Book Displays are Working!

This week I watched a student take a book from one of the displays I had set up, take it to the circulation desk, and check it out! Awesome.

She chose a book from the display called: "Coming Soon to a Theater Near You". That display is a popular one. The book she selected is not the only one to be taken from that display this week. So, not only have I been working to supplement that display, I have been working on other ways to put books of interest in the paths of students.

A personal favorite is a display of fiction and non-fiction books the authors of which delivered really interesting TED Talks. I created a Google slide show with cover images and a QR code linked to the TED Talk page, printed it, and hung it on a screen the borders the entrance to the library.

Then, for Open House night, I added some panels to this screen so I could expand the display. When parents came to visit us, I invited them to recommend a favorite book. If they were interested, I took their picture and created another slide show with parent pictures and the covers of their favorite books. As soon as the first two parent book recs were hanging, it gained traction and more parents offered suggestions. I plan to continue to build the display next week by interviewing our parent volunteers and adding their favorite reads to the display.

I hope to curate a list of reading recommendations from each of the departments and feature a different department each month. I plan to start with the science teachers and introduced the idea to them at their department meeting last week. This week, I will visit them in their classes and collect their suggestions. That also gives me a chance to invite them to bring their classes to the library for book talks. Our English teachers promote independent reading by doing this -- I would love to see other departments do that as well. How great to have not just independent, but also interdisciplinary reads!

One of the other cool features of this book display, is that the opposite side behind the book recs faces into the MakerSpace and is a vibrant display of student art created on the paper with which we cover the tables. And to think, these were metal screens slated for disposal at a town facility, that my co-librarian, Michelle, saw and grabbed for our library. How apt that we are making for our MakerSpace!