It is a rainy month around here so we have to create some fun indoors. Typically I do three promotions in the library during the month of March: Jane Austen Week; Lucky Day Books; and March Madness (basketball.)
So far two of these promotions are set up and going.
1.
Lucky Day Books- I stole this idea from my public library and modified it. They have a shelf called Lucky Day books that patrons can check out if they are physically at the library but one can't place a hold on them. It is just your Lucky Day if you bump into these "hot" books that particular day. My modification---I walked the library and looked for popular, high demand or high interest books. Placing a green shamrock book mark in them identifies them as Lucky Day books. If a student checks one out, we ask them to write their name on the book mark and we keep it. At the end of the month I will host a drawing for a free book or some other bookish prizes.
 |
| Insurgent, the 2nd book of the Divergent series is a good example of a Lucky Day book. This book just happened to come back yesterday when I made the display. |
 |
| Even though I have a sign explaining the "rules" we still have to tell students about them because they aren't great at noticing my signage. |
2. Jane Austen Week...next to my Mock Printz Workshop, Jane Austen week is my favorite event of the year. The specifics: 1. Students sign up so that they are allowed to bring their lunches to the library on the days of the event. 2. A Jane Austen movie is shown all five days of the week during lunch time. (I show the same segment three times each day because we have three lunches.) I never reveal the movie ahead of time.They find out the first day of the event. 3. Students earn points for checking out Jane Austen books, or Jane Austen-ish/retelling books; for answering J.A. trivia questions; for attendance.
4. Students with the winning number of points (one per lunch period and a grand prize winner) win J.A. paraphernalia or books. The Grand Prize is often a china tea cup or something extra special.
 |
| Being a Janeite myself I made sure that there are lots of Jane Austen books/retellings in my collection, including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the Sense and Sensibility graphic novel. |
 |
| The opposite side of the sign says "Jane Austen Retellings." The blue sheet outlines the point system. |
 |
| Display case outside library is stuffed with Jane Austen items, including a P and P trivia game, A Jane Austen action figure, and paper dolls. |
 |
| Close up of the display case. |
3. March Madness...the Jane Austen event is decidedly a more girl activity, although I usually have a few boys who join us for the movie. March Madness, on the other hand tends to tend in the male direction. A display of basketball books and a MAP activity accompany all the National attention and hype for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Our local newspaper usually sends me a USA map and stickers onto which we keep track of the teams in the tournament and their progress. Unfortunately for us on the West Coast few teams usually make the tournament so only hard-core basketball fans stay interested throughout. Plus it always ends when we are on Spring Break making the activity fizzle. But it is fun while it is going.
I like your displays. They'd catch anyone's eye for sure. Glad you reminded me that it's almost March Madness time. That's always fun.
ReplyDeleteAll three of these are so good! I like the idea of showing the movies while promoting the books.
ReplyDelete