This Matchmaker bulletin board was part of our Valentine's week programming called "Fall in Love with Learning."
The instructions given were:
Tell us your interests and we will refer you to the perfect book, movie, podcast, or board game!
Use a blue heart to make a request 💙
This is also a place for you to recommend your favorites to other people!
Use a pink heart to make a suggestion 💗
Take a selfie with your Matchmaker post and come to the Library Help Desk for a stamp on your punch card! ⭐
We provided heart-shaped post-it notes in two colors, as well as markers, and left the board as passive programming for the week. I (Caitlin) put a few request and suggestion examples up to start, and reached out to others in the building to "seed" the board to kickstart it. Once it was going, I would check it every couple days and add suggestions if there were requests that didn't have anything suggested for them.
Contact Caitlin Balgeman (cbalgeman@marian.edu) with any questions!
Completed Displays
Fall 2022
Spring 2023
Fall 2023
Spring 2024
2024-2025 Display Ideas
Background:
Summer – Summer tree background with forestry and wildflower books (good until September, just need a sign if we want to add one) [forest theme for Foresters]
Fall – October through November tree to fall leaves
Winter – December through February tree winter
Spring – March through April tree spring
Content:
August/September – Welcome to the Forest (HU Foresters)
Oct. – Unexpected Titles
Nov. – Thankful/Thanksgiving
Dec./Jan – Light
Feb. – Jules Verne’s Birthday/Travel
March – 1899 Newsies strike (musical on campus)
April – Book or Movie with QR code survey
At Marian we have a collection of leisure reading titles separated out from the rest of our collection. We have a leasing agreement with Baker & Taylor that makes this collection possible. We get 10 credits per month, and for every 5 books we eventually return to them, we get to keep 1.
We used to organize this area in the same way as the rest of the collection, but in 2023 we transitioned it to a dynamic shelving model that makes browsing by genre easier and has increased circulation. (Our circ stats for leisure reading were 46% higher for May 2023-April 2024 than they were for May 2022-April 2023.)
We have a nonfiction section:
And a fiction section:
Each genre has a color-coded sticker and three-letter code written on the sticker. This code is also put in the Suffix field when adding the record to the catalog, so that someone searching for a specific book knows where to look on the shelves.
"Before": static shelving
"After": dynamic shelving!
Image Sources:
Canva for Education license.
Person Running Away from Wave of Information by Zdenek Sasek.
Stack of Files on Desk and Floor with Help Signage by Zdenek Sasek.
Texts and Badges Too Much by Gunay Aliyeva.
Online Information Icon by shmaiinc.
Library Icon by Muhammad Shabraiz from Pexelpy.
Ring Buoy Icon by Chirawan.
Genius Child Teacher Teaching Students by Zdenek Sasek.
Stick figure in vector by Paramore.
Test Paper with A+ Grade by PixMarket.
Can display on a poster board and include material with tips and strategies on effective searching, source evaluation, etc. as well as a QR code opening to a module to Book a Librarian.
Multiple printed copies of the linked bookmark with the following quote can be included with the display.
"In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us to swim." - Linton Weeks
Quotation Rotation … a series of quotes about libraries, books, reading, and more!
Do you have a favorite quote about books, reading, or libraries?
Quote Rounded Rectangular Speech Bubble Line Frame by Modern Graphic. Canva for Education.
Thomas Jefferson Hand-drawing by Junnie from TypoSketch Lab. Canva for Education.
Book (and/or video) display comparing government/political systems.
Silhouette Women Read Books in Quiet Nature by R_Tee from Getty Images Pro. Canva for Education.
Include a physical display of library staff "favorites" with a poster board displaying the quote and a white board or board to add post its to answer the question related to the quote:
What is a book you have read over and over again?
Display could also include bookmarks or magnets with quotes as giveaways.
Design for magnet. Full quote by Jim C. Hines linked below. Display design and full quote on poster board and surround with BIG BOOKS. Make magnets and/or bookmarks as giveaways.
QOTW Board
DePauw's Question of the Week (QOTW) board began in fall 2013 as a way to get student feedback about new magazines the library should purchase for our recreational reading collection. Students seemed to enjoy the opportunity and so we decided to extend the board's life and try a variety of library, reading, campus, and random questions. For more info about the board, including ways to suggest questions, check the Board FAQ tab.
DePauw Question of the Week Board
Display Shelves
Our library has two sets of display shelves on the lower level, near the restrooms. For 2024, one side of that all year celebrated the multicultural/heritage months. The thinking at the time was to repeat that every year, but to highlight a different thing. Last year was "Film contributions." So I had a mix of print books, and QR code signs for Kanopy videos and e-books. It was too much work to change it monthly, so that isn't going to continue. The other shelf has just been something timely - last fall was "Democracy in America" - before that, the Eclipse, and for the winner of the Indianapolis Prize (animal conservation, given by the Indy Zoo and very prestigious, and we had the winner coming to campus). We've decided to make those two shelves more of a shared responsibility and we each signed up for a semester in coming years. Plans include AI and Travel Writing (and goes with the current Archives exhibit). Again, a mix of print books and signage/QR codes for ebooks, mostly.
Of course we do digital signage, and with our Viz Wall, we've been doing more with that. One in rotation is our librarian alums, for example. And others highlight library tools and resources. And some like "Whiteboards of Roy," "Puzzles of Roy," and "A Day in the Life of Roy" - where it's just a photo collage.
The Anderson University Nicholson Library has a prominent shelf near the circulation desk that we use to display new books. Because we are buying more ebooks and fewer print books, the shelf often looks barren or has items we've owned for many months still on the shelves. To make the shelves fuller, we started creating a featured collection. With help from student workers, we pulled anywhere from 25 to 40 books to display on the shelf. There has been a noticeable increase in circulation of items in the featured collections.
Some ideas include: Autobiographies/Biographies, True Crime Literature, Diversity in Young Adult Literature, Classic American Literature, Biblical Commentaries, and Theatre Scripts
Displays from libraries outside of PALNI
#4 Blind Dates Prevent You From Judging A Book By Its Cover
#16 Protect Yourself from Fake News
#19 Banned Books Display
#26 Grab n Go
#48 Recently Returned
I Don't Remember the Title But It's Blue
Dying for a Great Mystery