February: Romance at the Library Display

It's time to showcase our romance novels! Our new display "Romance at the Library" features our favorite romance novels. I created a sign in Photoshop and placed it on shelf in the display, feel free to use it.

I then decorated the display with cut out paper hearts. I also used cute small heart garlands, you can find them at Baileyhadaparty on Etsy.

I also created layered hearts that I saw on Pinterest. It was hard to find a tutorial on how to create them but Michaels had one on their website, very easy to make! The students liked making these.

All in all this was a very easy display to put together. Along with the two other displays: Blind Date with a Book and Love, this rounded out our three display bookcases and made a wonderful edition to the Valentine's Day theme in the library.

February: Blind Date with a Book, AGAIN!

February is here again and I have a second chance at creating the Blind Date with a Book Display. This display was really popular last year. You can see the post on my first attempt here. This time the display was over the top with pink and red wrapping paper and tons and tons of valentine's decor.

I wanted to be sure I did not have repeat titles from last year's display so I dug up the spreadsheet of titles I made last time. I added the new books to the spreadsheet to help me out in the coming years. I used the same signs from last year, (You might notice that I did alter the colors and make the signs darker this time, but they are all the same wording as before). I also used the same sign out sheet, and rate your date slips.

I advertised the display on our website, Facebook, Pinterest, and school newsletter. We have students fill out "rate your date" slips to be entered in a raffle at the end of the two week display period.

The decor was different this time. I found three new ideas to make the display even cuter than it was last time. First I made "pop-up" hearts from an idea I found on Pinterest. It comes from Howtoorange and was really easy to make (although I used tape instead of glue). I then clustered the "pop-up" hearts on one area of the display and the effect was awesome!

I then created some layered hearts, I saw many examples of this on Pinterest but it was difficult finding a tutorial. Michaels.com actually ended up having a great one. These were really easy to make and I had students offering to create them for me. (I think they would be adorable with scrapbook paper in different prints).

I then added small and large heart garlands around the display. These are so cute and easy to hang in different ways. I used long ones to give a decorative feel to the display area as well. You can find them on Etsy as Baileyhadaparty.

The display has only been up for two days and we have already have six books checked out. I think I am going to need to wrap a lot more books to keep up with the demand! Has anyone else made a Blind Date with a Book display?

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.