Yo-Yos Are Big in Windsor

Mexican yoyos from Wikipedia

June 19, 2015, post on Facebook:

Windsor Public Library will be having a bi-weekly Yo-Yo Club for ALL ages (kids, teens AND adults!). Yo-Yo Club will meet every other Wednesday at 2:30pm starting Wed. June 24th. New yo-yo students receive a card with a trick list on it. Learn cool tricks and earn proficiencies of Novice, Expert, Master, Pro, and Grand Master! Classes are taught by our director, who also happens to be a former international yo-yo performer! Bring your own yo-yo, or let us help you purchase a yo-yo for use. Yo-yos are also available to borrow for classes and to check out through the library. Many thanks to All For KIDZ, producers of The NED Show, for their donation of yo-yos, holsters, and extra string!

There’s a lesson here: if the director has a special talent, the library can plan a whole program around it! Christine Porter offered the first workshop in February and 20 people came. Another good turnout happened in April– so the Library launched an official club as soon as school closed for the summer.

Post-it Note Quilt

Lanpher Memorial Library invites community expression with a quick quilt idea. Add a favorite book or doodle, and build a summer exhibit! Love the participation!

Next time you stop in at the Lanpher Library, consider adding a square to our Post-it Quilt. There are doodles, quotes, titles of favorite books, stickers…let’s see what we can create!

Literary Peeps, now in a VT library near you

Norwich Public Library announced its second Peeps diorama contest with literary quotes:

“To peep, or not to Peep: that is the question.”
– Peeplet, by William Shakespeep

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a Peep!”
– Gone with the Peep

Here are Norwich‘s rules for 2015:
Make a diorama featuring these silly, festive, squishy marshmallow treats. Your scene must be based on anything (books, DVDs, magazines, puzzles, museum passes, etc.) in the Norwich Public Library collection.

When
Entries accepted: From 1pm Monday, March 23 – Monday, March 30th at 4:59pm.
Voting is open from 5pm on Monday, March 30th – Saturday, April 4th at 3pm.
Voting will be done by paper ballots, available at the Library.
We will announce the winners on Monday, April 6th.
Entries will remain on display until Thursday, April 9th at 8pm.

How
For contest rules and guidelines, check our website or stop in at the Library.
Inspiration can be found by searching our online catalog or stopping in to the Library to browse the shelves!

Who
Participants may enter in one of three Categories:
Adult/Teen: over 12
Child(ren): 12 and under
Group (families/organizations etc.)

Geek Mountain State and Pierson Library

A sci-fi/fantasy book club at the library? Pierson and Geek Mountain State collaborate. There’s a registration form online at Geek Mountain State, where readers indicate interest in science fiction, fantasy and horror. Meetings are the first Thursday of the month at the Pierson Library. Publicity is on websites and Facebook for Geek Mountain State and Pierson Library. Books are available at local libraries and the Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne. Love the pizza featured at club meetings too!

Mug Shots and Wooden Nickels

Norwich Library is using a prison theme to draw attention to the ideas behind Banned Books Week September 21 – 27, 2014. Proud library users can have a mug shot taken that includes their favorite banned book.
Norwich is also putting up two jars for voting with wooden nickels. Library staff are asking patrons if they’d go to jail rather than see books pulled off the shelves.

“We’ll display a list of 20 most banned books and 2 clear jars. One jar is marked “I’d go to jail to protect these books”, the other “I’d rather not!”. People will be able to put a wooden nickel in whatever jar they want. Should be interesting!”

Sounds like fun– and two tactile ways to engage users.

Extra mileage from the newsletter

Ilsley uses large screen to promote programs

The Ilsley Public Library features two inhouse displays of the library newsletter. The more traditional is a large plexiglass holder with the enlarged newsletter displayed.

The local public access TV station also programs highlights from the newsletter onto a big screen. Standing in the library, people see coming programs, photos and services proceeding across the screen. In the shot above, parents are advised to borrow “Get Well Bags” to take home, instead of bringing sick children into the library.

Ilsley posts the newsletter inside the library.

Pop Up LIbrary at Town Meeting

Wilder Memorial Library in Weston came to town meeting this year. Here, In librarian Kerri MacLaury’s words:

Last year we had a table to register new library patrons and we were able to register 50 patrons (which for our town of 566, that’s a big deal…and it was our first month with LibraryWorld up and running).

This year we decided to not only register patrons, but I took all of our newest DVDs, fiction and nonfiction books to set up a display table. What we did differently this year was brought our laptop and scanner so we could circulate materials from Town Meeting. It was so much fun! About 15 items went out today and people who had items on hold were able to pick them up at Town Meeting too.

It was a great way to show what the library had and to get items into the hands of people who don’t come through our doors too often. People were also blown away by the mobility of our library and they really saw how much of an effort we are making for our town. Several conversations were sparked on how we could bring our library to other places and I think this summer we are going to bring a table of books to our local rec center and check books out to kids there! Maybe even throw in a Story Time. Imagine all that fun brainstorming with citizens, town leaders and board members!

It was such a fun experience and I would recommend it to any library working with a cloud-based system like LibraryWorld. Just make sure you have a wi-fi connection! That’s the only catch. It’s library advocacy in action! And there wasn’t a question about our budget when it came up for approval! Phew!

Valentine’s Day, re-visited

Baxter Memorial Library does a slight re-work of Blind Date with a Book… thanks to a local donor who offered a real date for the adult raffle prize. Love the local business tie-in and the zippy tone of “rate your date.”

Dear patrons,

No, we haven’t started a new dating service at the library (yet). But we would like to “fix you up” with a book.
Starting Tuesday Jan. 28th, we will have books wrapped up, so you won’t know the identity of your blind date until you get home. We will have a quick personal ad to help you choose your perfect date. You will be able to rate your date and let the community know.
Everyone who comes in and gets a blind-date book will be entered to a raffle to win a real date at the Worthy Burger (in the form of a $30 gift card). One entry per person.
For teenagers, we will have a separate drawing to win a sample of Equal Exchange chocolate bars.
We will have the raffle drawings on Thursday, Feb. 13th at 5pm.

See you soon in the library,

Nicole

For the actual personal ads at Baxter Memorial take a look:
Blind date _ Adult

Banned Books Week– are you ready?

Pierson Library in Shelburne found a cool way to combine crime tape and book jackets, their plan to celebrate September 22 -28, 2013.

Use the search box and Banned Books Week to find posts from earlier Vermont ideas. Resources, news and ideas from all the Banned Books partners at Banned Books Week.

Blind Date Valentine’s Day

Sign

Bennington Free Library found a hot idea on Pinterest, currently amusing borrowers and staff alike. Offer pre-wrapped books for adults and children (different displays) to take home and “date.” Not sure how the front desk will shoot the barcode– but what a fun idea for Valentine’s Day!

Book display at Bennington Free Library

Text on the sign reads “Celebrate your love of reading by choosing any book from this display. (No peeking.) We’ll check it out to you still wrapped, so you won’t know what you have until you get home!”

The adult titles have handwritten notes on the paper: “TAKE ME HOME! I’m a short story collection by a famous English author.”