Unwrap the Gift of Reading

By Amanda Buschmann

What wonderful creativity and imagination there is in our libraries!

Thanks to Amanda for sharing her brilliant idea - 'Unwrap the Gift of Reading' 

Here are here comments:

'Here is a display currently running in my middle school library located in Humble, Texas (a suburb of Houston). I spun it off of a Valentine's Day "Go on a blind date with a book" display I saw on Pinterest. Essentially, my library aides chose books that they thought students would enjoy/be excited about. We wrapped them and on the covers put the following info: barcode (to check them out), genre, and good for boys/girls (middle school boys are especially sensitive about this).

It is a hit! Sorry about the blurry second photo, but I also wanted to share the "rules" I set up for the students so they wouldn't keep checking out books, unwrapping them, and then checking them back in. They have to give the book a "chance"--meaning read it for a few chapters--before deciding to return it.

The students get really excited when they realize they get to unwrap a book! I have boys who have been in our school suspension program actually pay their fines so that they are able to check out these books. Very cool! :)'

Christmas is coming ...

By Donna Le Marquand 

Donna has cleverly used withdrawn books to make Christmas decorations for her library - good one Donna, thanks for sharing!

Movember

By Elaine Pearson - inspired by Anne Foster

Here's my take on Anne's fabulous Movember display!

Dr Seuss

By Sue Kay

Sue's primary school is looking at the fabulous Dr Seuss books ... hence a display needed to be done quickly (is there any other way???).

Here are her comments: 'I just love the happy red and white stripes that just scream Dr Seuss to me. We are presenting a small item for our final assembly for the year so we are needing to make some red and white striped hats. The students are really enjoying the amazing stories from Dr Seuss'.

Thanks for this display Sue, Dr Seuss books are timeless and priceless aren't they!

November 24th 2013 - The Day of the Doctor - 50 Years of Dr Who

By Gabrielle Karsai

November 24th 2013 is The Day of the Doctor – to celebrate 50 years of Dr Who!
To celebrate this special day Gaby put together this fun Dr Who display. She fortunately has a teacher on staff who is a Dr Who tragic and was able to supply most of the props!

Thank you and well done Gaby - I can see why it has been one of your most popular displays!

We moustache you to check out these great books!

By Anne Foster

I love this quirky and humorous display from Anne -  Library Media Assistant at Webber Middle School.

It's a great display promoting a very worthy cause.

Here are the details from Anne:

'Our middle school participates each year in “No Shave November”, where teachers grow beards in support of men’s health research. Students can donate spare change to the teacher they feel has the best beard. The money raised goes to support one of our students who is battling brain cancer.

I created this display after seeing the posters and removable moustache stickers at the Demco website. I then pulled all the books I could find with faces on the front cover. I added the removable stickers and made my display.

We also purchased moustache bookmarks to give to students. At the end of November, we will have a ‘moustache’ dress up day where students can buy self-sticking moustaches and wear them. Proceeds from the sales will also go to support our student in her fight against cancer'.

The Titanic

By Michelle Walsh

This lovely display from Michelle was created for the Junior School Library (years pre-prep to five) to promote a display of books and a library competition on the Titanic.

Thanks for sharing Michelle - it's gorgeous!

Graphic Novel Art Competition

By Denise Borck

This is a great idea to involve students who love graphic novels and illustration.
Should boost the loans of graphic novels too!
For more information check out the post on Denise's Blog: Life in the Library 

*Thanks for sharing Denise.

Digital Citizenship

By Denise Borck

Thanks to Denise for sharing her most recent display. This is such an important topic. 

For more information about Denise's interactive bulletin board with a digital citizenship theme see her Blog : Life in the Library 

Remembrance Day 2013

                                                

By Barbara Plumb

Thanks to Barbara for sending another great display. Here are her comments:

'The attached photos are my current Remembrance Day Display – I found a lovely roll of old Commonwealth Veterans' Affairs posters and updated them to 2013. Then I printed out some historical photos from Google images (some from World War II and some from the current conflict in Afghanistan).

Add to that a selection of war fiction and some subject relevant non-fiction – plus a few home-made red poppies and I was nearly done.
I chose the poem "In Flander's Field" by John McCrae to provide the focus for the entry into our reading room.
I hope the display provides a little inspiration to our students to read a little about their history'.

The Power of Quotes for Inspiration

By Senga White

This is a fabulous idea from Senga! 

How many times have you seen a quote you love and promptly forgotten it, or the source? 

Senga, her colleagues and students will have daily inspiration as they save and display quotes, adding to them as they discover new ones.

Have a look at Senga's Blog: Senga's Space for more details.

Steampunk

By Gabrielle Karsai

Thanks to Gabrielle who has sent in this gorgeous and inspiring display! I can imagine the fun students had taking photos using the props provided. Here are Gabrielle's comments:

'We had the writer Richard Harland visit the school promoting his latest book Song of the Slums, so I put together this Steampunk display to support his visit.
I spent a weekend trawling through op-shops and recycling centres for bits & pieces that I could then arrange on the hats and vest.
The steampunk figures I found on a costume-hire website and I just enlarged, laminated and carefully cut them out. I made airships by printing them on overhead transparency sheets & hanging with fishing line. To make all the cogs I created a template, traced them onto different coloured board, cut them out & used an inkpad to make them look a bit ‘used and abused’.
I also bought in a box of Photobooth props – moustaches; bowties; glasses & pipes and our students popped on a hat and posed in front of the display. This proved to be incredibly popular'.

Haunted

 By Elaine Pearson

I liked Karen Waschinski's idea of using 'haunted' as a theme for Halloween so I came up with this easy display.

The window is made from four sheets A4 paper. I chose a coloured background and simply inserted clip art pictures of spooky stuff. The letters were printed on card, cut out and strung on string. 

Leaf through a good book

By Susan Duncan

Thanks to Susan, Library Assistant at Lester B. Pearson High School for this display. Here are her comments:

'I covered a tabletop tri-fold with brown Kraft paper then traced a projected clip art image directly onto it. An outline in black paint and a bit of brown sponged color ended up giving me this very cute tree who is so obviously shocked to see all his leaves falling off. A fall garland tacked along the bottom of the display finishes it off quite nicely. Keeping with the fall colours theme, I choose books on a variety of topics to display on the counter around it'.

I do love your tree Susan!

Haunted

By Karen Waschinski 

At Stratford Public Library Karen is getting into the Halloween mood with two displays.

This one is called "Haunted" - here are her comments: 

'The Haunted display has spooky nostalgic items and a dark tone: an antique camera, a broken clock, a lock of hair tied with a black ribbon, along with a beautiful soft sculpture lady bear... doesn't she look like a mourner walking through a graveyard?' 

Thanks for sharing Karen - it is nice to see some different approaches for Halloween.

Get ready for Halloween

By Karen Waschinski 

At Stratford Public Library Karen is getting into the Hallowe'en mood with two displays.

This one is called "Getting ready for Hallowe'en" and features three crafts along with books to help you dig in: paper mache, card making and fabric pumpkin making.

Thanks for sharing Karen - it is nice to see some different approaches for Halloween.

Halloween

By Susan Kay

Sue needed a quick display to tide her over while preparing displays for her school's 75th reunion in November. This is pretty good for a quick display and will certainly draw the students' attention to the books - which is what it's all about! Thanks Sue and I hope the reunion goes really well.

Here are Sue's comments:

'I had bought this piece of fabric last year for next to nothing so that was my starting point. I pinned it up then added the net and a few black witches, pumpkins and boo signs. I had made the red back spider last year for a school assembly so that was dusted off and suspended from the ceiling. An old purple cloth was used on the display table and spooky books were collected from the shelves. That's it....done. Good enough to get me through the first couple of weeks of next term'.

eBooks

By Barbara Plum

Thanks for this display Barbara. It's a really good idea to promote an eBook collection by display, they can otherwise remain a 'hidden' collection for many students who still browse the shelves rather than search the catalogue. I like the way you have framed the book covers with an iPad.

Here are Barbara's own comments on her display:

'Over the past twelve months our library has been building a collection of e books for use by students and staff. To date loans have been less than impressive. So to promote this new resource I decided to mount a display featuring some of the titles we have and reminding the students of the steps they need to follow to borrow an e book.

Fingers crossed we may manage to spark some more interest in this new direction for libraries'.

Spring into a Good Book

 

By Elaine Pearson 

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris ..... this suspended host of golden daffodils gently wave in the breeze as the students wander by .....

                                    ...... hopefully they will stop and take out a book!

Clouds and daffodils from Google images clip-art, printed on card and hung from green stalks. Happy Spring Southern Hemisphere folks! To those up North - search for 'Autumn' or 'Fall' in the search box for some great ideas.

Back to the Books

By Stephanie Trzeciakiewicz

Welcome to a new school year all those in the Northern Hemisphere - hope it's a good one! 

Thanks to Stephanie for sharing her 'Back to School' display. It's great that she was able to recycle book covers used in previous displays. Here are her comments:

'Here is my Back to School display. I cut out giant letters that read Back to the Books and centered them on our HUGE bulletin board outside the library. I then surrounded the letters with different sized book covers. It has gotten a lot of attention when people stop to see which books they have read and which books they would like to read. Believe it or not, about 80 percent of the book covers were ones I had saved from past displays, and only had to print out some of our newer titles. Took a lot of staples, though!'

Missing Book Titles

By Barbara Plumb

Check out this fun interactive display from Barbara at  Trinity Catholic College, Lismore, Australia.

Here are her comments:

'I called the display "Missing Book Titles" and it has generated quite a deal of interest from students and staff.

After printing A3 sized colour posters of well known book covers I removed a word from the title and replaced it with a strip of velcro. I then printed out the missing words along with a selection of different words to keep the students guessing and attached a strip of velcro to the back of the words.
Some students like to see how fast they can arrange the titles correctly, some like to have a bit of fun and mix the titles up – "Breaking Dawn" and "Gone with the Wind" for instance, dawn and wind being the missing words!'
It has been a very successful interactive display, encouraging students to engage with each other, teachers and library staff'.

Read Across the Universe (Book Week 2013 - Australia)

By Sue Kay

Sue has shared this lovely bright display for Book Week 2013. Here are her comments:

'We have just had book week which had the theme of 'Read across the Universe' this year. Here are a couple of quick snaps from the display I did. I tried to incorporate the featured book week books and also draw on the space theme a little. Our kids all love the space theme and as we only go to year 4 so I need to make my displays suitable for that age group'.