Curator of Wonder

  I really wish I had taken a before photo prior to starting this project. But to be honest, I was so eager to clean up the non-fiction section that I basically tore the shelves apart as soon as the students left for the holiday break and didn't look back.  Before this project, these red plastic supports were what we were using to divide the sections and indicate Dewey classifications. A less than charming quality of these 'lil guys: the bases break easily, causing both the support and all the books they are supporting to tip and slide all over the place. With a bunch of broken ones in a row, the shelf order had totally dissolved in some places. Additionally, these small labels were not really representative of what is in our non-fiction collection. They suggested much more narrow focus in certain areas than what was actually on the shelves, as well as using vocabulary that wasn't really accessible for the year 7s using the library.  I can't take credit for the idea of ...

Just before the end of the school year, I spent a little time making some posters to promote new titles in the library. Readers advisory materials like these will be increasingly important in the coming months, as regular book browsing will be off the table. How will students in your school find new books to read? How are you helping to make connections between kids and what you have on the shelves? Click on each poster below to view full size. If you would like a printable copy of any of these posters, please leave a comment below or send me an email at  curatorofwonder@gmail.com ! I used one of my favorite digital tools to create these posters: Canva .  Oh, Canva, how I love you. It's been several years since I was first introduced to their free, web-based design software, and they keep burrowing deeper and deeper into my heart. If you haven't tested them out yet, hie thee to their site and get playing. They have so many templates, fonts, graphics, and design lessons that ar...