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. 

Don't be a Fool! Celebrate National Poetry Month!

That's no joke, people: April really is National Poetry Month.  To celebrate I created a display I've known I would do since the beginning of the school year: a display that combines novels written in verse and poetry collections.

I tried to get a wide range of books for this display (as I always do).  There are poetry anthologies ranging from a WWI Graphic Novel collection to the Vietnam War experience to 20th Century Poems; collections by "classic" authors, like Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Edgar Allan Poe; collections by musicians (Patti Smith and Jim Morrison); and some awesome new contemporary works, by authors like Naomi Shihab Nye and Mel Glenn.  The novels in verse are all young adult and would all be considered realistic fiction. 

To go along with the display I made a small sign to encourage students to take our Poem of the Whenever quiz.  So far, only two students have taken it.  They both "passed"...AND walked away with candy and a pencil.  Talk about awesome prizes!

Now...stop reading this, and GO READ SOME POETRY!!!  Check out poets.org for new poems everyday, and there are also author interviews and a plethora of other poetry resources.

I Still Believe in 398.2

It's time for a little Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After.  It's time for our Fairy Tales New, Old, & Retold display!

NOTE: We already had one book, Ruby Red, checked out before I could get a photo taken!

Disney's live action adaptation of Cinderella comes out on March 13, so I thought this would be the perfect time for a fairy tales display.  You can't just do traditional fairy tales, though, can you?  That would be BORING!  You need to include new fairy tales (like Neil Gaiman's Stardust) and fairy tale retellings and reimaginings (like Marisa Meyer's Cinder [which is currently checked out, but will find a home in the display when it's returned] or Donna Jo Napoli's Beast).  Of course we left room for the traditional tales as well.  Philip Pullman's recent collection of Grimm's fairy tales spares no expense at the blood and gore that went into the original tales, and I really hope someone discovers that tome when it's on display.

What would a display be without a lil signage to give explanation to why it's there?? 

(Cause if you didn't know Cinderella was coming out on March 13, this random fairy tale display would probably make no sense whatsoever.)

I hope students have fun revisiting old fairy tales and get to discover some new ones.  It's hard for our Uni students to find time to read books for pleasure, but maybe they'll be able to read a couple of short tales for fun.  

SIGNAGE Website--FREE Signage Website!

I loved making signs and posters for my old classroom.  I would deck my walls and the area outside of my classroom door for anything and everything.  I also love making signs for Uni's library: student talks, library programming, displays, I can make a sign for anything.  Today while working on an assignment for my School Media Center class I found a website that allows me to make the coolest, sweetest, awesomest signage for FREE.

Here are the logistics: You can register with Facebook, or you can register with your email.  I think it would be a great tool for teachers, instructors, etc.  Older students could have fun with it, too, but they would need to be focused: there are so many possibilities on the website, that some younger students would just want to play around without concentrating on their work.  There is content that can be purchased, but you really don't need to worry about the lack of options: the free content is abundant and awesome, and I found plenty of content and options for my signs without needing to be sad about not being able to get the money content. 

Not only can I make signs, I could also make Facebook cover photos and posts, Instagram posts, posts for this blog, and...wait for it...I can even insert INFOGRAPHICS to the signs and presentations!  Um...yeah.  I'm in geek heaven.

I created several other signs today, in addition to the two above.  I had fun creating First Line Posters.

 Ohmygosh.  Don't you just LOVE this first line!?  Oy!

I want to make more of these and post them around the library...OR...OH, IDEA!...OR, I can put the posters up and put the book right underneath it.  Yes.  YES!  Best idea ever!

Thanks, Canva, you're my NEW FAVORITE!

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

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???