December Library Display, 2013

So here's a new idea.  I'm going to start making posts about our library displays each month.  How we came up with the idea, how we executed, and so forth.

Boring?  Why, yes, it is!

But I do spend a lot of time online looking for display ideas, and if our humble efforts can inspire someone else, then how awesome is that?

So I'll be working in reverse....

Here's December, 2013!

"Get Wrapped Up in a Good Book"

This is our actual display shelf.  It's really the only place we can put books, so we have to be really creative with making it look interesting.  We're lucky in that we have bulletin board paper we can use to put in the background.

 This was our first effort to decorate the circulation desk - we reused the flames from our banned books display back in September, and with a little donated tree made it look very cheerful.

 

Our library is in a building shared with other tenants (not part of the college).  We are on the first floor, right next to the main door.  So our interior windows face the hall, and we like to do something on those that match our display theme inside.  Usually we have print books inside, and we highlight various ebooks on the window.

 Finally - my favorite.  The dry-erase board!  We have a board on wheels that we roll into the hall each morning, and it usually says something like "Welcome to the library". I love drawing, so I decided to start making the welcome sign more festive!

Nuts and bolts:

I try not to spend more than a few dollars on the displays.  We get some supplies from the main campus library (which has several huge bulletin boards).  Sometimes I bring in stuff I already have (like the tree) or I'll go to the dollar store and see what I can scrounge up.  The ribbon was left over from a project at home, and I didn't mind using the remainder at work.  We're fortunate to have a color printer, so we use that for the MS Publisher signage and the book covers.

Finding books to go with our theme is the most difficult.  We're a tiny library, so sometimes we just don't have enough books in the stacks to fill the display shelves.  But we're lucky in that we can have books sent from some of our other campus libraries, and fill in that way.  (And that also lets our patrons know that we have access to more than what they see!)

We decided to go with interesting books you might give as gifts.  We looked for ones with interesting covers or unusual subjects.

And that's December!