Obligatory Display Blog

Well, I don't know how obligatory this really is, but my good friend Carrie from The Lion is a Book Worm has done a few in the past so I'm following suit and showing off a few of the simple displays the library currently features.

First I have the Read box that features all of my new fiction. I have very limited shelf space for displaying new books so many have to be spine out to fit them all on the shelf in an organized fashion. Since that doesn't bode well for circulation, I felt it needed a little something extra so...Read box.

 In the same room, I keep another bi-monthly display in the 2nd window bay. This April and May it's been all about fantasy. I just used Google image with the keywords "Dungeons and Dragons" and I got lots of cool pictures of fighters, rangers, clerics, wizards, dragons, and a few choice other images as well. I created the "Embark on an Epic Journey. Read Fantasy!" sign, using simple Microsoft Publisher, a downloaded Lord of the Rings Font and pasted it onto yellow construction paper. Simple and effective.




Finally, in the same room (Yes. The vast majority of my display space is in one room.) I have the kid art board. I cut the oval shaped sun out of construction paper while the rays are craft foam. It's all stapled to the board. Along the bottom, I made lots of cuts in green construction paper with the understanding that some of it would fall forward and give a more three dimensional look to the grass. I put some books up on the fireplace to make room on the Read Box Display. In the past this has been a Halloween display, and thanksgiving display, and a Christmas "Naughty or Nice" display. I was putting in a ton of effort into this board. In the winter and spring, I started running a story time every Wednesday, a Music and Movement program every Monday, a weekly book club for 4th/5th graders at a local school, a big family event every Thursday night and an outreach story time at at least 5 different preschools and country schools. Couple all of that with beginning the blog and the amount of weeding that I needed to do, the board kind of slipped under my radar for awhile. By springtime I was ready for this board to be dedicated to only kid work. All I did in this instance was provide a tub of crayons, scissors, glue sticks, and construction paper stems. The kids did the rest. I even had a group of middle school students coloring flowers for a few days. I love kid work. It's proof that they still do, in fact, love their library.

 This is my new non-fiction display. I have been trying hard to update our non-fiction collection. The only things that circulate in that room on some days are dust particles. I'm sure that many of you have noticed a decline in your non-fiction circulation. Kids today don't need to look in a book to find out. Google is like having all the books crammed into one, and it's easy to find. And it gives you your answer right away! And it's fast! It's also suspect in it's accuracy at times and can lead a child to some...unpleasantness...The point is, you can't beat a book, but information updates very regularly. New discoveries are made and what seemed like groundbreaking information 5 years ago, has now been rendered obsolete. It can be difficult to keep up with. Well, in an effort to move the books out of the library, we did a large shift and weed to clear the space necessary for a small display. It has helped, especially when we have schools visiting.

I'm ending the tour with the first display I ever did, way back in August of 2013. It still stands to this day as the new picture book display. When I arrived, all the biographies were on these shelves in the same room as easy readers and picture books. This obviously didn't help their circulation any, so one of my first big tasks  involved weeding them down,(there were a LOT of old, beat up books) weeding the non-fiction so there would be room for them, and placing them back on the shelf. Not all of my new picture books from the last six months fit on this shelf. We also display them on top of the kid-sized book shelves that fit in the middle of the room. As you can see, there are four shelves put together. Each one has it's own purpose. This one is where the new fiction goes.

I also try to feature an author each month, but so far, only Rosemary Wells has had enough books published to withstand a month of almost constant circulation. Seriously, if you want to expose your patrons to an author they may not be aware of, this is a great idea...just expect your shelf to look a little empty from time to time like this one does.






I also try to feature one or two concepts each month. These range from seasonal books, to holiday books, to ABC and 123 books, to...well...outer space books. I have also featured find-it and I spy on these shelves as well.





So how do you like to display your books? If you are in a smaller library, how do you make use of your limited shelf space?

Suggestions and ideas are welcome. Be nice.