Smurfy Halloween!

The librarians that worked on the first floor on Halloween loved the idea of dressing up 

with a theme. So we went with smurfs. The library provided props and felt hats. We had fun and got a lot of complements throughout the day. Only a few thought we were elves:)

Front row: Hefty Smurf (Courtney) and Jokey Smurf (Ramona)
Back row: Vanity Smurf (Becky), Brainy Smurf (Rebecca), Papa Smurf (Donovan),  Harmony Smurf (Kath Ann), and Painter Smurf (Kathryn).

We also had a haunted maze for the little kids. I will post pictures of that later (I hope).

Books That go Bump in the Night

Halloween Book Display

During the month of October we get asked for scary books multiple times a day. So it was no surprise when I decided to put together a "scary books" display. I decided to call it  
Books That go BUMP in the Night. 
 For the black side I used a black garbage bag and clipart was found in Microsoft Publisher 2007

Display from the front featuring books and audiobooks for all ages that are scary or Halloween themed.

Fuzzy view of the display.

Better view of one side. View of the other side of the display. I really liked the clip art for this. Monsters that weren't to scary. Poster that was placed on the top of the display.

Fiber Arts

A few years ago we started a tradition and it has become part of our summer reading program. We have participated in World Wide Knit in Public Day (more info here). We invite all ages and skill levels to come work on their fiber arts and hang out at the library. We talk about books and current events while we knit, crochet, embroider, cross stitch, or even hand sew.   Library patrons knitting and crocheting in the middle of the first floor of the library as they celebrate World Wide Knit in Public Day. This also inspired us to have some fiber art groups that meet at the library. We have Knifty Knitting -Crazy Crocheting, which meets every Wednesday at 4pm. This group is mostly for children or those who are learning the skills. Then we also have Spin a Good Yarn that meets twice a month on Thursday evenings. This group is for adults and we also talk about books while we work on our projects.

Banned Books Week 2014

Celebrating our Freedom to Read anything we choose! View as you enter the library. Poster is from ALA. This was a fun display to put together. I used caution tape, a poster from ALA, and a cute graphic I found on Google (shown below graphic found here) . Poster made for the top of the display shelves. On one side of the display I posted a list of the top 100 banned books from 2000-2009. Lists found here. I also posted this explanation that is from an article I wrote for our newsletter. What is banned books week?           Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. This year it is held September 21-27, it highlights the value of free and open access to information.           We would like to celebrate the freedom to read by displaying several books that have been challenged across the nation. A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.  Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice. And, YES, these books do check out. Celebrate your freedom to read and check one out today. View of shelf and bookmarks that match the poster. View from the front. Side with lists and explanation.

Read Box

When you go to the grocery store or even to Wal-mart or Freddy's there seems to always be a Red Box for DVD rentals. These red boxes have become more and more popular over the years and it seams like the are all over the place. So I took this idea and pulled books that were made into movies and made a READ BOX.

 To make my display red I used a red plastic table cloth. I Googled the images of book covers and printed them so they would all be the same size. This display was so popular that we ended up leaving it up all summer.

Fizz, Boom, READ bulletin board

The 2014 summer reading program theme was Fizz, Boom, Read. We had lots of programs based around this fun science theme. So to keep our patrons informed we had this bulletin board. To make the board I used the clip art provided by the Collaborative Summer Reading Program. Then made a spot for each age group to post their events for the summer.

 Each month we would switch out the sheets of paper to list the current months activities for children, young adults, and adults. We had record numbers register and attend our activities this year.

Let's Get Started

Having worked in a public library for over 15 years I have had some fun displays, bulletin boards, programs, and ways to share information about literature to the public. As I was going through pictures saved to my SD card I decided that I would share these ideas with you. I hope that my ideas may inspire you to pick up a book and/or share displays in your own library or classroom. Ok, here it goes--
:) Becky