April: Black Lives Matter Display

Our students are discussing and embracing the Black Lives Matter movement. One of our teachers asked if the library could create a display around this topic, showcasing the books that we have on these issues.

I created a very simple display, using black and red as the display colors (you can find information about the movement here).

I cut out text using the Silhouette Cameo, if you look closely you will see that the text contains several names associated with this movement, I did not create this text, you can find it here.

I completed the display with several photos I found online representing the movement.

April: Raining Cats and Dogs Display

It's raining cats and dogs at the library! Our new April display showcases books with either cats or dogs on the cover. For the decor I use the Silhouette Cameo to cut out umbrellas and raindrops, for the raindrops I used blue glitter paper.

At the very bottom of the display I added a puddle (waves) in blue glitter and then some upside down umbrellas.



Here are all the files, you can use them with the Silhouette Cameo, just use the trace feature.

March: She Believed She Could So She Did, Women's History Month Display

March is Women's History Month, for our display I found some awesome propaganda for and against Suffrage. If you do a search on Pinterest for Women's Suffrage, you will find many options. I took the different posters and comics and made one side of the display all comics for Suffrage and the other side against it. I originally had all the shelves with comics as well but it was a bit overwhelming once the display was up. I cut out the quote for the display name using the Silhouette Cameo.

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.

Crafts: How To Make Paper Roses

How to make paper roses:

Step 1: Purchase several different patterns/prints of craft paper. 8.5 x 11" and hot glue, prepare the hot glue gun.

Step 2:. Cut the paper to form a square (save the excess to use for smaller roses).

Step 3: Fold the paper in half and then in half again forming a small square 

Step 4: Cut a curve on the open end of the square

                    When you open up the paper you should now have a large circle.

Step 5: Staring at the edge cut a spiral leaving a large circle in the center. Keep the spiral about the same thickness all the way to the center. 

Step 6: Staring at the center with the circle you left start wrapping the spiral around, each new layer being on the outside of the one before it.
    

Step 7: When you get to the end dap a drop of hot glue to hold the end piece to the last layer.

Step 8: Put lots of hot glue on the center circle and press it to the bottom, holding the majority of layers together.

Step 9: any layer not being held you can put a drop of hot glue and press it to the layer behind it.

Repeat to create several roses. You can cut out leaves as well from different patterns of craft paper. I glued the roses to a piece of twine and then wrapped it around trees for decor.

July: Postcard Summer Display

Wish you could travel this summer? Discover new places without leaving your house with this Postcard display!

I created "postcards" using the covers/locations of popular/new books in our collection. Here are some examples:

I then created signage for the display "Discover a new world this summer."

and then I cut out the postcards and the words and placed them all over the display!

I was able to find more postcards already made for Twilight and Harry Potter, I did not provide them here but you can search Google for them. Please feel free to use any signage!

May: Student Recommended and Favorite Books

Back in April, during National Library Week, we had students write down their favorite books and also recommend books the library did not already own. Every May we then create a display (or displays) that feature all of these books.

To begin we took the lists of books students had recommended and listed as favorites. You might remember the sheets I created for National Library Week:

I then searched our catalog for all the books. If we had them I added those books to a resource list. The books we did not already own I added to a wishlist on Amazon. After I checked that the books were appropriate I ordered them and our wonderful parent volunteers cataloged the books once they came in.

The second step was to type up labels for each book that was recommended. The labels have the name of the student who recommended the book along with a sentence "This book was suggested by.....". I then printed up all the labels and stuck them on light green post-it notes that I trimmed down (not really necessary but easier to remove from the books once the display comes down).

One of our Library Student Assistants came up with the decor idea. She suggested silhouettes that had quote bubbles that gave the illusion that the silhouettes were speaking. In the quote bubbles would be sayings like "I recommended TITLE OF BOOK" or "TITLE is my favorite book." This was such a great suggestion. I did a google search and found several different silhouettes that I brought into Photoshop and sized to approx 6.5". I then printed out all the silhouettes and we cut them out. I made sure to make an even amount of male vs female silhouettes. I then created some quote bubbles in Photoshop and using the lists I had of student recommended books I typed up the different sayings (being sure to pick an even number of boys and girls). I then printed out the bubbles and wrote either a G or a B on the back of each so I could match the right gender with the right gender silhouette.Here are some blank quote bubbles you can add your own text to.

Once it was time to put up the display I put two silhouettes on each shelf and added the quote bubbles. For the top of the display I made two large quote bubbles that said "Student Recommended" in one and "& Favorite Books" in the other.

That's all there is to it!