Episode 509: Displays

Welcome back to Season Five of Linking Our Libraries!

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange. Our members are libraries of all sorts. This season we are working through some skills that people in any kind of library will need to be successful in their work.

In this episode we will talk about one of the most visible parts of good library service: creating displays.  These are not just fun things, tho they are that! Your job is to get books and materials off your shelves and into the hands of your patrons. Good displays will  help make that happen!

This week we have returning Guest Hosts Ariel and Lydia, from the Great River Regional Library System, to help us get some ideas!

The Basics:

We are display fans! A well done display means that a patron will have a chance to have a new experience in the library, to discover a new topic, or to find more books they haven’t seen before this visit. Of course, they may also excitedly clutch old favorites when they are on displays. But you don’t need to be pushing huge best-sellers, you should be showing people other things to enjoy.

When you visit a library that does not have displays, or is not making an effort to sell their materials, it’s kind of depressing.  Remember: great collection development would mean that you get all those materials out of your library and taken home with people. If you want to encourage people to interact with your collection, instead of admiring the books neatly organized on shelves, you need to get them off the shelves and in people’s line of sight. Publishers spend a lot of time and money on the cover art to sell the book. Give it a chance to happen!

We’ve all chatted with people who are kind of nervous about setting up displays. Where would I even start? I don’t know how to do artistic things! How do you think of ideas? What if no one takes any books? Okay, that last one is a little crushing. But just toss the display and start over!

We will talk in more detail in a couple of minutes about some cool display ideas, and how to get them. But just know: there is not a wrong way to do a display!  Think about things you like. Someone else likes that too! Do you have a bunch of books on a topic? Go with that.

Do you know that the third graders are going to be studying Lewis and Clark? Obviously: pull out your resources on the expedition, but then start thinking about other materials you could add. Books on buffalo, books on canoeing, books on camping, books on using a compass, books on all different Native American tribes, book about other explorers, books about Thomas Jefferson, books on negative outcomes for tribes encounters Lewis and Clark and other explorers, books on traveling the Lewis and Clark trail or on road trips in general. There is no limit to the tangents you can take!

And what do you do when you are having the display equivalent of writer’s block? It happens to us all. But there are always ways to get around that. You aren’t ever going to go wrong with even a very simple display: pull out all the yellow books you see on your shelves and there you go – a display! Looking at Pinterest can be a great tool for finding ideas to use in your library, or to adapt to your materials. We give you some links in our shownotes page in our Additional Resources collection. Talk to other library people- and don’t limit yourself to just people in your type of library. If you are in a school library, chatting with an academic librarian could help you push materials relevant to students looking at college. If you are in a public library, talking with a medical librarian may give you some ideas you could adopt for your community’s interests.

We have talked about a lot of theories and ideas so far today; now let’s get get to the good parts  from Ariel and Lydia on how to make this work in real library work!

Questions for Our Guests:

  • Do either of you have any special training for doing displays? Do you have art backgrounds?
  • How do you decide on themes?
  • Do you have any standard display topics that you do every year?
  • What other materials other than books do you put on displays?
  • Do you put up any “challenging” or controversial display topics?
  • How long do you leave a display up?
  • What do you do to encourage people to take the books?
  • Do you have a favorite display?

Additional Resources:

Books Read

As always, all the book information we are sharing here is from Amazon.com. If you click on a link, and happen to buy a book – or anything else – Amazon will give us a small share of their profits on your sale. Yay! Thanks in advance for your support!

Ring of Bright Water, by Gavin Maxwell

Hailed as a masterpiece when it was first published in 1960, the story of Gavin Maxwell’s life with otters on the remote west coast of Scotland remains one of the most lyrical, moving descriptions of a man’s relationship with the natural world. And with more than one million copies sold, as well as a beloved film adaption, it stands as a timeless classic.

An evocative, passionate writer, Maxwell journeyed to southern Iraq on an adventure through the reed marshes. There he became captivated by the region’s rollicking otters, eventually bringing one home. Ring of Bright Water is the autobiographical account of Maxwell’s life with what became a trio of beloved pet otters, as well as a chronicle of the pastoral life at Camusfearna, Maxwell’s “kingdom by the sea.” Maxwell’s prose is buoyant, and his sense of wonder is infectious, making it easy to see why the book captured the attention of a nation, while its lessons of love and loyalty continue to resonate with animal-lovers around the world today.

Alien: Echo: An Original Young Adult Novel of the Alien Universe, by Mira Grant

Olivia and her twin sister Viola have been dragged around the universe for as long as they can remember. Their parents, both xenobiologists, are always in high demand for their research into obscure alien biology.

Just settled on a new colony world, they discover an alien threat unlike anything they’ve ever seen. And suddenly the sisters’ world is ripped apart.

On the run from terrifying aliens, Olivia’s knowledge of xenobiology and determination to protect her sister are her only weapons as the colony collapses into chaos. But then a shocking family secret bursts open―one that’s as horrifying to Olivia as the aliens surrounding them.

The creatures infiltrate the rich wildlife on this untouched colony world―and quickly start adapting. Olivia’s going to have to adapt, too, if she’s going to survive…

The Ides of April, by Lindsey Davis

Falco: The Next Generation––Flavia Albia has taken up her father’s profession. Only, now Rome is a more dangerous, mercurial place than it was back in dear old dad’s day . . .

Flavia Albia is the adopted daughter of Marcus Didius Falco and Helena Justina. From her mother, she learned how to blend in at all levels of society; from her father, she learned the tricks of their mutual professional trade. But her wits and (frequently) sharp tongue are hers alone.

Now, working as a private informer in Rome during the reign of Domitian, Flavia has taken over her father’s old ramshackle digs at Fountain Court in the Surbura district, where she plies her trade with energy, determination, and the usual Falco luck. Recently hired to help investigate a fatal accident, she finds herself stuck with a truly awful person for a client and facing a well-heeled, well-connected opponent.

That is, until her client unexpectedly dies under what might be called “suspicious circumstances.” While this is not a huge loss for society, it is a loss for Flavia Albia’s pocket. Even worse, it’s just one of a series of similar deaths for which she now finds herself under suspicion. Before things go from abysmal to worse, Flavia must sort out what is happening, and who is responsible, in Lindsey Davis’ The Ides of April.

Conclusion

Thanks to Lydia and Ariel for coming in to work through this topic with us! Be sure you are subscribed to this podcast to get all the library skills directly to your favorite app each week. And you can check out our shownotes for each episode to get all the info we discussed, along with the links to more resources. Every episode we have created is on our website: cmle.org.

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Thank you listening today for joining us! Check back in with us next week for another library competency – we are looking forward to more chatting about library work.