Oscars Fun in the Library

Oscars time is upon us, and that means lots of opportunities for fun in the library!  And, if you know me, just a liiiiitle bit, you'll know that I can't let the Oscars go by without a little glitz and glitter.  We already have two book displays going inside of the library, but I managed to put up a new bulletin board and get a fun little Oscars ballot going (to encourage students to become as obsessed with the Oscars as I am?).

Our bulletin board focuses on books being made into movies over the next year.  The idea is to encourage students to read the books before they can see the books.  There were several different books-to-movies lists* I found while looking around on Pinterest, and believe it or not several popped up in my Facebook feed a couple of weeks ago.  (It's like they know me or something.)  I looked through two different lists, and I found as many titles as I could that we hold in our collection.  I didn't have any Oscars decorations to go on the board, but I think the red carpet background and the glittery gold border make the bulletin board POP.

Inside the library we have a contest going to see who can guess the Best Adapted Screenplay winner.

I sent out an email encouraging students and staff to come participate.  All they have to do is fill out a ballot, circle who they think will win Best Adapted Screenplay, and on Monday, AFTER the Oscars, we will pick one winner from those who guessed correctly.  There will be one staff and one student winner.  The prize will be chocolate wrapped in gold...of course. 

One student wanted to know why we were doing Best Adapted Screenplay, instead of Best Film.  I told him it's because we're a library...we have books...screenplays are usually adapted from BOOKS**.  It took him a second, but he got it eventually.  My money's on Whiplash this year, but I can't enter.  It would be just too sketchy if I won.

These are just two simple, easy ways to encourage movie watching and book reading in your library.  I know I have a lot more in mind for next year.  If you ever want to peruse some ideas, Pinterest has many, MANY different displays and boards for you to consider.  Have fun watching the Oscars this Sunday, February 22!  



*100 Books to Read Before They're Movies and  Books Becoming Movies in 2015.
**Except for the nominee Whiplash, by Damien Chazelle.  Chazelle based his full-length screenplay on his original short film screenplay.

Book Trees

My new obsession is Christmas trees made out of books. We all have our things, and this is just one of mine.  I started looking at them on Pinterest  a couple of weeks ago, and all I can do is think about the book trees I'll make in my future library.  I can see it in my head: maybe three or four, spread out around the library.  *sigh*  They would be beautiful.

Book trees look spectacular, and they're the perfect use for weeded books.  If you are bored with weeding, and don't want to do it, just motivate yourself by looking at some of these amazing book trees:

See???  Don't you want to go and weed the heck out of your library's collection, so you can make one?  You'll also be keeping your collection up to date in the process.  It's okay: you can thank me later.

The day after I started obsessing about book trees, my brother-in-law sent me this photo:

He had made his own book tree!  It's like great minds think alike or something.  I love the jaunty Santa hat on top and the NOEL blocks, too.  Great touches.  My kids were super impressed with this and want to do one at our house.  If we get one done over holiday break, you can bet I'll post a picture.  (That is, if I can take quick enough.  Our lil one year old is the fastest crawler in the midwest, and she'd LOVE to destroy a book tree.)

Now, go get creative and create a tree out of the most unlikely of objects.  If you do, share them with me! 

Winter Reads

All of a sudden it's winter in these here parts.  We're bundling up, most are cursing the light snowfall that's already occurred (not me!), and it's the perfect time to talk winter reads.  Cause, seriously, what is better than curling up with a good book, a hot cup of something, and a fleece blanket?  Not much, I can tell you that!  (I'm just sad I don't get to do that too much anymore.)

At the beginning of the semester I saw a bulletin board on Pinterest with the title "I Read a Latte!"  Of course, I've had it in the back of mind to use once it got chilly.  I thought I'd save it for January, but it was just too good not to do now.

Here's the method...I found several lists of winter reads--Goodreads, other Pinterest boards, and my own mind (ETHAN FROME!  THE SHINING!  LITTLE WOMEN!).  I used these as a starting point.  After creating a list of chilly reads (that included MANY genres!), I made sure we had the books on the list in our Uni Library.  Then, the real fun began!  I hunted down book covers of the titles, and I got to make them into lil MUGS!  That's right: MUGS!  For lattes...GET IT!?!

Because I was too cheap to buy new border, I just used a book border I already had.  I justified this to myself, because the title is "I Read A LATTE," so a border with a lot of genres present makes sense.  (I do really wish I had a border with snowflakes, though.  But, like I said, not a lot of cash what with kids' birthdays and holidays coming up.)  The final touch was procuring Starbucks cups this morning for the board.  Those were free (as they should be with all the money I spend there). 

This is one of my favorite boards yet.  I hope you like it, too!

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??? 

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Here's a lesson for student advisory groups: If you ask for something or make a suggestion, there's a good chance that your librarian will in fact listen!

My supervisor has a student advisory group, and so far we are doing our best to implement what they desire.  Their requests are reasonable, well thought out, and will make their library a better place.  The first thing they wanted was a book to movie display.  I have started working on this, but with limited display areas in our library I haven't quite found a "home" for it.  My vision is for it to be a rotating display, constantly updated as the movies are released throughout the year.  More on this if I actually get it up and displaying.

The second thing they want is to know about the new books.  We try to do this with our New Books display, which is constantly updated, but the shelving unit we have is well...kind of horrible.

It's really hard to see the books through the black bars, so I decided to do another new book bulletin board.  (This is another Pinterest idea.  I've simplified it a bit, but I still think it looks good.)

The display has pictures of all of the library's newest acquistions since the school year started.  I will have to do this "new book" bulletin board throughout the year but with different themes.  I like this one: it's bold, eye-catching, has a fun border, and includes a text message and rhetorical question that will hopefully gets students' attention.

Finally, they asked for games (games, games, games, GAMES!).  No, not these games:

These games:

We tested this out for the first time today during Uni Period, and though it might not look like a lot of students attended, I thought it was great for a first go.  I love this programming idea from our student advisory board.  I want to keep the games coming.  Maybe once a month?  First Friday Game Day?  I'll work with the title.  Maybe by the end of the year we could even have this game to play:

Oh, a librarian girl from the late 80s/early 90s can dream, eh? 

Grab Your Tissue

Here's another Pinterest display enacted in the Uni High Library.  It is probably the simplest, most basic display you could ever do, and it is all about...the feelings.

It's October.  It's one of my favorite months: it gets chilly, you get to eat chili, you get your warm sweaters out, but in this area October can also include dark, dreary, rainy days...which I LOVE.  Those are perfect days to read, and they are also perfect days to wallow in the misery of tragic characters, heartache, and lost love.

My Tissue Box display was super easy to implement.  All you need are a couple of boxes of tissue and lots of sad books.  Now, working in a high school is a perfect place for this tragic display, because in high school, girls (yes, I'm stereotyping and saying "girls") love to feel all the feelings: we love to cry, disparage, and wallow in misery.  I did a poll on Facebook to see what books had made my friends cry throughout their lives, and the responses ranged from picture books to Nicholas Sparks romance to war novels.  I tried to get as many of their suggestions up as I could, but many were already checked out or not available to us.  (And, I do love that a lot of them were checked out!  That's a good problem to have!)

I do wish we would have some picture books on this display, because Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree and Robert Munsch's Love You Forever make me cry harder than almost anything.  I think it's good for students to re-visit their favorite books from their youth, too, so maybe when/if I get a job in a middle or high school I'll try to use some part of my budget for picture books.  I am also a firm believer in picture books being for EVERYONE.

If you need a quick display to do during a dark, dreary time, try this one.  It's also great, AND EASY, for an ELA classroom.  Let me know how it goes if you try it out!  (And, tell me what books you added to your display!)

Banned Books Bulletin Board

Gosh almighty, I LOVED doing this bulletin board.  It took a lot of work cutting out all of those flames, but it was worth it.  I don't have much to say about the board, because I think its awesomeness speaks for itself.

This is another Pinterest idea.  I know, I know: no originality on my part.  Well, I'm gettin' into the groove of this library thing, and if the boards look this cool, why re-invent the wheel?  The board I looked at on Pinterest didn't have quotes, though.  I found the quotes about censorship on BuzzFeed of all places and thought they would fit perfectly with the week.  The book covers are from the authors quoted on the board.

I've loved creating a display and bulletin board for my first Banned Books Week as a librarian.  (OK, I know I'm still in grad school, and a semester and a half away from graduation, but I think I can use the title already.)  I have already started to collect ideas for future Banned Books Weeks...on Pinterest.  ;)