Have I told you that I love buying and advertising new books for the library!? (I personally think that it’s directly tied to my love of new school supplies!) When the new books come in, my receptionist lets me know right away, and I always do a HAPPY DANCE as I go pick up the boxes. I may even be more excited than the kids, at times!
This year, I came up with what I think is a cool way to advertise NEW books, and create a great “end of the year” job for my 5th grade leaders. Here’s what I’ve done:
First of all, I purchased green “Color Tinted Label Protectors” from Demco (I get the ones that are 1-1/2″ x 2″ that come in a box of 250), and I placed them over the call numbers on all the new books.
Once they are all processed and ready to go, I display the books up on top of our bookcases. However, if they get shelved, students can still find them easily as the green label sticks out.
This has really been effective this year! It’s always fun to see the kids so excited when they come up to check out and say “Look, Mrs. Liptak! I have a new book!”
I use a similar method for displaying the current Texas Bluebonnet books. I have a special bookcase where I store the 20 nominees along with the Shutterfly books I make each year to showcase our Battle of the Bluebonnet teams. I print out a small picture of the front cover of all 20 book nominees so that students can see where to put the book when they check it back in.
I purchase the Bluebonnet Spine Labels from TLA’s website and use blue Color Tinted Label Protectors from DEMCO to cover over it. (Hint: Make sure you put a normal label protector over the spine label first before placing the blue label protector over it. Otherwise you can’t peel it off easily.)
At the end of the year, my 5th grade leaders will help me remove all the stickers so that we can begin again next year. I can also use this as a job for students who need to work off lost books at the end of the year.
What kinds of things do you do to advertise new books? I’d love to hear your ideas!
What a cute idea! I had just been leaving the new books on a special shelf for a couple months before they got shelved in their normal places.
Mrs. Brown Loves Bookworms
I really like your spine label protector idea. I've tried several techniques, such as peelable stickers on the front cover and then place them on a special shelf for students to browse.
Students who find it hard to sit or concentrate would enjoy the job of going to find the new books that were accidentally shelved.
Love the colored label protector idea! Thanks for sharing.
This is a GREAT idea! This children are always asking me about new books. Thank you for sharing!
I wrote a grant thru DonorsChoose and got 5 vertical display shelves, with whiteboard signs across. I think when the cover is facing out it's really helpful…