We’ve really been upping our game with displays this year in my library we believe. But this term we’re really having some fun. As soon as I was aware of Josh Langley’s latest book in his Being You is Enough series (reviewed yesterday here) Being Wildly Kind and certainly seeing his bee accoutrements as he launched it – I had the germ of an idea to do a ‘Bee your best self’ display for my big kiddos (who are gradually getting more and more attuned to my love of displays). So the past month or so a few purchases: bee string lights (Oh I love lights !), tiny wooden painted bees and some of the prettiest ‘feel good/positive’ books around, today it went up………..on the two bay end panels that face our Circ desk and front of library – so a prime ‘in your face’ spot. Happy enough with this result – as usual with this location, the display is passive interactive with a pack of post-it notes for the kids to add their own ideas.
Then, last term I successfully negotiated a bit more ‘wriggle’ room with our gender diverse fiction. Previously anything with a gender diverse character (even secondary or mentioned in passing) had to be put in Senior Fiction (NB: I don’t necessarily believe this was a systemic decision, more likely a personal prejudice). Now I don’t know about you but our SF gets very infrequent traffic (not least of all because there is a lot of dross in there – haven’t got to that slash’and’burn yet. So with that news and so many fab displays coming through our feeds for Pride Month my terrific assistant felt inspired so I asked her to take on a display around Diversity – of all types. The result is simply stunning and very effective.
Then of course, it’s Book Week this term and that theme for 2021 is so inane I felt I just wanted to scream but our huge and awkwardly shaped front window demands dressing and is such a chore that whatever goes in there stays all term. So I did a cheat with a big photo backdrop (one of my new best friends) and kept it simple but it is certainly attracting loads of positive attention.
We have one more to do – on our big slat wall upstairs where we had the fab Battle of the Books last term (such a success) but I’m waiting on a vital component to complete it! Will post pics when it’s done…
Oh and just as an aside – last term the front window was a celebration of our First Australian culture….
Just So Stories 
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