Armchair Travel @ your library (updated 5/2010)

Back To School:

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month -- see our Bulletin Board idea and mini-posters (which you can customize with your library name)!

Bulletin Board:  Photo of plain bulletin board; photo with back-to-school border.
Mini-Poster 1
Mini-Poster 2

Our newest September bulletin board is called "Bushels of Books."  Click HERE for more information (Word document).

Banned Books Week -- September 24 - October 1, 2011:
    See the ALA website for more information and ideas!

Earth Day

El día de los niños/El día de los libros -- April 30th
Look for details on the Southwest Library Services Youth Services page under "Family Literacy Resources."

Election/Voting -- Create a display in red, white & blue with the themes "FREADOM," "Elect to READ!" or "Vote for Books!"  Create some "campaign buttons" with faces of popular authors or "ballots" listing newest acquisitions.  You could adapt this to use for the 4th of July!

Halloween ideas -- updated for 2010!

Hispanic Heritage Month -- September 15 - October 15

Independent Reading -- Click HERE to open a Word document ( or HERE for pdf) describing our bulletin board for Independence Day!

Library Card Sign-Up Month -- September (see "Back To School" above)

National Gaming Day -- November 12, 2011 (See http://ngd.ala.org/category/2011-national-gaming-day/.)   Printable Bookmarks (click here).

National Library Week: April 8-14, 2012 (See http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek/index.cfm).

National Poetry Month (April)

Read Across America Day:  Celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss on March 2nd!
See http://www.nea.org/readacross/index.html.

Summer Library Program:
(For children's and teen Summer Library Program ideas, see our Youth Services page.)

Teen Read Week:  October 16-22, 2011 (See http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2011/home.cfm.) 

Teen Tech Week:  March 4-10, 2012. [Theme is "Geek Out @ your library."]

Thanksgiving bulletin boards:

Smiley Face Pilgrims & Indians (you assemble!) -- add these to your bulletin board or use as a craft for older children.
    Pilgrim Man & Indian Man
    Pilgrim Woman & Indian Woman

TV Turnoff Weeks are the third week in April and the third week in September
    Bookmarks:  "What To Do Before You Turn On the TV" (feel free to add your own ideas and your library name.)

Vacation Planning

Valentines Day/February: 
1) Create a simple bulletin board with letters from Southwest Library Services -- "Read With Someone You LOVE" in red (with a heart in place of the "O"), plus assorted red and pink hearts to scatter.  Print out some artwork HERE to add, if you wish.
2) For a simple craft, see photos #1 and #2.  Order the hands in red or pink and print out the words (for the fan-folded strip) HERE.
3) Library Lover's Month is an opportunity to honor your volunteers and Friends of the Library.  You might want to create a simple bulletin board with the theme "Good Libraries Need Good Friends."  Add heart shapes and/or red library symbols with the first name of each volunteer.  Here is a sample:
                                         
Just call SWILSA to order lettering and shapes!
4) New Library Lovers' Month bookmarks to customize and print.

Winter Holidays: 

Need some elves to help with your holiday decorating?  Here is our happy-face elf.  Good for a craft project.

“Make Tracks to Your Library” features gray footprints for making tracks on a snowy white background around your bulletin board.  Letters are light blue with dark blue shadows.  Set also includes light blue snowflakes to scatter.  (Use ordinary salt in place of glitter to add sparkle to the snowflakes!) S

Simple holiday border for your bulletin board using small stars, "Santa hats" and "gifts."   You will need 6-7 shapes per foot of border.  (The ribbon on the packages is shredded paper.)

"Bienvenidos -- Welcome Readers!" (convention theme) bulletin board set includes lettering, large and small smileys, plus a packet of confetti.  See photo here.  Close-up photo here.  $1.50 from SWILSA.  You might add name badges, streamers or other items to complete the convention theme.

NEW "Books into Movies" -- Every year about 30 books are made into films.  You might create a display of current movies or future releases.

Here are some of the current titles:
   
2012 Release Dates:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque; The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath; The Giver by Lois Lowry; Moby Dick by Herman Melville; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith; One for the Money by Janet Evanovich; The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; and Woman in Black by Susan Hill (starring Daniel Radcliffe).

Here is a set of bookmarks that you might edit to fit your collection and insert into books like those mentioned above.

Celebrity Chefs:  Create a display featuring cookbooks from your collection by well-known TV personalities.  Some websites are listed below.  You might ask local celebrities -- like your mayor -- to contribute a favorite recipe for distribution.  And don't forget to check your collection for biographies of famous chefs as well.

Websites to post: 
Julia Child (and Master Chefs) -- http://www.pbs.org/juliachild/
Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian --              http://americanhistory.si.edu/juliachild/
Rachel Ray -- http://www.rachaelray.com/
Paula Deen -- http://www.pauladeen.com/
Mario Batali -- http://www.mariobatali.com/
Emeril Lagasse -- http://www.emerils.com/ or http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_em
Jacques Pepin -- http://www.jacquespepin.net/

"Bloomin' Good Books:"  A perfect summer theme for any bulletin boards that are not decorated specifically for the Summer Library Program. 
                           
 

"Reading by the Numbers" -- Display novels with numbers for titles or titles that include numbers such as 1984 by George Orwell, 31 Songs by Nick Hornby, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. [Call SWILSA for die cut lettering and numbers for bulletin boards.]

Wellness -- There are many kinds of wellness -- physical, social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, intellectual and occupational.  It would be easy to create a simple display of materials gathered from your collection that relate to wellness needs (books and DVDs about yoga, weight management, depression, and so on).  You might focus on one area of wellness at a time to make this a long-term exhibit. 
The website at http://ala-apa.org/wellness/resources suggests some useful sites that you might post as well. 

Consumer Alerts -- You might want to devote a small display space to ongoing consumer issues -- like recalls, scams and fraud in the news.  For example, for the summer months you might post the Environmental Working Group's list of best and safest sunscreens (see http://www.ewg.org/).   The SWILSA Useful Sites page has a list of resources you might use at http://www.swilsa.lib.ia.us/usefulsites.htm#Consumer.   Snopes at http://www.snopes.com/ will also help you verify rumors about consumer fraud.