September: Banned Books Week (Display 2) Books Under Fire

Our second Banned Books display was inspired by several displays I have seen on pinterest using "fire." I called it "Books Under Fire."

I started by creating a resource list in Destiny of as many banned books as I could find in our OPAC. I needed as many hardback books as possible because of the decor I was putting on the books. One of our parent volunteers then took the list and pulled several books. I picked 24 hardback books and began research each one to find a summary of when it was banned or challenged and a year. I made a template in Photoshop for banned books and one for challenged books. Depending on which option fit I would paste in the summary for that book.

I printed all the banned books onto yellow paper and all the challenged books onto dark peach paper (I was trying to stick to the colors of fire). I then cut the paper down to fit each book and covered the entire right side of each cover.

For the fire I googled fire clip art and enlarged two images to use as templates. I cut the fire out of red, orange and yellow construction paper.

I made a sign for the top of the display using fire graphics.

September: Facebook Display

It is the start of a new school year and new displays! I found an awesome interactive Facebook themed display on pinterest from The Punny Librarian and since the Library has a dedicated Facebook page I thought this was a great idea to begin the new school year.

Students were encouraged to "Like" their favorite books by taking a "Like" bookmark, provided on the display, and placing it in their favorite books on the shelves in the stacks. In the top left corner of the display I put a sign explaining the interactive aspect of the display. My sign is only about 8", which is all the room I had, in the Punny Librarian's Display she created a very large sign, which would have been great if I had the space.

I then made several signs using Facebook logos and icons that I found on google and placed them all over the display.

I created the bookmarks by putting the "like" thumbs up on the top of the bookmark and then the word "Like" below it. Below that I told the students to like our Facebook page and provided the link. To hold the bookmarks I made a small sign and folded in the sides and base and taped it to the display:

June: Books Into Movies Display

Book Into Movies Display! There are several YA books being turned into movies this year. This is a perfect opportunity to gain student interest. The last two years we have made a books into movies display that features all recently released as well as upcoming movies. Playing off of the popular "Call Me Maybe" song I created signage for the display, the keywords I made pink and the rest I left black. I also backed each word with a colored piece of construction paper:

To entice the students even further I created a QR code that links to the movies trailer. Each book, that has a trailer available, showcases a QR code on the front cover. Here are some of the codes (you may want to check to see the links are still active):

I then created signs to display on the shelves. The first sign just told gave the display title along with some movie posters:

The second sign gave the title and explained about the QR codes:

The third sign I made smaller 5" x 7" and it was just a common saying that I am constantly saying/hearing:

On the lower shelves of the display I put books that were being turned into movies, yet their trailers were not released yet. I called these "coming soon":

I also added stars to the coming soon books with their projected movie release date:

The display is a lot of fun, please feel free to use any of the signage/ QR codes.

April: Earth Day Display

April 22nd was Earth Day and the library created two displays to highlight the libraries "Earth Day" inspired books.

The display was really quick to put together. After the last week celebrating National Library Week and all the events we held, there was not much time to put together a huge display. I created two signs for the displays, one for each book case. They are really simple:

I then cut out some clouds, butterflies and snails and decorated the bookcase with them:

That's all there was to it, please feel free to use the signs or template.

April: Quotes, Quotes, Quotes Display

You may have seen the article on Buzzfeed featuring "28 of the Most Beautiful Libraries in the World" along with a quote about libraries on each image. I first saw this article on Facebook and I shared it on our library facebook page. A few weeks later it came to my attention again from our Library Director. The middle school librarian suggested we turn it into a display, such a great idea. I went ahead and created the following display with it as my inspiration.

I started by creating a resource list of every book the library had by the authors who's quotes were featured in the article. We only had about 22 of the 28 (although Mark Twain is repeated). I then found books in our collection on quotes and added these. Our library parent volunteer is so helpful when it comes to displays, she pulled all the books from the list and found more books that fit the overall theme of the display.

I then typed up all the quotes from the article that we had matches of books by author for. This was tedious, but necessary for what I had in mind for the display. (I am sure I could have searched for the quotes and then copy and pasted them, but hindsight....) I created quote bubbles in Photoshop and made them different colors. I put one quote in each bubble:

 I also typed up some of the quotes by "anonymous" to use as extra decor. I then printed out blank quote bubbles to place around the edge of the display. Out goal was to get students to write their favorite quote about libraries in the blank quote bubbles. I wrote in a few of the bubbles directions for the students to write their own quote:

A volunteer and I cut out all the quotes and quote bubbles. She then taped the matching quote to the corresponding book by the author. We taped all the blank quote bubbles and the ones with the directions around the edges of the display. We taped the three anonymous quotes around the edges as well. I then wrote a quote in one of the bubbles and so did our parent volunteer (To show the students what we meant).

For signage I created one that told the students about the display and asked them to write a quote, it also had a QR code that links to the article we were inspired by.

To advertise our display I made a second image for use on our website and facebook page:

Please feel free to use any of the signage. I hope this inspires you to view the article and create a display!

March: St. Patrick's Day Display

 St. Patrick's Day display:

 It's St.Patrick's Day and it's time to make the library pinch proof! Displays featuring all books in a single color are popular. I have seen several versions on Pinterest and various blogs with captions such as "I don't know the name but the cover was blue." St. Patrick's Day is the perfect time to pull all your green books and feature them in a display!

To liven up the display a bit I added some "gold coins." These are cute circle garlands in bright yellow. I cut the garland into several pieces and taped it behind and between books on the shelves. You can find the garland and similar items on Etsy at BaileyHadAParty

I then added paper shamrocks to the display. You can make these in several ways but what I found easiest was to cut out hearts. I then tapped together 3 or 4 hearts depending on if I wanted a three leaf or a four leaf clover. You could also take the 3d layered hearts that I used in the Blind Date with a Book display and put three or four of those hearts together to make an unique shamrock.

I would love to hear about your St. Patrick's Day displays!

Crafts: DIY Paper Bird

How to make a paper bird:

Last year I ran across a post on Pinterest on how to make a curly paper bird. (You can find the instructions on Spoonful). The birds turned out very cute and I used them to decorate a summer themed display.

This year I wanted to make a different bird, preferably one with wings. I searched Pinterest and I was unable to find a bird that I liked or if I did like a bird it was too complicated for me to make. So I came up with my own bird, here are the instructions, I hope you like it!

What you will need:
construction paper: you can use multi-colored or make the bird all one color, you will need a separate color for the beak.
tape
staples
stapler
scissors
printer (If you want to use my wing and tail template)

I began by tracing out wings for the bird. You can make your own wings or print out my wing template (you will need to cut out two, if you are making a smaller or larger bird you can scale the image using your print preview settings):

I then cut out 2" strips from matching colored construction paper. If you want to make your bird multicolored you would want to cut at least one 2" strip from an alternate color. (The body can have up to 3 circles and the head 2) The longest body strip was 7", the longest head strip was 4"

I wanted the bird's head and body to have the curly circles like the bird from Spoonful, to achieve this you need to cut the center circle strips for the body and head approx 1" shorter than the outer circle strips.

Beginning with the inner most circle strip for the body, roll up the strip and tape the ends together. Then roll up the next strip and tape it to the inner circle.

Once you have completed the body you can roll up the head following the same steps.

For the tail I used three layers, I just cut a shape that seemed like a tail to me. You can follow this template (I would alternate the layers, maybe make the center layer only have two curves)

To give the wings a 3D effect, I rolled the tips of the wings up and stapled them together. Here are pictures to explain better:

I then put the bird together, I tape the head onto the body by folding up a small piece of tape. I then taped the tail onto the body. For the wings I inserted the stapled part into the body (between the outer most circle and the middle circle) and then I stapled it onto the body. (I backed it up with a small piece of tape. The last thing I did was make the beak. I cut out a hourglass shape from orange construction paper and then I taped the ends together. I folded up a small piece of tape and taped the beak onto the head.

I bent the tail and wing feathers so they would have a more 3D effect. I then taped the bird to the display and I think it gives the illusion that the bird is flying.

I hope you will be able to use these instructions to make your own paper birds!