School Library Displays

School library displays play an important part in supporting curriuculum learning and in extending student knowledge. The library, LRC or OLC is the ideal place to present displays to amuse or challenge young people.  Here are some recent displays at an 11-18 Academy in Kent, UK.

The Africa display featured a sprinkbok-style animal, which morphed into a reindeer for the Christmas display. Changing a display slightly is always more time-effective than creating a whole new display, and can often be easier than you think.

Newspapers and magazines are a great source of images. This display of faces/emotions proved surprisingly popular. Newspaper images are also great for displays highlighting stereotypes.

Displays which tandem curriculum projects or feature student photographs always go down well.

The display on the left was put up to coincide with Mothering Sunday (students were invited to match the mother on the left with the child on the right), while the one on the right was part of a larger display during Bug Month (May).

Operation Peace Crane is an annual event, and really caught the imagination of the students. We were folding Peace Cranes at break and lunch for weeks after this display went up !

Alternative display design using the same information sheets (but new cranes!)

An annual display at Thanksgiving time reminds students about life in other countries. The orange colour of the backing paper was chosen to reflect the colour of pumpkins. The Pooh bear in the front of the picture was the star prize in our fundraising Teddy Tombola for Children in Need.

Students in years 7 & 8 study the 1908s as a History project. This display of clothing supported that project, and proved very popular. It's amazing what you can find in your loft !

A Christmas display featuring calligraphy by Year 7 & 8 students who worked with visiting calligrapher Julia Baxter. The backing paper is a commercial product, and was left up from Halloween, when it was the background to a spooky castle and black sillhouette bats (see below).

Students love Chinese New Year, when they can check their own birth year animal and read the character analyses. Scrunched tissue paper flowers add colour. These pictures can be used year after year, with the main information about which year it is altered to suit.

Each year, we run a Green Day in the summer term when we concentrate on sustainable living. We are proud to hold an Eco Schools Green Flag, and this type of event helps to cement the themes in the students' minds.

An annual green initiaive we run is the Recycled Christmas Decorations competition. Last year, we  asked for tree decorations, and this year we concentrated on wreaths. The wreath was made from left-over Scholastic Book magazine pages, rolled and glued onto a wire wreath base.

 

On the left is our Eco-schools noticeboard, and on the right is a board that was designed to support one of our student fundraising initiatives.

Other popular displays have been pet care, recycled handbags, where food comes from, valentine's day messages, Remembrance Sunday, time, St George's Day, adjectives, poems, , World Book Day, cats, the school play and Make Do and Mend.

Ideas for displays come from many different sources: curriculum topics; news items; seasonal changes; religious festivals; something that catches my eye in a charity shop; another school's display or even suggestions from students.


Year 12 students studying Society, Health and Development put up this display.

The best displays are created around a simple theme, such as red hearts for Valentine's Day. Backing paper is chosen to compliment the main colour, or to co-ordinate with it, eg red with green or pale blue with navy. Scrapbooking supply shops are a useful source of display materials, and are often cheaper than specialist catalogues. The displays don't need to be long-lasting, and won't be touched or moved, so they don't need to be made from good quality paper or card.

This display was created to link with National Pet Month. The pictures of famous cats are linked with a garland of paper flowers from a shop selling card-making supplies.

We have built up a range of materials on particular authors, eg Roald Dahl and C S Lewis, which include biographical material, book jackets and quiz sheets. These, along with other displays, are stored for use in the future. Some displays can be re-used in a different part of the school, or changed slightly to make them look different. This way they can be re-used year on year.

This is an example of a display that has been taken down and put up in another part of the school. Cut-out letters (printed in 'outline' on coloured paper and cut out by students) make the heading stand out. Photos from the School Production add interest, and the words 'Rivalry, Hunger, Anarchy, Death' are attention-grabbing (sadly they were put up in the wrong order during the move - Death should have been the last word). The display includes quotes from the play in several sizes of lettering.

Students really love the interactive displays. For example, last World Book Day we concentrated on Books You Enjoyed When You Were Younger, and featured a wall of photographs of staff reading 'baby books' along with pics snitched from the Hunks Who Read blog. The students really loved re-reading old favourites such as Peepo! The Tiger Who Came to Tea and The Gruffalo. We hope that it reminded them of the days when they loved a good story and might have encouraged some further reading.

This display was created to reflect the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Old books were piled up to make plinths for Coronation and Jubilee mugs. The display was given height by the addition of a few history books and £2.99-worth of plastic flags. The newspapers were free from the local Garden Centre. It doesn't take a lot of money to create a fabulous display - just a bit of imagination.

PS The flags have been squirrelled away for future displays.

This is a display I regularly put up in the library. It features a selection of bags made from recycled materials. Some have been made and some have been bought. One of the main reasons that this display is always such a success is that it covers so many disciplines - DT, textiles, sustainability, art etc. Girls in particular love this display, but boys are also fascinated by the use of food packaging. A winner all round !

This is an annual favourite, that gets put up when half term allows. The display is very simple,just using cardboard party props from Peeks. This company provides decorations for themed parties, and is a very useful source of St George's Day, St Patricks Day, Haloween, Christmas display items. As seen above in the   Jubilee display, only a few items need to be purchased to go with found objects. Sometimes you just need to browse their site to get some ideas of what you can make yourself.

The bats and spiders are just cut out of black sugar paper and kept to be re-used year on year. Since taking this photograph, the Student Librarians have typed out some scary words in the Microsoft font that looks like dripping blood. Printed in red ink and cut out, they have been scattered at random over the display. 

One of the main plus points of this display is the roll of background on corrugated card, which was quite expensive, but can be used for many different scenes. It can be used for Halloween, as a background to Christmas cards (see above) as the interior of Snow White's cottage for a fairy tale theme, as part of a buildings theme display, as a background for knights in armour, for a medieval theme, etc.

The books on the shelving next to the display have been linked by sticky-tac-ing bat shapes around them to follow the theme through.

These Clarice Cliff designs were copied onto cheap lining paper and colour in using poster paint. The outlines were then added using a black marker pen. They were very well received, supporting a display featuring designs of the 1920s and 30s.

This is a super-simple Christmas display that is a hit every time. This time, I used a display board that was already a beautiful royal blue colour, that could be used for the sky without further covering. Sandy-coloured sugar paper was cut into hill shapes, and stapled to the board. The white houses were made from standard A4 computer paper, folded and ripped into assorted sizes. Stapled in a row, the houses begin to appear and a few domed  tops for extra interest. The doors and windows are cut from black paper or card - I used a guillotine for speed - and added them to a few houses only (this is meant to be representationaly, not realistic). Finally, I added a big gold star and some smaller stars cut from yellow paper by students last year. If you aren't worried about historical accuracy, the children always think it's hilarious if you add a few signs like 'Asda' or 'Clubland' and a road sign saying 'Vacancies'.

A simple Remembrance Day display supported by a large display of books about the various conflicts.

The 'story leaves' are cut from coloured card and laminated. They are attached to the fabric display board with velcro dots so that students can move them around. The leaves each have a name, time, object or place on them, and students are invited to choose three or more to make a story.

 I saw another librarian's post about the number of books that have recently been published with black covers and decided to make this the subject of a new display. Using a background of black fabric, I collected all the books I could find with black covers. There were loads! I found enough to create three separate display areas. I then thought of some black-inspired sayings and printed them out.

The books were all neatly arranged to start with, but the students keep moving them!

A display to advertise the school's involvement in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. I printed one page of footprints from the internet and then photocopied them.

This display promotes acceptance of people of all genders, ages, races, colour and sexual preferences.

Don't Hate, Educate!

This display was quickly put together to fill a gap, but it actually very good for the the library. The words describe some of the benefits of reading, eg to find out about your favourite hobby, to get advice, to lose yourself in a fantasy world etc.

Super display of recycled bags. These were brought in from home or bought for a few pounds from eBay or boot fairs.

The story leavse in action once again, this time colour coded for easier use.

Some of the entries for our Christmas Gingerbread House competiton. Yummy!

The display for Hanukkah can be recycled each year in different guises. This time, I used a diagonal stripe of shiny paper (just because I only had a little bit left!). Framing the words and pictures with contrasting paper really brought out the colours. The letters were printed from Word, using the option to add a picture of your choice as a background.