Spotlight Program: Innovative Book Displays!

At CMLE, we so enjoy all our different types of libraries, archives, and other members! Seeing all the work you are doing is so inspiring; and we want to return the favor by helping you to find some of the great programming going on around the profession.

Each week we will share an interesting program we find. It may inspire you to do exactly the same thing; or to try something related; or just to try out some different programming ideas. (Check out our podcast episode on Library Programming; you can tune in here! Or, of course, subscribe or stream to enjoy any of the episodes!)

This week we are thinking about  great book displays! You can sign into Pinterest and see all kinds of great pictures to give you some other fun ideas to try in your library or archive.

I just love this photo from the Lacey Timberland Library! As a librarian, of course I have very low tolerance for banning books – especially for completely ridiculous reasons. This sign brings into the light some of these calls, so people can see them and think about the importance of freely accessible books and information. If you browse around Pinterest for other photos from this library, you will find all kinds of great displays!

Want more inspiration? Angie collected a bunch of great resources for you! Book displays are fun, because there is no “bad” way to do it. You just want materials to get into the hands of someone who wants to enjoy it – try something today, and see what happens!

You know that putting together book displays takes time and creativity. Some days, you are just not feeling it! When that happens, it’s handy to have some guidelines to help stimulate good ideas. Here is an article you can use to make your displays fun, useful, and to get those materials flying off the shelves: Twenty Rules for Better Book Displays by Susan Brown.

You want to use displays to help you fulfill your basic mission: Connecting your materials to your community.

We would absolutely love to see your displays! If you have a really small one, if you have a massive one, if your display is somewhere in between those – take a picture and send it to us! We want to feature some of our members in an upcoming article, so help us out.