Nonfiction Promotion

If you are familiar with my library, you will know that we have almost no display space.  Our endcaps are also all metal, rather than slatwall, so we can't display at the ends of our ranges.  This makes it really difficult to increase circulation of our nonfiction for anything other than homework or hot topics (dinosaurs, animals, etc.)

We did come up with a good solution.  Since the endcaps are metal, magnets would stick to them.  We found plastic magnetic sign holders through Demco and purchased a couple of them.  Then we looked for a way to highlight nonfiction books on in these sign holders.  So we don't clutter up our endcaps, we have 2 sign holders in our nonfiction area.  One sign rotates monthly through different themes.  For example, April is National Poetry Month.  In addition to a title, we include cover art, titles, and call numbers.  This way if someone sees something that they like on the sign, they can find it on the shelf and take it home.

Our other sign rotates less frequently (normally quarterly).  It is still built around a theme.  Two recent ones we have had are Cinderella stories (or fairy tales do not circulate well) and Caldecott Nonfiction Winners (see below).
.

While the signs don't provide the instant gratification for people who just want to pick a book off of a display, they do provide the tools to find them.  It is a fun way to highlight different areas of our nonfiction section.

Great Shelf Challenge-Day 4

The middle of the picture book F section has some great authors.  In our library, these books are always out because they are either classics or new popular books.  You've got Jules Feiffer, Marjorie Flack, Candace Fleming, Denise Fleming, Brian Floca, Greg Foley, Mem Fox, Marla Frazee, and Don Freeman.  These are authors that we, as children's librarians, are all familiar with because we are constantly using their books in our story times and on our booklists.  Really, I don't need to say much about them-they sell themselves.

The three that I would like to highlight from the middle F's are both by Valorie Fisher. Two of them pair up really well. 

and

Both of these books work really well for young children in story times about families.  They are easy to read and the photographs are real.  The kids really identify with them.

If you missed Everything I Need to Know Before I'm Five, you will definitely want to check it out.  It takes all of those concept books that we stock and puts them all together in a visually appealing format.  I don't think that we have any other book in the library that has labels on the side for ABC's, 123's, colors, and shapes (we label our concept books by concepts).

With four days left in the month, I will be back to finish up the F section next week.  There's at least one big author left!

Flannel Friday-Five Senses

This week we talked about the five senses in our Music and Movement program and I thought that I would share our two flannelboards from that session.  The pieces aren't fancy-just clip art.  The fun parts are the rhymes!

Two little eyes to look around.

Two little ears to hear each sound.

One little nose to smell what's sweet.

One little mouth that likes to eat.

Two little hands to touch and play.

My five senses help me all day!

 

I don't remember where this second rhyme originally came from, but it appears a lot in early childhood programming books.  You can sing it to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", but I like to just say it.  We play it as a game where the kids shout out the answers when I get to the underlined words.

 

If a bird you want to hear,

You have to listen with your ear.

 

If you want to dig in the sand,

Hold the shovel in your hand.

 

To see an airplane as it flies,

You must open up your eyes.

 

To sniff a violet or a rose,

You sniff the fragrance through your nose.

 

 When you walk across the street,

You use two things you call your feet.

 

East and west and north and south,

To eat or talk you use your mouth.

This week's Flannel Friday Round-Up is hosted by Andrea at Roving Fiddlehead Kidlit.  For more information about Flannel Friday, check out the official blog.  If you are looking for flannel ideas, make sure you check out the Flannel Friday Pinterest page.

Talking with Books

Talking and reading are both important early literacy skills.  A great way to highlight these skills is to talk about books during story time.  While it sounds difficult, it is really quite easy with practice.  Here's how I do it:

I start off by propping my books up on a counter at the front of our story time area.  As the kids are coming into the room, we discuss what the theme of the week will be.  Many covers give good clues to the words, even for kids who can't read yet.  A great example is Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.  I like to ask the kids what they see.  Most actually know the lemon shape, which I would have thought would have been hard for them.  Then we talk about the colors on the cover.  What color is the lemon?  What colors are lemons supposed to be?  This is usually when they have the "Aha!" moment and realize that this is silly (gotta love 2 year old humor).  I also point out that they have discovered the title of the story.  I read and point to the words as I say "Lemons are not red".

Then we start the story.  After I say "Lemons are not red", I ask "What color are lemons?"  Seeger gives the kids hints by making the pages the correct color.  For example, the lemon pages are yellow, but the lemon-shaped die cut shows through to a red page.  Then we turn the page to carrots.  I ask, "Are carrots purple?"  While you will normally get at least one kid in the group who gets the color right, but I did have a girl today who insisted that she has had purple carrots.  Since we weren't in a hurry, we then let her tell her story about eating purple carrots.  

Another good example to use is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.  In addition to using colors and animals that are familiar to most young children, many children can already recite the entire story.  This doesn't mean that they don't want to hear it again-they do.  They also want to help tell the story.

I start off by showing the cover and asking what animal is on the front.  It's a bear!  What color is the bear?  He's brown.  Then I say something like, "Our story today is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"  When playing with this book, it helps if you know the story.  If you don't, I recommend typing it out and taping it to the back cover so you can easily see it and know when to flip the pages.  While you can read it the traditional way, I like to have the kids help tell the story.  To do this, they need to see the pictures to name the animals and colors.  I start off by reading, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?  I see a..."  Then I flip the page and most of the kids will shout out "red bird".  If they don't, I will ask what they see or what color is the bird?  After you get through an animal or two, the kids will know that it is okay to talk (after all, most of the time we encourage them to sit and listen) and will help you tell the story.  You will run into problems when you get to the goldfish.  Most of the kids will call it orange and that is correct.  You can either change the words to reflect that or say something like, "Wow, you are right.  Today, though, we are going to call it gold, which is a shade of orange."  At the end of the story, there is a picture of all of the animals.  The kids like to say all of the animals again with you.

Final Things to Remember
While I don't do this type of thing all the time, it is a good trick to have because it shows parents how to talk about a story.  We are the examples that they will follow because we are the experts.  Some people think that you have to stick to the words of the story and read it straight through, but sometimes it is fun to stop and talk about the pictures.  If you need some ideas of books to use, I like to start with color books because colors tend to be one of the easiest examples of seeing something (like the color) and having the words to match. You can see that both of the books above are about colors. Also, if you are going to talk about a book, the kids will want to talk about it too.  This takes time.  Build in some extra time in your story time so you aren't rushing through.

Flannel Friday-If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

I don't know how I have missed creating this flannelboard before when I use If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff all the time.  It is the theme of our next Play to Learn early literacy program, which I will be doing at another location.  Since I will be traveling, I want a flannelboard that will be portable and that multiple kids can use at one time.  It's time for another pizza box flannelboard!

If you haven't used If You Give a Mouse a Cookie before, it is a great example of a circular story.  I made the pieces small enough so I could fit multiple on top of a 10-inch pizza box.  My goal is for the kids to see if this happens, then this will happen (or that the mouse and the cookie are both on the board at the same time.)  I couldn't find any patterns so I drew my own (warning-parts are not to scale, but I am okay with that).  The pieces are all cut out of felt and details are done with puffy paint.  For the mirror, I added silver glitter glue

I added in a little early literacy by writing the color names on the crayons.

I was running behind on writing this post this week so the paint on my flannel pieces is still wet.  The story book couldn't be moved, but I took a picture of it anyways.  To make it look like an actual book, I tried to draw Pigeon with blue puffy paint (it kind of looks like a cross between Pigeon and a blue dog to me.)

Miss Courtney Meets Bobo is hosting this week's Flannel Friday round-up.  For all things Flannel Friday, check out the blog.  If you are planning upcoming story times, check out the Flannel Friday Pinterest page.

Poetry Month Display

This is a display that I have been looking forward to putting together because it encompasses so many different sections.  Poetry is an area that really speaks to Common Core because there are many fun ways you can pair the books.  I try to share something a little different every time I write a post on displays (feel free to check out the tag on the right for past posts).  This time I am going to talk about what books to use.  

While you could highlight only your poetry section (811.54), chances are that customers are already finding it.  We have a lot of school assignments here where kids are required to read poetry.  The first kids always pull all of the Shel Silverstein books and then they choose based on length and covers (we all remember what it was like to be in school and have five assignments at once).

Let's start by pulling some fiction into this display.  While it may be shelved in your jfic area, there are great books that really are poetry.  Why not pair them with poetry?  Three examples that come to my mind are Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, Diamond Willow by Helen Frost, and Love that Dog by Sharon Creech.  There are more, especially if you search the YA area too.  An added bonus for us is that all three of these books have won awards (1 Newbery and 2 Mitten).

Next up, why not check out your nursery rhyme section (398.8).  While many are for the younger set, there are some good books for older kids.  Personally, I like Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose by Leo and Diane Dillon.  Also, there is nothing that says that a display has to be geared towards one age group.  You can use a book or 2 for little kids.  They like poetry too.  I pulled out Lucy Cousins Book of Nursery Rhymes as my display seems to have a lot of blue books.

Have you forgotten to check the biography section?  Even if you don't have a lot of books on poets, chances are good that you have at least one book on Shakespeare.  

Is there a way that you can pull your databases into the display?  We pay good money for them and this is a way to highlight them to your customers.  Two that we use here that would fit are Biography InContext and Literature Resource Center.

A sign helps to pull the entire display together.  You don't always have to be obvious, such as by saying "National Poetry Month".  This month I used a Wordle of poets' names (also to remind me how to refill the display).

Finally, raid your poetry section.  Personally, I would skip the books that everyone already checks out.  This is your chance to highlight other fun titles.  Also, don't forget to check your 821 section (British poetry).

Our final product has many different areas of the library represented, from fiction to nursery rhymes to databases.  I really like how it turned out this month.

Weeding 101

It's the part of our job most of us dread-weeding time!  If you are one of those people who doesn't have much experience with weeding or cringes every time you have to start, here are some helpful hints to get you started (or keep you going).

First of all, weeding is not personal.  The world is not going to end because you had to withdraw a Judy Blume book from your collection.

Weeding is a necessity if you want to purchase new items.  Eventually you will run out of shelf space.

For us, shelves that aren't totally full tend to circulate better than shelves that are packed full of books.  Personally, I think this has to due with the laws of supply and demand-if it looks like somebody is using a section, others will want to also.

There are always some items you will not weed, even if they don't get the stats you want.  At our branch we don't weed award winners (Newbery, Caldecott, etc.), because even if they aren't checked out, they are frequently used in the building by teachers and college students.

Decide on your parameters before you look at the section.  Otherwise, once you get there it is very easy to want to keep everything and it becomes really easy to rationalize. 

You can use different parameters for different sections.  After all, every section circulates differently.  For example, in our jfic area, a book needs to go out five times in one year.  So if it has been on the shelf for five years, it needs to circulate 25 times.  In our juvenile book on cd section, it just needs to circ one time.  These are numbers that we came up with for our collection through years of trial and error.  They may not work for everyone.

Condition of the items is important.  If a book is falling apart, if the spine is broken, or if the cover is torn, your customers will not want to take the item home.  If it isn't something that you can easily fix through mending, that item should be pulled and either weeded or replaced.  A good example of this section is our board book collection.  We rarely have to weed due to low circ.  It is frequently weeded because of the condition of the books.

You may notice weird things while weeding that you will want to change.  For example, we used to have really high numbers of jfic books that needed to be weeded, even though we had space on the shelves for them.  We switched the length of time that we keep our new books labeled as such from 6 months to 9 months and this has made a big difference in circulation for both collections.

As a side note, many people suggest displays to keep low circulating titles from being weeded.  If this is something that you want to try, you need to be very proactive with it.  After all, one circulation of an item will not help most of us.  It needs to be more of an ongoing thing.  Two ways to make this work are to highlight an entire collection for a length of time, such as poetry in April.  Otherwise make your display and keep a list of what you want on that display (we can do this right through our ILS).  Then, as the items are returned, put them back on the display.  Since most items go out for a couple of weeks, you will want this to be a long-term display of at least a month or two.

For a more comprehensive list, you may want to check out the Sunlink Weed of the Month Archives.  They used to highlight nonfiction collections monthly, but now have one big list.  A good overview, especially of nonfiction, can be found on the Arizona State Library site.  For an interesting take on how much to weed, you may want to check out a presentation from PLA 2010 on relative use statistics.