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I appreciate your kind comments and enjoyed reading about Chris Anderson and The Long Tail. What makes or breaks a display or what books circulate and what do not, is interesting food for thought. I can remember back when the now hot author Jodi Picoult was not well known. Lots of hard work on her part and hand selling by librarians and booksellers have made Jodi a prominent author.

To illustrate what face out display and placement can do, my simplest display is just one book on display at the circulation desk. I guess this is what retailers call point of purchase. No matter what book (though good choice helps) is on display, it usually gets scoffed up by someone. Sometimes I need to replace this book 3 times in one day. That's over 300 extra circs a year! If the book on display doesn't circulate within a few days, out it goes and another takes it's place. Yesterday we added a new book 4 times. One time we put up a copy of The Devil Wears Prada with a sign that said "Saw the Movie, Now Read The Book". Our patron who took the book exclaimed "I didn't know this was a book."

Looking forward to comment from others.

Our latest display is called "Abracadabra: Everything's Magic @Your Library".
The display evolved from a magic kit our Children's Librarian had hanging around and was trying to put to good use. The props from the kit along with books dealing with magic, magicians and such round out the display. The magician's top hat is filled with old fashioned miniature magic slates. The titles have started to circulate and our young patrons have been having a magical time experimenting with the kit items. <p>
<img title="Sea Book Display" alt="short title of your picture" src= "http://static.flickr.com/93/249002903_2c5653ea27_m.jpg"/>

Carol, I continue to be super impressed by your energy and creativity. I now think that you could write a book, not just an article, on the topic. Have you ever thought of approaching [url http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/publishing/alaeditions/writingforalaeditions/writing.htm ]ALA Editions[/url] with the idea? It all makes me wish I were an adult services librarian --I think I could get into this aspect of the job.

Attending a meeting this morning at the Hall Memorial Library in Ellington, CT provided an opportunity to view 3 eye-catching book displays. The first had signage "Bake A Cake" and included whatelse but cake books and the tools needed to do just that! I knew there were great displays out there and have decided that whenever I visit another library I'll take my camera too so I may capture the creativity of my fellow librarians. Besides this entry please view the next 2 posts to see Ellington's other neat displays.<p>
<img title="Bake A Cake" alt="short title of your picture" src= "http://static.flickr.com/105/253842534_17a8f49f27_m.jpg"

Here's another take on Banned Book Week; this one in the children's department of Hall Memorial Library, Ellington, CT. You couldn't help but look at this colorful bulletin board filled with covers, titles and graphics with a goal of making patrons aware of challenged and banned books. The bold "censored" and play on words with "fREADdom" really commanded my attention. Great display! <p>
<img title="Sea Book Display" alt="short title of your picture" src="http://static.flickr.com/99/253842538_4eb476b49a_m.jpg"<p>
<img title="Sea Book Display" alt="short title of your picture" src= "http://static.flickr.com/105/253842540_37e291c283_m.jpg"

Thanks for posting this. I should have let everyone know about this opportunity to show off their creativity and banned books displays. I did post Ellington's great display for consideration. Any other takers?

As the adult cir. librarian at our library it is my responsibility to do monthly displays. The first display I did was called, "Take a New Author to Bed." I had posters that said things like "Who do you sleep with...King of Nightmares, Queen of Romance etc." photo attached. The display was very successful and a lot of the books had sat on our shelves for a long time moved...it was great!<p>
<a href= "http://www.flickr.com/photos/23571981@N00/385919665/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src= "http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/385919665_b1a4c6bfdc_m.jpg" width="240" height="201" alt="Take An Author To Bed" /></a>

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one is priceless! It certainly made my day! Please share some of the titles you used and tell a bit more how you were able to find the space for this display. I'm certain this one could win a contest. I've got to look but I think there's one going on now that you could enter.

Please continue to share your unique ideas!

Thanks for your kind words.

Some of the books from the display included:

Privileged Conversations by Evan Hunter
Whispers at Midnight by Karen Robards
Lambs of God by Marele Day
Before Sunrise by Diana Palmer
Thunder Horse by Peter Bowen

And the posters all said: "Who do you sleep with? King of Nightmares, Queen of Romance, Empress of Fantasy, Hard-nosed Reporter, Wild West Cowboy, Brainy Scientist, Time-Traveler...find a new author to take to bed this August at the Parachute Branch Library."

I will try to take more pictures of our displays.

Here is a display that I did last November for Adoption Awareness Month -- it was very popular. We had great attendance at the related program too.

Attachments:

adoption.jpg (323.6k)    BookDisplays_004.jpg (1,442.7k)