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!!!

Monthly Updates

Just a quick update on our ongoing monthlies!

It's NOVEMBER!!!  Which for me means gearing up for my birthday and Thanksgiving.  I love Thanksgiving.  I ADORE Thanksgiving, but I know some people are too hip with it anymore.  (I'm not even going to go into it, because I love giving thanks and spending time with family, but whatever hyper-politicals.)  Instead of focusing on a cute Thanksgiving theme for our suggestions board, I went with an American theme to commemorate Veterans Day.  It's fun, bright, and in your face.  I just hope students aren't confused and think it's a 4th of July display.

I also updated our Books to Film mini-display. 

We're highlighting Suzanne Collins' Mockingjay this month (of course), and I included a few books we don't have in our Uni collection.  I am hoping students will ask how to put the books on reserve at the public library or to request them from one of our other campus libraries.  If this happens...Yay for teachable moments! 

October Suggestions Board

I said I would keep posting our Suggestions Board every month, so you could look at/criticize the monthly theme.

This month it has to be HALLOWEEN!  (Duh.)

I don't know if the border is "too kiddy," but I like it anyway.  And, we already have FIVE suggestions!  (OK, so one is mine, but four from students is a GREAT thing!)

Tune in next month to see what theme November will bring you.  Any guesses???

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? 

Suggestions Board & Tracking Books

TWO topics for the price of ONE post!  It's your LUCKY library day!

Suggestions Board:

My supervisor wants to make sure that the students have a voice in the library, and I couldn't agree with her more.  We want to know what books they would like us to purchase for THEIR library.  There is a small bulletin board inside the library, just to the left of our entryway.  Students can see it on their out of the library.  I tried to use bold colors (again), bold print, and inviting, eye-catching borders and clip art to make the board come to their attention.

My supervisor, Amy, started this board last year, and I've only added colors to make it stand out.  I have brainstormed a different theme for each month of the year, and I will change the Suggestions Board at the beginning of every month.  (I'm super excited about this!  Oh, and don't fret: I will post pictures of them, too.)  This board was all Amy's idea...and one that I will take with me to my library.

NOTE:  Amy suggested that there should be a pencil, and it most definitely should be attached to the board.  Oh, these high schoolers and always needing to steal writing tools.

Keeping Track of Display Books:

We have no way to mark or designate which books are on displays in our catalog.  Our catalog is connected to the entire catalog of the University of Illinois (which makes Uni High's library THE largest in the country, thank you very much).  But, for the student workers, there has to be some way to know what books go where.   What could I do?  How could I communicate with them?

It's simplistic.  It's old school.  It's...a list.

I've created a list of each display and what book is on them, and I've taped the lists onto the circulation desk..  If a book comes in to shelve, and I'm not here, the student workers (we are blessed with TWO), can look at that list and know where to put the books.  I will also keep a tally of which books are checked out.  (That will just be noted next to the title.)