we got last week?  Well, we got even MORE this week!  We have no room for all of the new books in the New Books display.  So, Amy wanted to try something new.

I took a portion of the new books and put them on the "back book display."  This is where I put most of our bigger displays.  We want to see if the books go faster from the back display as opposed to the New Books display that the students see as they walk into the library.

I've been creating informal tally sheets for each display to keep track of which books are checked out from each display.  I've done the same thing for this "display race."  Both displays have some pretty spectacular new books, so I hope a lot of books get checked out.

WHO WILL WIN???

VS.

For the back display, I did create some signage, so students would know what was up.  I even decided to use some Snoopy, because new acquisitions always make me want to do my happy dance.  Winning.

Finally, our awesome library technician, Paul, came up with some great yellow tags to put in each new book to flag it for students. 

Students here at Uni work so hard in their classes, but several do come in to check out books for pleasure reading.  A lot of them tend to check out the same authors: J.R.R. Tolkien, Tamora Pierce, Kristin Cashore.  All are fantastic, but I hope all of this teamwork to push the new books works, because they are awesome and deserve to be read, too!

Trick or TREAT?

This Halloween Week I got a big TREAT in the Uni High Library: I got to look at, hold, and check in a 1967 Viking Press copy of S.E. Hinton's YA classic The Outsiders.  I don't know if this is a first edition, but knowing that this library is part of the UIUC library and that today we get fresh, new books hot off the presses, I am going to make the assumption that it is.

I am also going to confess that it was very, VERY hard to put it back on the shelf and not slip it into my bag to take home forever (librarian problem #283).  But, that would be beyond unethical.  That would be taking away the enjoyment of others to hold, read, and possess that 1967 copy, if only for awhile.

Received in 1967!

As I mentioned in one of my first posts, I do love looking at original, vintage covers of books.  It tells a story of the book and its history.  I was beyond thrilled to see this copy when I came in earlier this week.

I recently read a New Yorker interview with S.E. Hinton and how she "gave birth" to the young adult genre.  She said when the book was published in 1967, there was no market for a book like hers, and it was a flop at first...until teachers started to use the book in English classes across the country.   All of a sudden, a new genre was born.

"About teen-agers...For teen-agers...By a teen-ager"

Priceless!

I love YA.  There is definitely a need for this genre, too, for teens to see themselves reflected in the written word in genuine, powerful, awesome ways.  I only worry about the YA genre when it becomes the butt of pop culture jokes.  Twilight comes to mind instantly.  It got so many young teen girls reading and devouring books, but it led to a less than optimal film adaptation and an explosion of vampire-erotic series.  I still enjoy the series, and I won't back down from that, but I'm sad of some of the negative YA press that has popped up because of it.

Anyway...I digress.  I got to handle a 1967 copy of S.E. Hinton's classic novel, widely considered the first YA novel.  It's one reason I'm here, one reason why I love to teach YA novels, and because of it, I'll never give up on YA (even though Hinton herself says she doesn't read the genre anymore or feel compelled to write more YA), even when the media and others say grown ups shouldn't read YA. 

NEW BOOKS!!!!!

Oh, Mama Mia!  Look at all of those new books we got this week!  It's always exciting to get new books, but when we get this many at one time, my head reels.  Not because it's a lot of work to process them, wrap them, put them on our blog, etc.  Oh, no, not because of that.  Because I want to read them all!!!  (Mo' Librarian Problems, yo.)

Whenever we get new fiction in for our collection, I enter the title, author, call number, and publisher synopsis into Uni's What Should I Read Next? blog.  It's good fun, but it usually ends up in at least ten new books added to my Want to Read List.  Here are the top two on my list after this acquisition haul:

There's also a new book that shares a name with an awesome song from the 80s, and if you don't know the song, you shouldn't be my friend or be reading this.  The book, however, has NOTHING to do with high school, John Hughes, or breakfast.  It's about a town where every four years a child is released from jail and kills people.  So...yeah.

I also get to enter new graphic novels into our online collection that we keep on LibraryThing.  I am constantly trying to become more knowledgeable about GN's, and I still have no clue about Manga (what's good, what's isn't, etc).  I am making strides in the GN arena, though, and a lot of it is thanks to this task I have.  

We usually get a few good GN's with every new haul, and this time I wasn't disappointed.  I can't wait to check out the new DC offering, Black Canary and Zatanna (love it when the females are let out to play), and Mimi Pond's Over Easy, (about the 70s, greasy spoons, and drugs), looks right up my bleak alley preferences.  

When all of the books are entered, blogged, posted, etc (you know, all that work that makes me feel like I'm a real librarian already), they get to fill the New Book Rack.  This rack, which Amy longs to get rid of, looks pretty nice when it's all filled to the brim with new acquisitions!   

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???