Don't judge a book by its cover

This is new display on my desk. The books are wrapped up in neon paper, with their barcode typed on the front and a few key words to give a few clues about the book.

They have been very popular! The rule is if you take a book, you open it at home (although many can't wait that long!), give it a good go, and come back and tell me about it. Anyone who does that gets entered into a prize draw.

Read a Movie, Watch a Book

Again, a poor quality photo, apologies. Just a basic display about books becoming films. The writing at the bottom of the display says, 'People have spent millions of pounds turning these stories into films. They must be good books.'

Rainbow front facing books

Again, another photo showing how I try and use all the space I can to display front facing books. It also shows how much we love using colour coding in our displays. These books are in rainbow order going around our computer area.

Library Display in a Classroom

A teacher agreed to letting me put up a library display in her room. Apologies for the poor picture quality.
It is an EAL/SEN room and the teacher has a lot of bright displays that focus on vocabulary.

This display has the word 'Library' in 12 languages, as well as photos of multi-cultural readers. It has the library timetables and what you can borrow.

The teacher was very happy with it, and really felt it fitted with the rest of her displays.

Visit to Peckham Library

My line manager recommended that I visit Peckham library, as a new library in a deprived area, so that I could reflect upon how they reach their target market (which is similar to our target market).

I took this photo as I approached the building, which certainly stands out! I'm not sure how well this style of building will 'age', as I don't exactly feel it is beautiful, but time will tell!

They use a lot of front facing books, in the same way that I try to.

It felt a little like they had spent so much on the actual building, they didn't have much left for the interior. It felt very much like any other library I have visited in the last 20 years.

It was busy, so I tried to notice how people were using the space. Many of the tables had people working on their laptops, with some people reading.

The children's library was sectioned off in a glass-walled room, so the noise didn't infiltrate the rest of the library.

Authors/Writers Visiting The Library

I have recently had two visits (and I have three more to come before the end of the year). I have been motivated by other librarians talking about how great the visitors they have had. I wanted to help create a buzz about the library and literacy.

Visits aren't cheap - from about £300-£500 in my experiences so far, so I don't think its unreasonable to have high expectations of the day.

Our first visit was a Slam Poet, recommended to me by another school librarian. I had thought it would be just the thing to excite some of our non-library users. His performances were great but the workshop activity was too challenging (I would struggle to write a poem unaided on demand!). There was even a fight that broke out during this time, which is what can happen when students are no longer engaged and have time to get themselves into trouble. Overall I was disappointed.

The second visit was a storyteller. He worked harder at engaging them compared to the poet, but a lot of it went over the students heads. The older Gifted and Talented group seemed to really enjoy it, but the other groups didn't seem that impressed.

So far, I wouldn't re-book either, the first as the activity wasn't structured enough and the second because it just didn't suit the majority of my students.

I am hoping the next three will be more rewarding for the kids involved!

Small moments

I have had a week off from work, and we have had half term so it had been two weeks since I had seen the kids. I had a few lovely moments, that too often we let slip by without appreciating.

1) A 6th form asked where I had been, told me they had missed me (missed having someone to argue with - said with a grin!)

2) One of my student librarians who didn't use to ever read had a great discussion with me about a book series we have both been devouring. I remember the girl who said she didn't really read, and she seems so different to the girl recommending another book to me. As an aside, we have been loving The Hunger Games, and are struggling to find anything else that matches it.

3) I recommended a book to a student, and we had a great discussion about Islam and honour killings. Reminded me that books have the power to open our/their minds to things outside of their direct experience.