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Consider giving books as rewards or prizes for contests and challenges. Book fair gift certificates, gift cards to a local book shop, or a secret stash of extra Scholastic books are all good options. If you have a budget, look into purchasing a Book Vending Machine for your readers.

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A great way to celebrate Valentine's Day!

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Students love to "window shop" for books, and they love it even more when they see some pop culture.

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Virtual BreakoutEDU and Dot Day-Elementary

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Virtual BreakoutEDU and Dot Day-Elementary

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QR Codes + Flipgrid AR = Book Talks for Hybrid Learning

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QR Codes + Flipgrid AR = Book Talks for Hybrid Learning

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For Banned Books Week, I always do some version of stations and a read out with students to celebrate our freedom to read. ( Read about our stations from last year ). With only 25% of our students in...

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Make Reading Fun with Special Activities throughout the Year

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Make Reading Fun with Special Activities throughout the Year

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I love this time of year! Our temperature in Georgia is dropping below 80 degrees and who doesn't love a good opportunity to display horror books? Check out how we are making the most out of our limited, Covid programming below.

You may have seen the cute way of promoting books that Shannon Miller has done. Because we are in a middle school and have over 15 ELA/reading teachers in three grade levels, participating in a Book'd program like Shannon's is as feasible for us. Instead, I do fun read alouds at different points in the year with a theme.

Our library is not open to all students in the way that we are used to operating this school due to Covid. While students are definitely allowed in and to browse for books, the amount of students are being limited for contact tracing and safety precautions. Because of this, we have had to get creative with how to promote our MakerSpace and provide opportunities for creation. We have started Make & Take projects instead and so this month, we are doing a pumpkin decorating contest.

We ordered mini pumpkins from Amazon (you could easily get pumpkins donated from Home Depot or Lowes instead). I wanted to be able to keep our pumpkins for next year as part of our decor so that's why I chose to go with plastic pumpkins. When I purchased, it was about $15 for 30 pumpkins. After the pumpkins arrived, we printed directions and put the directions and pumpkins inside a bag for students to pick up from the circulation desk. We promoted the contest and our pumpkins were gone within a few days. Next year, we will have to rethink how many we have!

Students are to turn in their pumpkins by Thursday and we will display pumpkins outside the library for voting on Friday. I can't wait! I'll post an update after all entries have been turned in. ​

With our limited capacity allowed inside the library and half of our population at home for virtual school, we are promoting more outside of our walls with displays and advertisements. We are using our social media accounts, the monitors around the lunch room, and changed the directions of our displays outward for students to see the awesome books we have. We've also kept up our displays near the front of the library.

I also create virtual libraries to share on our Library Learning Commons Microsoft Team and ELA/reading teachers.

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I love this time of year! Our temperature in Georgia is dropping below 80 degrees and who doesn't love a good opportunity to display horror books? Check out how we are making the most out of our limited, Covid programming below. You may have seen the cute way of promoting books that Shannon Miller has done.

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Do you want to capitalize on how much your students love Among Us? Create a bulletin board for reading promotion!

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MS Librarian | @glma President-Elect | #MIEExpert | #MIEtrainer | #FlipgridAmbassador | Google Certified | '19 Fulton County LMS of the Year | #GaLibChat Visit my previous blog!​

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Recently, at a statewide school librarian collaborative, I was asked how our school promotes ebooks/audiobooks and how we get our students to read them. It was such a layered question that I tried to answer with the time we had, but there is so much that goes into how our students are consistently the #1 in the district for ebook checkouts and time spent reading.. Our district utilizes Sora for our ebooks and audiobooks.}

{Some background before you read on, our middle school is one school in a large metro Atlanta county that supports 58 elementary schools , 19 middle schools , 15 high schools , and 7 charter schools

Check out the ways we have promoted and made ebooks a part of our culture below.

​​The number one way to quickly increase circulation and begin making digital reading a part of your school culture is teacher buy-in. Not all teachers believe that ebooks or audiobooks are considered real reading and it takes time to shift that mentality. So how do you shift the mindset?

Make your case at PLC, content, or grade level meetings. Explain the benefits of ebooks and audiobooks and share the stats. Most people who are anti-ebooks have only heard the negative.

Benefits:

​Instant access to materials

Assigning books for a specific period of time

Digital badging for reading achievements

Accommodations for students (text-to-speech, dyslexic font, speed of reading, highlighting, etc.)

Ability to bookmark, make notes, and save pages for assigned readings

No lost books or late fees

Look for opportunities to include ebooks and audiobooks to support the curriculum. The most engaging way to start doing that is with book tastings! (Read my blog post on that here)

Do you include student voice in your collection? If not, you are missing out on the #1 way to engage your students in reading. Student requests, surveys, feedback, daily conversations, and our Student Library Advisory Board guide my collection development throughout the year. Yes, I still purchase award winners, books for book clubs, and examine needed books to fill gaps in our collection, but our student requests fill the majority of our book purchases. When students know their voices are heard, they feel a part of something more - a community who cares about them. Reading naturally happens when you listen to what your patrons need. The additional benefits of serving student's need for belonging makes this even more important.

Ebooks ​help students tackle tough topics they may be too shy, embarassed, or scared to ask about or checkout in a physical format. We offer digital reading that feature heavy subjects including police brutality, white privilege, racism, suicide, abuse, school shootings, life-threatening diseases and LGBTQ+ rights. As a school librarian, equitable access and student privacy are extremely important. Ebooks allow for both and our students often feel more comfortable seeking out information this way.

We have a display with a QR code on bookmarks for tough topics that link to collections for students to pick up too.

Students don't know, until they know. Using visual displays coupled with QR codes to alert students of all the great titles we have in Sora has helped in building a culture of digital reading. For instant gratification, we advertise right on the shelves. If the physical book is not here, we want students to know we are thinking of their needs with our digital collection.

When a student isn't sure what to read, we help them to decide with BookFlix (our spin on the Netflix platform, template detailed here). BookFlix shows available print and digital books based on students' favorite reads, as recommended by our Student Library Advisory Board. Made up of students grades 6-8, the advisory board helps add new books and change out books each month to keep recommendations fresh!

I also display ebooks all over the school with the use of school monitors, our morning news show, on social media, school newsletters, and bulletin boards. When I share physical books, I also share digital books so that there is not a stigma of what reading medium we choose. It's in their faces every day as they are in the lunch room, in the hallways, in the morning news, etc. When I share what I read with students, I share a mix of how I read with physical and digital books on a display outside the library as well. When I've read an ebook or audiobook, I link it with a QR code so students can access it easily.

​In what ways are you advertising and utilizing digital books at your school? I'd love to hear. Feel free to leave a comment below or connect with me on Twitter or Instagram.

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How Our Library Reached #1 in ebook Checkouts in Our District

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Recently, at a statewide school librarian collaborative, I was asked how our school promotes ebooks/audiobooks and how we get our students to read them. It was such a layered question that I tried to answer with the time we had, but there is so much that goes into how our students are consistently the #1 in the district for ebook checkouts and time spent reading..

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MS Librarian | @glma President-Elect | #MIEExpert | #MIEtrainer | #FlipgridAmbassador | Google Certified | '19 Fulton County LMS of the Year | #GaLibChat Visit my previous blog!​

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Let's create and celebrate a nation of diverse readers. For Read Across America, let's look at inclusive texts that share our nation's greatest quality - diversity and inclusivity.

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Demo Public Library Resources & Promote Resource Access to ALL

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Demo Public Library Resources & Promote Resource Access to ALL