What do YOU think?

Ever since hearing Rachel Van Riel, we've been trying to involve the customer in displays.  Imagine how happy I was to find 2 "asks" in the library this week:

And...

Banana month

Always a reason to celebrate.   There were banana riddles on the back of the banana pictures- fun!

Let's pretend we're at the beach

We had a cold snap last month, so we pretended that it was a tropical beach resort in the kids' area.  The outdoor patio furniture we scrounged at a giveaway day came inside and was covered with books about desserts and beaches.  There was a glitzy palm tree, and sign which read, "Pretend it's warm outside."

The library is a place to imagine, right?!  All that was missing was the drinks with umbrellas.

Knit bombers

Heard about another knit bombing, which made me miss the knitters at my old branch.  They met once a week to "stitch and chat", and decided to play an April Fool's Day joke.  Afterwards, the squares were stitched together to make a rug for storytime.

The squares were strung across a clothesline rope to look like Tibetan prayer flags.

The fuzzy bumper on the rail was my favourite.

Crafts with grandparents or nannies

We get lots of regulars.  There are some nannies that come in daily, and it's nice to give them a little something new to do.  Since many are from the Phillipines, we made a display of new Pilipino material.  They also loved this drop in craft to make Christmas ornaments.  One girl insisted that she give her ornament to her favourite storyteller to add to the branch tree.

During the Christmas break, a lot of grandparents show up with their grandchildren in tow.  They've been enlisted to help babysit during school holidays.  We timed this craft to help them out.  We also put up a display of books and DVDs labelled "Books and DVDs to help you survive babysiting the grandkids"  We had to fill it hourly!

Now that we survived the Christmas rush, I'm feeling a little more relaxed, just like the grandparents.  That is, until February teachers' convention holidays start....

Nanowrimo

What's more fun than racecars?  For National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) we recorded word counts as writers raced around the track.  A fun way to meet some of the writers in the neighbourhood.

Our Bansky mouse

In the 1930s during the depression, drifters used a secret visual code to tell about the people in a house.  They would scratch a picture image on the fence to show what kind of person lived inside.  Would they be a generous person who would trade some chores for a meal?  Or would they be uncharitable?

Our Banksy mouse tells the local artists that we're into modern art.  It's a joke for the students at the art college nearby, to show we're hip and interested in the visual arts. (kids like it too)   Banksy is an amazing graffitti artist who lives in London, England.  When one of his images appears on a wall, Londoners flock to see them.  They're visually strong and thoughtfully ironic. 

If you're curious about Banksy and graffitti art, you might want to check the DVD "Exit Through the Gift Shop" out of your local library.  Tell them a little mouse sent you!