RA Tips from Staff: Create Displays Using Monthly Themes

Displays are a great way to promote the collection, especially the back list. 

Do you create displays for your library? Always on the look-out for new ideas or themes to use with a display? An easy way to find ideas for display themes is to check for holidays or events being celebrated each month.

Try picking a theme tied to the current month and create a display. Pull some older titles from your shelves along with a few new titles and be sure to include multiple formats (Audiobooks, Music, DVDs/Blu-rays, even highlight titles available in eMedia) and reading levels (Adult, YA/Teen, Children's) so there is something for everyone.

There are plenty of themes to work with in May. Saturday, May 2nd is Free Comic Book Day and staff may be hearing the catch phrase "May the 4th be with you!" from eager movie fans on Monday, May 4th: Star Wars Day.

You probably know about Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) but did you know that at Booklist Online 'May is Mystery Month'? Why not create a display with all kinds of mysteries?

Were you aware that May 7th will be the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Lusitania? You could include titles on ships, naval disasters or expand it with a World War I theme. 

Did you know that International Nurses Day is May 12th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale? May 10th is of course, Mother's Day but did you know that May 15th is the International Day of Families? 

The month of May is also National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, National Military Appreciation Month as well as the month in which Memorial Day is celebrated, on May 25th in 2015. 

Any of these would be a great theme to use for a display and there are plenty of others you could tap into throughout the year! 

Does your library own a copy of Chase's Calendar of Events but you don't always have access to it? Could you use some online tools which may help by providing similar types of information? Here are a few I've found which may be useful:

Consider famous daily, a website that tells you "what makes today special." You can enter a month and day to see what makes that specific date special or you could subscribe and have an email delivered to you each morning with birthdays, historical events, holidays, and a famous quote for the day.

Or you could check out HistoryOrb.com,founded in 2000 which has over 200,000 entries with extensive 'Today in History' archives. The Search box allows users to hunt by person, event, place, or date. The site provides searching by Famous Birthdays, Weddings, Famous Deaths, Famous People, as well as by date, day, country, or year.

Another site is History.com's This Day in History which reflects the current date although a calendar can be accessed for the present month as well as past and future months. The site provides links to videos related to the topics specific to the date and also provides an RRS link as means to subscribe via email for a daily post.

Or take a look at National Awareness Days, a British website created as a directory of awareness days. The site is arranged by month and includes International, American, British and European awareness days. You can subscribe and receive monthly AWARENESS DAYS ALERT emails or follow their blog to be notified about specific upcoming events. 

What date related tools or websites do you use to find ideas for creating displays? Share them through the Comments link.

Halloween Reading Traditions

It's the time of year for ghosts, ghouls, and scares, all to be topped off with Trick or Treat on October 31st! 

Were you aware that Karen Golab (GA) traditionally re-reads Ray Bradbury's classic novel Something Wicked This Way Comes every October? Karen's tradition got me to wondering ...

Do any other SCCCLD staff have a similar October reading habit? Do you re-read an old classic horror story? Maybe you just read / listen to / watch something scary to get in the mood for Halloween. [FYI ... there is also a very scary movie based on Bradbury's book which stars Jason Robards and has the marvelous Jonathan Pryce as a devilish Mr. Dark!]

If you're looking for some Halloween reading, consider one of the seven very scary titles, some old, some new, discussed in the following article: Great Reads: Horror Directors Who Became Authors from Booklist Online.

The district owns or has On Order all but one of these books! We owned copies of Fountain Society by Wes Craven at one time but unfortunately no longer and it is now Out of Print and sad to report, not available to reorder. You could request it through ILL though!

So what are YOU reading for Halloween? Use the Comments box and tell the SCCCLD staff all about it! 

RA Tip: One Blog to Bind Them - The Booklist Reader

The lovely and clever folks at Booklist and Booklist Online have launched a new one-stop access point for all their great blogs: The Booklist Reader

"Launched in September 2014, The Booklist Reader provides a single home for the respected and well-established Booklist Online blogs: Likely Stories, Book Group Buzz, Bookends, Audiobooker, and Shelf Renewal, all brought to you by Booklist Publications, a part of the American Library Association."

In REaDAlert - Newsletter # 137 - October 2, 2014, Keir Graff, editor for Booklist Online, describes the new site as "One Blog to Bind Them" 

Check out The Booklist Reader and follow all your favorite Booklist blogs at once!

Links from the Staff - Week of September 14 - 20, 2014

Posted this past week by your co-workers in the district:

• Louise P. Cheli (SP Reference) mentioned she "recently read Joyce Saricks article, "In Praise of Browsing," (Booklist Online) and as usual, (Saricks) had insightful observations, suggestions and ideas." (9/18/2014)

• Display idea from Joyce: "...pull titles only from those bottom shelves, where good books languish."
• Quotes from the above link: 
• "Browsing also gets us into the stacks, where we’re more likely to come upon readers and to start conversations. Librarians behind the desk can seem forbidding, but librarians loose in the stacks are fair game, more open to conversations and sharing titles." 
• "If we’re open to the power of browsing and the magic of serendipity, we become more open to all possibilities, more able to meet readers, listeners, and viewers wherever they are."
• Posted by Anna Sylvan (MK) - a TED talk from Mac Barnett ...(9/17/2014)
• "Childhood is surreal. Why shouldn't children's books be? In this whimsical talk, award-winning author Mac Barnett speaks about writing that escapes the page, art as a doorway to wonder -- and what real kids say to a fictional whale."