Harmony Day

Harmony Day is celebrated around Australia on 21 March each year. It's a day where all Australians celebrate their cultural diversity. The day is also the United Nation's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
For more details check out the following website: Harmony Day



























By Carrie
Shelagh Walsh, Library Technician from Barkly College Secondary, Northern Territory, Australia has sent us these photos of banners and displays that Carrie, her talented Library Aide, put together for Harmony Day a couple of years ago.
Shelagh says: 'The banners were made as a class activity by Middle School students and were then hung up. The display had hands with photos of some of our staff from other countries so that students and staff could gain an idea of what a multicultural school we are. We also followed this with a week long program of activities in the Library during lunchtimes with staff teaching handicrafts from other countries – e.g. floral garlands from Kiribati and origami from Japan'.

This is a great idea for those of you who have very litle wall space for displays - create hanging displays in the form of banners!
It is lovely that Carrie has used the children’s work to make the displays, they look amazingly bright and cheerful and I’m sure the students enjoy being reminded of their creativity when the visit the library.

Maori Language Week 4th - 10th July 2011

Maori Language Week is coming up soon.
The theme is "Manaakitanga” - respect for hosts and kindness to guests.

This website is an excellent resource for bilingual signage:
te reo Maori in Libraries

Check out the official website for information and ideas:
Maori Language Week

Back to School Bus

By Tonya Cross
Tonya works in the Children's Room of the Dayton Metro Library's Main branch (Ohio). Each month, 3 staff tackle 5 different display areas - quite a task! Last fall, her co-workers challenged Tonya to turn their large display case into a school bus for a "Back to School" display. She created this wonderfully bright display which I'm sure made every child feel welcome!
Well done Tonya, I love it!

Check out Dayton Metro Library's great website:
Dayton Metro Library

Wheels

By Elaine Pearson
Here's another one for the boys!
I visited 'Tony's Tyre Service' and got an old car tyre, cut out the letters to spell 'Wheels' stuck them to the tyre and collected together all my books on cars and bikes - fiction and non-fiction.
Cost - nothing!
Time - minimal!
That's the way we like it!





















PS The book 'Motormouth' by Sherryl Clarke is great. I use it with my reluctant reading group who love it because of the story and the fact that it is a verse novel so there is less text and lots of lovely white space on the page, with pictures too! A real winner. [Click on the picture for more details]

The Colourful World of Reading

By Alynn Tiongson
Alynn Tiongson from Bangkok has sent in a lovely colourful interpretation of Annalise Taylor's 'World of Books' display.
She cut a big circle using light blue poster paper then used small scrap coloured papers and folded them to look like books and handwrote different classic titles. She printed the title and mounted it with what was left from her blue poster paper.
The end result is very eye-catching. Thanks for sharing it Alynn.

Samoan Language Week

By Elaine Pearson
Talofa Lava
June 1st - 7th is Samoan Language Week, the dates selected to coincide with Samoan Independence Day on 1st June 2011
We invited some of our Samoan students to help with this display and found some of our best books about Samoa and Samoan tradition. Click on the picture to get a closer look. I think you will agree that they have done a great job!

Reading is Out of this World

By Nickie Slater
Nickie teaches at Eastern Hutt School in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. She enjoys creating displays to delight and inspire her students and has shared this lovely one relating to reading. It's great - thanks Nickie!

Dear Diary ...

By Elaine Pearson
This is another simple display. I printed off a copy of a diary page from google images, enlarged it and stuck it into an excercise book then cut the book to fit. I chose the date on the diary page to be the first day back to school next term. See the detail below.

















We have a wonderful and diverse collection of books written as diaries. I have found that many students love the way that diaries present as short chunks of reading and many reluctant readers feel more confident to pick one up.
The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series is proving to be popular with students of all levels and ages. You can see from the photo that we have the whole collection of the 'My Story' books, if students like them (and many do) they often like to read through them all. The Louise Rennison books hardly need promoting as they are rarely on the shelves and Liz Rettig has also become popular.

A World of Books

By Annalise Taylor
Annalise, the librarian at the International Community School in London (and originally from Auckland) has sent us this photo of the display she put together for World Book Day - A World of Books.

She says:
" It was very simple to construct. I selected all my blue or green books and laid them out in a rough circle on the floor. Thinner books were simply bluetacked to the wall. Thicker books had a rubber band around all of the book except the cover then were attached by 3m sticky pads (apparently/hopefully removable). I had some help from my book club and other students in the library at the time. The display has attracted so many remarks that I am loath to remove it - but we need the books back!"

It's a stunning display and a great idea. I bet it looks even more amazing from a distance! Thanks Annalise.

For anyone wanting more information about World Book Day Take a look at the website:

World Book Day

100

By Elaine Pearson
This super-quick, super-cheap display is a great way of bringing together books from different genres. I found books on painters, sports people, cakes, composers, engineering feats, just about everything .....
The covers that I have photocopied to brighten the display are from a series which I don't think is available anymore but you can use covers from any of the books you find in your library. The cartoon '100' was from Google images.

These fascinating books by Anna Claybourne have been very popular in our library:
100 Most Disgusting Things on the Planet
100 Most Awesome Things on the Planet
100 Most Dangerous Things on the Planet



Just out of interest I did a search on one of the online bookshops I use and got some very interesting hits. One for our reluctant boy readers which I have ordered:
Top Gear - 100 Fastest Cars



And one for me, which I have reserved at our local public library:
The 100 Thing Challenge by Dave Bruno



Happy Displaying,
Elaine