Library Displays

OverDrive Presentation for AASL 2017: Getting the Word Out about Your eBooks & Audiobooks

November 2017Josh Whiting

Cindy Moyle, our district’s library media specialist for secondary schools, recently shared a presentation at the American Association of School Librarians 2017 Conference about OverDrive Digital Library entitled “Getting the Word Out about Your eBooks & Audiobooks.” The presentation features ideas and resources from Cindy Moyle, as well as other school librarians in Granite School District, for promoting the district’s OverDrive ebook and audiobook collection and encouraging reading.

Click here to download a copy of the presentation.

Click here for downloadable OverDrive bookmark templates, stickers, etc.

Click here to view past resources and activities for promoting OverDrive that we’ve shared on this blog.

(Granite’s OverDrive provides free access to ebooks and digital audiobooks for all students and staff in Granite School District. Granite’s OverDrive can be accessed on the web at http://granite.lib.overdrive.com or via OverDrive apps designed for various mobile devices. For more information or help getting started with OverDrive, visit https://www.graniteschools.org/edtech/overdrive.)

Library Spotlight: Beginning the Year Displays

September 2017Josh Whiting

During the first week of school, Granite’s elementary media clerks gathered in small groups for professional development sessions held at five different elementary school libraries in the district. In this setting they were able to collaborate with other clerks who work in library spaces of the same or similar design, exploring the spaces to gain ideas for improving organization, flow, displays, and atmosphere. In this post we feature display ideas from these five libraries as they stood ready to welcome back students in the coming days.

Jim Bridger Elementary

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New YA eBooks in OverDrive | March 2016

March 2016Josh Whiting

Check out some of the latest young adult titles available as ebooks and/or audiobooks in Granite’s OverDrive Digital Library. Click here or on each image to download these posters as a printable PDF.

For more information on Granite’s OverDrive Digital Library, which is available to all students and staff in Granite School District, please visit our help and resources page at https://www.graniteschools.org/edtech/overdrive.

Library Spotlight: Susan Booth, Churchill Jr. High School

March 2015Josh Whiting

Susan Booth is the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist at Churchill Junior High School. [Read more…] about Library Spotlight: Susan Booth, Churchill Jr. High School

Library Spotlight: Warren Child, Cyprus High School

February 2015Josh Whiting

Warren Child is the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist at Cyprus High School. His library theme for this year is Find Your Treasure: Read.

Library Spotlight: Michelle Asay, Granger High School

November 2014Josh Whiting

Michelle Asay is the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist for Granger High School. Mrs. Asay has one of the highest digital and print circulations in the district. She is very creative and offers a different library promotion each month to promote school wide literacy. She is an avid reader herself and keeps up on all the current YA literature trends.

Take a Reading Roadtrip Across the USA!

The Granger High Media Center theme for the 2014-2015 school year is Take a Reading Roadtrip Across the USA!

Mrs. Asay is featuring books that take place in various geographic regions of the United States via book talks and book displays throughout the year. Students have punch cards where they can keep track of which regions and states they have covered, and they must read at least one book from each region to beat the yearlong challenge. Students also have access to lists of YA Books by state and region online via G-House Center, the Granger High Media Center web site, on which are curated several state book lists from Destiny, Goodreads, the collaborative Google Doc YA Novels by State, and The United States of YA.

Library Orientation with QR Code Scavenger Hunt

This year students used QR Codes and iPads to participate in Mrs. Asay’s library orientations. Students explored the library searching for QR codes that introduced them to the “Take a Reading Roadtrip Across the USA” school literacy promotion, Destiny Library Catalog, OverDrive Digital Library, how to locate different genres and sections in the library, how to place a hold on a book, and more.

Granger High Media Center QR Code Library Orientation Activity

This is just a sample of the displays and activities in the Granger High Media Center. You can see more examples of Michelle’s displays and promotions, as well as displays from our other schools, on our Granite Media Library Displays Pinterest Board.

Spotlight Author: Cindy Moyle, Granite District Secondary Library Media Specialist

Library Spotlight: Beehive Book Awards

October 2014Josh Whiting

Beehive Book Awards

The Beehive Book Award is an annual award sponsored by the Children’s Literature Association of Utah (CLAU), given to one book in each of these five categories: Children’s Fiction, Informational, Picture Book, Poetry, and Young Adult. Committees of teacher, librarian, and parent volunteer readers create annual short lists of 10-12 books in each category. These short lists are announced in March and then school and public libraries work to get students to vote on their favorites for the following school year. The winner in each category is announced the following year in April.

Granite School District Elementary School Libraries work hard to promote the Beehive Book Award program and encourage students to vote for their favorite books. They do this through displays, community engagement, and library promotions.

Displays

At Hillsdale Elementary School, Angela Pratt has a display for the 2015 Beehive Book Awards and highlights each category on a different shelf. She uses this display when doing story time and encourage her students to check-out the books nominated. Truman, Woodstock, and Rolling Meadows have also set up displays to draw attention to the books.

Community Engagement

At Rosecrest Elementary, Vala’dee Tanner, the media assistant, collaborated with the librarian at the Holladay library to come do a book talk for all students 4^th-6^th grade. Each grade came to the library and the public librarian spoke to them about the Beehive award nominees and encouraged them to participate in the voting process. Many schools rely on their PTA to help them buy copies of the Beehive nominees and to help track voting. At Driggs Elementary School, the PTA buys copies of each Beehive Book Award nominee and create a plan to read them in the classroom.

Promotion

Many media assistants have set up ballot boxes to help keep track of votes. Dian Morrison and Kim Liston, the media assistants at Woodstock Elementary, have a glass ballot box set up by their Beehive Book Award display. Students enjoy voting because they like to submit them in the special box, and like to see the votes build up over the school year.

Spotlight Author: Nikki Gregerson, Granite District Elementary Media Supervisor

Library Spotlight: Pam Jensen, Elk Run Elementary

October 2014Josh Whiting

Experience

Pam Jensen has worked as a Library Media Assistant in Granite School District for eight years. She has worked at Oquirrh Hills Elementary, Plymouth Elementary, and has been Library Media Assistant at Elk Run Elementary since it opened in 2011.

Favorite Book

Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-this-World Moon-Pie Adventure by Tony DiTerlizzi

Favorite Quote

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…

-Dr. Seuss

Featured Project: Creating a yearly theme for the library

Elk Run Elementary has artwork from different cultures, all over the world, displayed in the hallways. Pam started to think about incorporating that idea into the library and designing a theme for this school year that would challenge students to think about the world outside of their community and to inspire them to investigate those cultures. She picked the theme, “Book a Trip around the World,” as her starting point.

Pam then integrated that theme into her displays, her handouts, and storytimes. When you enter the library, you get a sense of cohesiveness and it is exciting to see all of the creative ways that it has implemented. Here are some examples:

Each teacher received a miniature globe with a tag that read, “You’ve got the whole world in your hands,” a bookmark made from an old map, and a little treat to sneak on a hard day. This connected the teachers to the theme of the library and acted as a great way for Pam to reach out to the teachers.

Pam set up little displays throughout the library, using old globes to create different variations on the theme.

Behind the check-out desk, Pam made a banner out of old maps, and it hangs above a display made from old suitcases.

She also created a large display by the storytime rug that shows a map of the world, flags from different countries, and little illustrations of children from all over the world.

Every month, Pam will pick a new place for Elliot the Elk, the school mascot, to visit. For the month of October, Elliot visited France. Pam set up a display to show where Elliot is visiting, and incorporates the country he is visiting into her story times. While visiting France, the students will learn French words and will listen to a story that takes place in France.

Seeking Inspiration

Pam used Pinterest as her main source of inspiration for her displays, a great place for finding ideas of how to recycle items for displays. Instead of getting rid of globes that were no longer accurate, she was able to use them in an inventive way.

Interactive Tour of Elk Run Library

Spotlight Author: Nikki Gregerson, Granite District Elementary Media Supervisor