October: Halloween Bat Crazy Display

Bats, bats, bats!! Our second Halloween display this years features almost a hundred bats!

I cut out each bat using templates I found online. There are five sizes of bats. I taped the smallest ones up the right side of the display, gradually moving to the larger ones as I got towards the top of the display. I then spread the bats out over the top three shelves and had them "flying" towards the left side of the display.

I then had the bats "fly" off the left side of the display onto the wall.

From there they "flew" to the opening and I used fishing line to have the bats "flying" in the open air next to the display.

October: Halloween Slime Display

It's Halloween time and the library has some awesome displays this year! Our first display is covered in slime! I got this idea from Pinterest, it was easy to make and looks great in person.

I started off by getting a stack of lime green paper. I cut out five different variations of slime and then used those as templates to cut out approx 40 pieces of slime.

For the top three shelves I taped the slime of the inside top of the bookcase along with the outside edge. The bottom four shelves you couldn't see the inside well so I only did the outside.

I made a sign for the display saying "It came from the library." and I made a second sign for our website.

October: It's A Mystery Display

October is National Mystery Month! There are several great ideas for mystery displays on Pinterest, Google and personal blogs, it's hard to pick just one! Our Library Advisory Board students had asked for more displays like Blind Date With A Book. They liked choosing books based on other facts besides the cover. I incorporated this idea into our new display, It's A Mystery.

Did you know that there are more than 8 types of sub-genres for mysteries? I did not. For this display I chose to focus on only five sub-genres: Historical, Crime, Thriller, Detective and Romantic. We Genrefied our fiction collection last year and it allowed me to pull reports on sub-genres very easily. I made five resource lists of books and printed them out. I made an excel spreadsheet of all the barcodes for each book and numbered them 1-27. A volunteer pulled the books and one of our Student Library Assistants put the books into brown paper bags, wrote the number I had given on the back of the bag, and kept them sorted into their five piles. This process took much less time than wrapping each book in paper like we did for the Blind Date With A Book display.

I created five different "logos" to represent each sub-genre. These were printed and cut out as decorations for the display.

Each "Logo" had a symbol to represent the sub-genre, I printed out these symbols and our student assistant glued the corresponding symbol to the correct pile of books. This was the only clue students got to know what book was in the bag.

I made a signout sheet so students could write the number on the back of the bag and their name to checkout the book. This way they remained completely in the dark about what book was inside the bag until after it was checked out.

I made signage explaining how to check out the book and put it on the display.

For decorations I used the "logos" I had made, along with text saying "It's A Mystery." I used question marks and the classic Who? What? Where? How? Why? When? and cut them out and put them around the display.

Overall it was not nearly as popular as the Blind Date With A Book display. I think it was too difficult for students to know what was in the bag and they shied away from checking them out. If I did it again I think I would include something like "If you like....." to the front of each bag and a better clue as to what is inside.  I have an idea for a Scrabble display using books that are wrapped, we will see if that is more popular.

October: LGBT History Month Display

October is LGBT History Month. Since our Halloween displays will take up the second half of the month, I choose to celebrate at the beginning.

I started by creating a resource list with books on LGBT history and biographies and, fiction books featuring LGBT topics. One of our volunteers then pulled all the books for the display.

For signage I wrote out LGBT HISTORY MONTH in Photoshop and then manipulated the text with a rainbow gradient. Feel free to use it:

For decorating I made rainbow colored pinwheels. I took two pieces of paper of the same color and length, I then folded them up into long skinny rectangles (like how we used to make fans). I then stapled the center of each folded piece. I unfolded the piece to create a half circle and stapled the two edges together. Once you have two half circles you then staple them together. I then cut out a circle in a different color and glued it onto the center.

October: Black and White and Read All Over Display

This month I decided to take all of our black and white cover books and feature them in a display. This was by far the easiest display I have done, and it took very little planning. I recommend using this when you don't have the time to plan an elaborate display.

I went through the fiction section and noted down the barcodes of every book that had only black and white (or white) in the cover. I then entered all the barcodes into a resource list so one of our parent volunteers could pull the books the morning of our display change.

For the decoration I measured the shelf and made black and white boxes in Photoshop that I then printed out, cut out and taped to cover the shelf edge. Feel free to use them:


For the signage I wrote out "Black and White and Read All Over" and then cut out each word and taped it to the display.

Overall it really turned out great!