The first is my extinction display. Every year I look for books that have never been checked out and I put them on display. I warn the children that "These books are in danger of extinction! If they don't get checked out, they may have to leave the library!" And it motivates them to at least give them a look. Some are good books that just have been hidden on a shelf. Others are good but have unattractive covers (and probably need a book talk to convince someone to check them out), and others may have finished serving their usefulness. My school and therefore my library is fairly new, only eight years old so I don't have any old old relics in here, but I love doing this display at the end of each year to give these lonely books some time to shine. When checkout closes for the school year I will look and evaluate each of these book to determine if they are worth shelf spaces in the library. Many stay because they serve a purpose in the collection. But every year I toss some.
The second pictures is the bulletin board I made for School Library Month. It goes with ALA "Libraries Transform" Theme. So I got a bunch of the cool saying they have come up with about how library are important and paired them with pictures I have taken of students over the course of this year. The kids have loved both the pictures (so see themselves and their friends) and the statements because they think many of them are either true or funny.
The third picture is of the front of the circulation desk. At the beginning of the year that front was bare except for the "Mrs. Bridges Reads...." sign. As I have read children's and middle grade books this year I have take a picture of the cover and added it to my display. At the end of library class students sit in two lines right in front of the circulation desk so as they are sitting in line waiting on their teacher this display has been a great conversation starter. As they ask, "Did you really read that book?" or "Did you like that one?" Its been great to tell them about some of these books and say Yes, we have most of them in the library. At the end of this year I will take all of the pictures down and start again next school year. I am excited about all of the conversations that will bring!
Overall these are 3 simple displays, highlighting three different aspects of library management: collection development, readers advisory, and advocacy. I'm happy that the students like the displays as much as I do and that they are simple to make and maintain.