Category Archives: library displays

Book Display Ideas

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My Instagram Account has many shots of favorite books and displays:

https://www.instagram.com/barefootlibrarian/

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While on instagram, type in #bookdisplay It is always best to type # in singular, rather than plural, eg #bookdisplay has over 3,000 posts, whereas #bookdisplays has only 300.

When you find some great displays you like, check out that person’s account and see if they are worth following. Also, click on your favorite book displays and see what other # they have used.

You’ll probably turn up tags like #booksuggestion #bookstagram #bookchallenge #instabook and one of my favorites #bookishrainbow

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Here is a post I wrote about using instagram to promote new books http://sites.saschina.org/kpower/2014/11/04/using-instagram-to-promote-new-books/

I like bringing outside elements in to enhance displays, and I’ve done that here with some creations made by students, which I then matched with Roger Hargreaves Little Miss and Mr Men books http://sites.saschina.org/kpower/2014/10/16/fantastic-fun-with-bump-nosey-and-tickle/

I’ve also linked to many of the people I’m mentioning here, on this post. Once you discover a few of these “one stop shops” for finding new books, book lists and great displays, you can rest easy that they’ll always have something for you http://sites.saschina.org/kpower/2014/04/30/list-lovers-of-the-world-unite/

My favorite blogs for inspiration and EXCELLENT book lists include:

http://www.pragmaticmom.com/ check out Mia’s Children’s and YA booklists link, and you really can’t go past her http://www.pragmaticmom.com/booklists/ List of Lists: All My Booklists

Melissa from Imagination Soup is a great one to follow on twitter and pinterest too, here is one of my favorite lists from her http://imaginationsoup.net/2014/11/07/nonfiction-books/ I’m sure you’ll also like her book recommendations by age http://imaginationsoup.net/book-recommendations-age/ 

Here’s one last link I recently stumbled upon: http://clrsig.org/nbgs_books.php which contatins some great book suggestions for our diverse makeup of students at the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group site.

 

 

Life Long Learning

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Speaking of life-long learning….I am learning that I am spending WAY more time reading wonderful blogs these days, than I am trying to build my own blog. When I first began blogging in 2006, I had a captive audience (of eighteen!!!) students AND their parents, (wow, we’re up to nearly 60 now) including my principal, oh and my mother of course!

While I’d love my blog to have a wider readership now that I am working with more like 1,000 people a week once you add students, parents, staff and a few of you ‘out there’; I’m starting to realise I don’t have the skills to engender a decent ‘fan-base’… My writing has not been good enough to warrant people coming back for more; I lack regularity and focus, and I don’t express my opinion as much; I deliver information, but I sit on the fence about it.

One of the places I head to first when looking for book ideas is to Mia at Pragmatic Mom as she always has so many excellent lists. There are also of course masters I’ve followed for a long time like Mr. Schu at Watch. Connect. Read and Colby Sharp and the great gang of four, Donalynn Miller, Cindy Minnich, Katherine Sokolowski and Colby Sharp over at Nerdy Book Club. I LOVE reading these blogs and many others, I spend hours a week reading reviews, learning about new books, perusing best book lists and watching great book trailers and author interviews.

So this paragraph should be about my new goals, how I am going to make my ‘Rocky-style’ comeback and start delivering, start fresh, begin again and be better and brighter than I was back in my 2008 blogging hey-day. Nahhhhhhh, just can’t get my head around it right now.

I’m totally nuts over reading the other amazing posts people have to offer, and at some point, the urge will come to become one of them. Until then…

Check out these great photos from the library this month. We’ve been having a ball promoting Newbery and Caldecott like crazy; chatting, sharing, reading and tallying our results…Voting started today and finishes Monday (American Sunday) in time to be calculated and announced after the big reveal on February 2nd.

http://videonew.saschina.org/player/pak_player/pakplayer.swf?config=http%3A%2F%2Fvideonew.saschina.org%2Fplayer%2Fpak_player%2Fembed_player.php%3Fvid%3D11549%26json%3Dtrue%26autoplay%3Dno

Using Instagram to Promote New Books

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Increasingly, colleagues and friends have turned to technology to promote what is going on in their classroom. I follow a variety of them on Twitter and Facebook, but my favourite way to keep track of their activities is through Instagram.

I follow several of my daughters’ classroom activities through this app, including my older daughter’s fencing group, and my younger daughter’s art class; Instagram provides a simple way to check in and see what the girls are up to, often triggering conversation for later…”I saw you doing the rock-climbing with your friends today Mimi, that looked like fun.”

As a librarian, I LOVE Instagram and get so many ideas from there. It’s all about the tagging. #library #librarybooks #librarydisplays #librarian #libraryideas #kidlit #picturebooks… you get the idea.

I add to Instagram as the Barefoot Librarian to promote the new books I get in the library, share ideas for display, and share student feedback on certain books. I like to post pictures of life in our library, the wonderful furnishings, the activities we have like Books to Eat and the Cardboard Challenge, and day to day activities. Why don’t you consider starting your own Instagram account today?

Toilet Roll winners 3ED

Fantastic Fun with Bump, Nosey and Tickle

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I have had the BEST time in the library this week putting up new displays to match the amazing sofas that our Seniors finished painting in June. Our three sided sofa has artwork inspired by Dr. Seuss, Roger Hargreaves and Eric Carle after a competition in the Elementary School where students submitted drawings of illustrations by their favorite authors. The sofa is such a colorful centrepiece in a lovely bright space and we are thrilled with the finished product; two years of hard work by more than a dozen students.

As I was preparing a workshop for teachers on how to rejuvenate their classroom libraries, I enjoyed gathering the books by the above authors and putting them on display for the presentation, and of course for the students. It was SO MUCH FUN working on the Roger Hargreaves display as I kept trying to strategically place each book based on their character… Mr Tall up the top… Mr Mischief hiding behind the table…Mr Silly upside down.

However the display came to life once I introduced it to the students today…. Wow, we went crazy… Mr Strong holding Mr Silly…Mr Small under the table with Mr Slow who just couldn’t make it up the top…Mr Nosey poking his nose into everyone’s business…Mr Tickle reaching out to everyone for a laugh…Mr Topsy Turvy upside down; the kids and I had a ball giving each book a life of its own.

The display started the day with 42 books and finished with 7… I know it’s a pertinent display when it’s messy at the end of the day…#bestjobever