Nonfiction Displays and Common Core

One of my goals this year is to get all of those great nonfiction materials that we order into the hands of teachers.  With the new Common Core standards being implemented, the emphasis is on more quality nonfiction.

Displays are an easy way to collect books on a theme and put them in the hands of our users.  Plus, displays increase circulation.  One study has displays increasing circulation 90% for books that were on the shelf.  Since I am just happy if they go out, a display seemed like a good first step.  Unfortunately, our building has almost no display space.  What we did have, though, was an empty range of shelves.  By shifting the shelves around, I made it look more like a separate entity, rather than books just standing up on the shelves.

This month's theme is "Nonfiction Award Winners".  With the recent announcements of the Sibert Award and ALSC Children's Notables, this is a great time to highlight some of those titles.  I figure that I will shift it around ever month or so to highlight a new nonfiction area or homework topic.

I created this display late Friday and by Monday morning, almost half of the books were gone.  That is pretty gratifying for little effort.  To refill the empty spaces, I am now adding previous award winners too since I didn't specify a year on the sign.

I think that my first step towards my goal is a success!  Now onto project #2-nonfiction teacher newsletters.