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.

February: Love Display (LGBT)

Valentine's Day is here again and it is time for some new displays. This year, along with the classic "Blind Date with a Book" display and standard "Romance at the Library" display, I created a Love display to feature all of our LGBT romances.

I am lucky to work in a school that embraces diversity and I had many, many titles to choose from when creating the display. I started by doing a search of our collection for LGBT titles and adding them to a resource list. The ones that I was familiar with and already knew were romances I moved to a resource list for the Love display. Those that I was unfamiliar with I searched on Goodreads to see if they were romances (and if they had good reviews). I did make a point to not use all the romance LGBT books for this one display. I wanted to mix some in to our standard "Romance at the Library" display, and use some for the Blind Date display. Luckily we had plenty of books to use for all the displays.

I chose to simply call the display "Love" and I created a sign using Photoshop and placed it on a shelf in the display, please feel free to use it.

I then created some rainbow colored hearts for decor. I cut out standard hearts in all sizes. I then created some "pop-up" hearts using a tutorial I found on Pinterest from Howaboutorange. I did not follow the steps completely (I found it easier to use tape) but it is very easy to do and gives a great effect!

I then added garlands of small rainbow colored hearts. These were so cute and could be hung in many different ways. You can find them on Etsy at Baileyhadaparty, I used these throughout the Valentine's displays in different colors and sizes.

I'm really happy with how the display turned out and I hope to make it an annual display. Please let me know if you have done anything similar at your library.