'Thankful for books' - Library Life

I know Thanksgiving is over and everyone is in full on holiday mode, but I thought better late than never to share with you my November bulletin board display.I made a giant turkey that is very Thankful for books!

I made the turkey out of construction paper and drew him by hand. The letters were made with my silhouette machine.

Monsters Display - Library Life

Since October is upon us it was time to update my display! I was trying to think of a good idea for this one. I didn't want anything too scary or too cheesey. I didn't want to put 'Read BOOOOOks'. I like a good pun but I wanted something clever! When I came across the quote 'A Book a Day Keeps the Monsters Away'  I knew what to do!

I had my quote, now I needed some monsters! I thought I would use some literary monsters including: Leonardo (the terrible monster), Ed Emberly's Big Green Monster, Grover and Mike Wiskowski. I enlisted the help of our resident artists, Morgan and Annmarie. They constructed these guys and they came out awesome! The used some cool spooky fonts on picmonkey and cut the letters out on my silhouette machine.

Banned Book Week Display - Library Life

Last week was Banned Book Week. You might be wondering, 'Why is the library promoting such scandalous books?' Well the only thing that is a scandal is that books are being challenged and removed from the collection! A person has the right to challenge a book that they find offensive, however the removal of said book denies other people the right to read it. The books that have been banned or challenge will surprise you. Its not all steamy teen novels! Captain Underpants, Where the Wild Things Are and Harry Potter are all books that have been banned. Banned Book Week is intended to raise awareness and make readers realize and exercise their right to choose whatever they want to read!

I teamed up with another librarian, Colleen. We both came across some pictures of people posing with banned books in a faux police line up. Colleen handled the creation of the police line-up and book together other promotional materials and organized a raffle. I helped by using the chalk board technique to make the sign kids held up.

I also made letters spelling out Banned Book Week. We put them on the window and they looked pretty cool. I took an old book and tore out the pages. Before you get all on my case about destroying a book... it was being weeded because it was super old and was a bit stinky. Also it was One Flew Over the Cuckoos' Nest a banned book! I used my super hand silhouette cameo and make the letters. I glue them on top of some card stock to reinforce it. I also had the letters laminated so that way we can use them again next year!

Library Card Sign Up Month Display - Library Life

We are in September, Fall time (ya-hoo!) This is also library card sign up month. To celebrate I made a very bulletin board display that is all about libraries!

I thought about doing another back to school display, like last year, however, I decided to switch it up a bit. Besides,the rest of the room was pretty decked out in with a back to school theme. First thing I needed for this display was a good quote! I am a librarian that like’s to pun-tificate and come up with cheesey rhymes, so I was excited when I found this quote on pinterest inspired by Arthur! Now that I had my quote, I needed a fun visual element. I decided on making a giant library card, but whose card would it be?! I chose one of the most fun characters that I could think of, Mo Willem’s Pigeon! Now that I had all of my ideas organized, it was time to put it all together!

For the background, I used a vynil table cloth from the dollar store. They make bulletin board displays so easy because they are lightweight and won't fade. I chose a nice red (because it goes with our library’s colors) For the giant library card, I used some oak tag and cut a square in it (for the ‘patron’ picture). I used some sharpie’s to make the library’s logo and it came out pretty good for free-handing it. Next my friend Annmarie drew a Pigeon on some teal construction paper. I added some extra details and stuck him on the card.

For the quote I used my silhouette machine for most of the letters. I wanted to emphasis ‘Library card’. I found this printable of an old check out card, it’s from The Creative Place blog. I used this printable and formatted it in Microsoft publisher and added the letters on the cards. I printed them out and attached them to some card stock because they were a little flimsy. I strung some yarn across the display and attached the letters using tiny clothes pins.

It came together quite nicely and I think it looks great! Now I’m starting to think about my Halloween display!

Poet-tree Display

Hey its April which is Poetry Month! Here is a bulletin board display I did last year to celebrate...

It was a pretty simple display, as you can see. All I had to do was make a bare tree trunk. I invited the kids to make this tree full, by adding their own poems. I made up a leaf template and made copies on scrap paper (I'm all about recycling) Then I left some blanks out with a sign inviting them to either create their own poem or write one of their favorites  To get the tree started I made my co-workers all write a poem. To top it off, I made up some giant letters that I think add to the quirkiness of the display. 

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Where's Waldo (at the Library) - Library Life

January is kind of a quiet time at the library, so I thought it would be a great time for a contest! I had the Where's Waldo idea for a while and I wasn't able to do it until now! The idea is basically a scavenger hunt around the Children's room with characters from the Waldo series. So far it has been getting a good reaction and it is a lot of fun to watch kids try to find all of the characters. One day Tim came for a visit. I told him about the Waldo's and he felt the need to participate as well!

Here is how I ran the contest. I rounded up all of the characters which included Waldo, Woof, Wilma, Odlaw and Wizard Whitebeard. I found some images of them and had them laminated. I sent the aids to go on recon and hide the characters all over the children's room. They did a really great job because I had trouble finding them the first time. Next to keep track of entries, I made forms for kids to write their info. I also put small images of the characters so the kids knew who to look for.

Its a fun contest and the kids enjoyed it. This won't be the last of scavenger hunt type contests be sure to look for more in the future!

Back to School Display

Its that time of year, the kiddies are gearin' up to go back to school. Kids coming into the library get upset when they see our back to school books out, so this year I thought I might jazz up back to school with a display. I'm sure they will still be bummed that we are in the final days of summer and it won't make them any happier to see my display.. but at least I think its awesome. Maybe its also because for the first time in 18 years I don't have to worry about going back to school.

I had a bunch of left over paper towel rolls from back when I did my Star Wars program. I used them to make the pencil. Then I cut some in half to make the crayons. I was thrilled with how they came out and I loved how giant it looked. I kept on with the giant theme and make a big piece of loose leaf paper and a big ol' ruler.

Any of you getting in the back to school spirit?

Summer Reading Club Craziness!

In the midst of my life altering crazy summer, would you have thought work would be a welcome distraction. Not so because it was just as crazy! Its the summer always means the Summer Reading Club. Sadly this week is the last week, but I wanted to share how I helped decorate the library.

I was really loving the theme this year, Dream Big Read! Visions of night time creatures and bed time sleepiness and the night sky immediately came to mind. So we tried to make the room look like a dream wonderland.

The table is always something in keeping with the theme. Last year for the travel theme, we made it a travel agency desk. This year I suggested making a bed frame and it came out really great! We always use foam board for a lot of decorations but the bed was pretty warped as the paint dried. So I am going to try and think of a possible solution for next year.

Does that window behind the bed look familiar? If you are a librarian or teacher you will know. Its from the bedtime classic, Good Night Moon. My department manager had asked that we incorporate the story in the decorations and this window was a good idea because it not only fits the theme and looks great, but it fills up a bunch of dead space. I also made some pin wheels featuring the title of the theme. I am never one for glitter but it gave the pin wheels some pizazz!

Morgan did some amazing stuff as well. She took over the children's room window. It looks out into the rest of the library. Her and other library aides have done some amazing stuff with it. This year I remember her being a little stumped as to what to make. I suggested constellations. She took that idea and ran with it and made this amazing display!

We were searching for some ideas and inspiration. We spend some time drooling over the amazing displays by Rachel Moani. Her displays are incredible and really inspired us. I was excited because this helped show us what library displays could be ! It goes way beyond the ol' " {insert-witty-pun}...with a good book" it gets old after a while. So check her stuff out! Morgan used her tutorial on creating a giant book with vine popping out of it. It covered up this ugly column that is always a design issue!

I also had to come up with an idea for my own display!  I actually had the idea for my display way back in March. I got some inspiration while searching Pinterest. I was looking for Dr. Suess quotes when I came across this one....

I loved it and thought it went well with our theme. I think I had also recently watched Hugo around then so I put the two things together and thought it would be great to use the iconic image from a Trip to the Moon.

First a did a sketch of my design, which I always do and its really helpful because I kept getting some more ideas from it!  I decided that the moon would be done on a piece of foam board cut out in the shape of the moon. The rocket would be a seperate piece of foam board giving it a 3 dimensional look. I was originally going to to paint my moon man a yellow color but while digging around the craft closet I found some old yellow cellophane and it looked great without having to paint it! The next step was putting it all together. The library already had starry gossamer so I hunt that up. Ann Marie hung him up and made the rocket pop out! Then I made a shooting star with the the first part of the quotation on it, then put the rest throughout the rest of the scene. Here is the finished product. 

Now that its over we have to start coming up with some ideas for the fall and for my favorite time of year Halloween! I of course will keep you posted.