The Olympics continue! And with this huge, international gathering of incredibly talented people comes the opportunity for libraries to connect books and other cool information sources to your community members.
Whether or not you are watching the Olympics, or care about sports, or even know about all the different sports in the Olympics – there are people in your community who care a lot. Especially when you are dealing with reluctant readers of any age, or people who may not connect their interests with books, this is a great opportunity to show how relevant your collection is to the community!
So, what is happening today?
- badminton
- baseball
- basketball
- beach volleyball
- boxing
- cycling
- diving
- equestrian
- fencing
- field hockey
- golf
- gymnastics
- handball
- sailing
- shooting
- swimming
- table tennis
- tennis
- track and field
- volleyball
- water polo
- weight lifting
- wrestling
Of course, these sports do not just exist during the Olympics – you can set up programming and displays any time to help connect people to some books, and other resources, they may not know exists or may not think to ask for in your library. We get you started off with a few book ideas, fiction and nonfiction:
- Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team, by Elise Hooper
- Smells Like Stars, by D. Nandi Odhiambo
- Aquamarine, by Carol Anshaw
- We Ride Upon Sticks, by Quan Barry
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami
- The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances, by Matthew Inman/The Oatmeal
- Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, by Don Van Natta Jr.
- Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics, by Jeremy Schaap
- A Spectacular Leap: Black Women Athletes in Twentieth-Century America, by Jennifer H. Lansbury