Our reference desk area has a bulletin board dedicated to displaying research and skill building resources. HelpNow! is a database that can help grade school through college students with skill building and course work tutoring and test taking preparations. It can also help adults with similar educational help, as well as with other features such as resume writing, Microsoft Office software help, and even preparations for taking the US Citizenship exam.
The librarian in charge of this display asked if I could find an image looking down on a perplexed student sitting at his/her desk while taking an exam. I said we could add a little thought bubble over his/her head stating how they wish they could use/have used the HelpNow! service to prepare for the exam.
I sourced for images that could fulfill the request but couldn't find a shot of a student taken at that angle. The closest I got were straight-on shots, the best being a student at a blackboard scratching his head, and another of a student at her desk, eyes angled skyward as if in thought. We went with the girl, added the thought balloon and headline, then added two additional tabloid-sized support signs that listed features of the HelpNow! service.
I pinned a plain background of white butcher paper over the bulletin board, then placed the 23x34in girl/thought balloon poster overtop of it. I had already freehand cut the girl away from her background from the shoulders up to add a little "pop" to her image. From the shoulders down to either side of her section of the poster, I left the exposed brown cork board--a colour not too different from her surrounding background in the image itself. It was simple and straight-forward, indicating the name of the service and what it did. It also incorporated the HelpNow! logo into the emotive thought balloon statement to reinforce that association.
Now if I could only get a little HelpNow! from our facilities crew to make my office warmer than 71 degrees!
Thanks for sharing about the HelpNow! display. I looked it up and came up with numerous libraries across the nation that use a Homework HelpNow program. I was surprised at how many did. I'm going to check into our local libraries and encourage them to do this also. I think the photo of the girl you used as well as the colors is eye catching, something to draw in the kids. Great job! Good luck with your office temperature. It is a blizzard with 5 degrees outside here in Central IL today! I'll be thinking of your 71 degrees!
ReplyDeleteI added the link to the word "HelpNow!" above.
ReplyDelete5 degrees eh? I'll stop whining now, lol.