Library Graphic Design Blog Turns 1

One year ago in October 2010 I began the Library Graphic Design blog to show friends and family a little about what I do as a designer. Since then, I've posted, received comments, and gained a couple of followers. 

With something as specific as LIBRARY graphic design, I never tried to fool myself into thinking there would be much of a readership, so working toward acquiring a big audience was never part of the incentive or goal when I began. Nevertheless, Blogger.com provides blog owners readership statistics, and it can be interesting to see the trends of what people are looking looking for, at, and what kind of equipment they are using to see it with. So in the spirit of record keeping--and perhaps more importantly, trivial pursuit--I thought I'd share with you some of the interesting stats I've built up after one year of blogging. 

WHAT'S IN IT:

112 Posts / 96 Comments / 4 Followers

HIGHEST MONTHLY READERSHIP:

746x in September, 2011

TOP 10 MOST READ POSTS:

627x Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon Invitation & Program

247x Black History Month Flyer

108x Library Fire Evacuation Floorplans

106x Women's History Month Display

104x QR Codes in the Library

85x Library Summer Reading Program, 2011

83x Staff Farewell Card

76x Going Green at the Library

64x Micanopy Library Re-Opening Sign & Invitation

58x Designer on Display: A View into the Designer's Natural Habitat

HOW MANY TIMES IT HAS BEEN LOOKED AT / TOTAL PAGE VIEWS: 5,486

TOP 10 PAGE VIEWS BY COUNTRY:

3,123 United States

344 India

208 Canada

165 United Kingdom

100 Australia

86 Germany

71 Russia

70 Singapore

67 Philippines

66 Malaysia

WHO'S LOOKED AT IT (COMPLETE AUDIENCE BY COUNTRIES): 

Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominica, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

PAGE VIEWS BY BROWSERS:

46% Internet Explorer (2,548 views)        <1% Chromeframe (6)

20% Firefox (1,126)                                     <1% Mobile Safari (4)

19% Safari (1,059)                                      <1% GranParadiso (2)

11% Chrome (648)                                     <1% Maxthon (2)

1% Opera (86)                                             <1% Mobile (2)

PAGE VIEWS BY OPERATING SYSTEMS:

87% Windows (4,754 views)

9% Macintosh (544)

1% Linux (93)

<1% iPad (26)

<1% Other Unix (18)

<1% iPhone (11)

<1% Android (8)

<1% Palm (3)

<1% Windows NT 6.1 (3)

<1% iPod (2)

TOP REFERRING SITES:

1,551x google.com

310x google.co.in (India)

171x google.ca (Canada)

100x google.co.uk (United Kingdom)

95x bing.com

76x google.com.au (Australia)

51x google.com.ph (Philippines)                     

47x search.yahoo.com

45x google.com.sg (Singapore)

38x spencefarm.blogspot.com

MOST SEARCHED KEYWORDS

24x volunteer appreciation invitation                 9x black history month

15x volunteer appreciation invitations               8x black history month flyer

11x volunteer luncheon invitations                     8x volunteer luncheon invitation

10x library graphic design                                    7x appreciation lunch invitation

10x qr code poster                                                 7x appreciation luncheon invitation

Second Annual Zombies in the Library Event

The 8.5x11 inch promotional sign.

On October 26, the Tower Road library branch held its second annual Zombies in the Library event. It was a fun time for youths to come dressed in costume, learn the "Thriller" dance from members of the Gainesville dance club, Danscompany of Gainesville, and to enjoy a variety of Halloween activities and snacks.

Promotional materials included a new poster, handbill, and web banner design that featured a few zombies. I combined a popular zombie clip art with a public domain photo that showed a close-up of a green, soupy mix--pea soup, in fact, I believe it was. It gave the design a nice, textured background to liven up the black/white clip art. I added a spotlight effect to the background to create a little more dimension and depth to it, then combined it with the zombies clip art. I also searched online for some free scary fonts, downloaded a few to try out, then used my favourite consistently on each of the collateral designs.

Once done, I emailed proofs to the librarian. She replied the next day to say that at first she was concerned the art might be too frightening to children, but after showing them to other staff members who said "no--they are great!" she was convinced that she must simply be a wimp, and happily approved them. I was pleased, and was certain the eye-catching design would serve her well.

Top: web banner. Bottom, 8.5x11 inch page prior to trimming into quarter-page handbills.

Total promotional items used:

12x 8.5x11 inch signs

100x quarter-page handbills

1x web banner

ACLD Recognized with 2011 National Medal for Museum and Library Service

Some great news has been announced today regarding my library. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has selected Alachua County Library District as one of only ten libraries and museums to receive the 2011 National Medal for Museum and Library Service.

Diverse programs and events plus a strong customer focus helped the Library District to achieve this national recognition.

The Library was nominated for its successful community partnerships, customer focus, expanded services, and diverse programs and events.

The National Medal is the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries for extraordinary civic, educational, economic, environmental and social contributions. Recipients must demonstrate innovative approaches to public service and community outreach.

“Congratulations to the Alachua County Library District on receiving the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The work you have done is an inspiration to libraries and museums throughout the nation,” said Susan Hildreth, IMLS Director. “With innovation, creativity and a great deal of heart you have achieved an outstanding level of public service.”

The other institutions that will received the IMLS medal this year are:

• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
• Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH
• EdVenture Children’s Museum, Columbia, SC
• Erie Art Museum, Erie, PA
• Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Collegeville, MN
• Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, VA
• Madison Children’s Museum, Madison, WI
• San José Public Library, San José, CA
• Weippe Public Library & Discovery Center, Weippe, ID

This announcement is provided online at the Alachua County Library website: http://www.aclib.us/blog/library-district-receives-national-honor-outstanding-service

and can also be seen on the Institute of Museum and Library Services website:

http://www.imls.gov/imls_announces_the_2011_national_medal_for_museum__library_service_recipients.aspx


The IMLS website location above also offers a link to download a .pdf brochure that covers all the details and highlights about each award recipient.

About the National Medal for Museum and Library Service

The National Medals honor outstanding institutions that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. Selected institutions demonstrate extraordinary and innovative approaches to public service, exceeding the expected levels of community outreach. Recipient institutions receive $10,000 and are honored at an awards ceremony that is held in Washington, DC.


About the Institute of Museum and Library Services

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.

The Library's 7th Annual Teen Art Show

Over the weekend the Library hosted the 7th Annual Teen Art Show. Each year, youths aged 10 to 19 show their artistic creations and compete in age-specific divisions and categories for a variety of awards. Participants win distinctions of gold, silver, or bronze places, Best Logo, Best Photo, Best of Show, and Crowd Favorite.

The winning logo from the previous year's art show is used as the promotional art for the current year. Promoting the event began in late August; entries were accepted until October 14. Once all the entries were gathered, I copied artist and work names into predesigned labels, printed, then trimmed to size. The circular "medals" would be wrapped by the librarian using a stick pin button press to become more elaborate medallions. Labels for the three judges would be inserted into a plastic sleeve, then hung around the neck as a lanyard. Signs of different sizes were printed on the office copier; large format posters printed on the Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 800.

Marketing materials created to promote this event have been fairly extensive relative to other events. For this event, the following items were created:

Marketing materials included a variety of medallions, judge labels,
handbills, signs, web ads, and PSAs (using the web ad image).

11x 23x34 inch posters

3x 11x17 inch signs

7x 11x14 inch signs

57x 8.5x11 inch signs

2x 8.5x11 inch "Vote" signs

264 quarter page handbills
111 artwork labels

36 adhesive participant labels

3 judge lanyard labels

11 award medal buttons
2 television public service announcements (PSAs)

1 THINK... newsletter article with art

1 web site banner

1 web blog icon

1 rules and regulations form

1 permissions waiver form

1 application form

Creepy Characters in (the Library) Popular Culture

The 118x69 inch large format alcove display poster.

In late September I asked one of the Library display team members if they had any ideas what the next display would feature after the Banned Books display came down. "No idea," she said, clearly not on her radar yet. The day before, I'd had a vision for a display, so I pitched it to her: "How about: 'Creepy Characters in Literature' or 'Fiction' or 'Popular Culture.'" I had initially thought to call it "Creepy Characters in the Library" but then thought better of it, not wanting the inference to suggest any of our patrons. That would undoubtedly be too tempting for some. By extension, I also wanted to steer away from the potential of slandering the character of real people by keeping the focus on fictional characters.


The librarian liked it, so we pitched "Creepy Characters in Popular Culture" to the rest of the team, and it was unanimously approved. With that green light, the librarian sent out an email to ask others for their creepy people suggestions, and what came back was a copious list of some of popular culture's most creepy characters of all time. Now, I have to say that for me, the term "creepy" has more to do with an observation of a person's looks and/or behaviour that results in an unsettling sense that the person appears to be capable of doing something scary, horrible, horrific, detestable, or grotesque--but has yet to actually do it. Fear hasn't actually occurred, but the concept of it has "crept in" to one's consciousness. The actual definition includes all of those secondary reactions, however, so you'll find that whereas some of the people on our list are indeed creepy, others may actually be downright frightening. And since not everyone has the same level of tolerance, you can imagine there would be a little "bleed-over" between creepy and scary (no pun intended). There are a couple on the list that I don't think look creepy, but I may not know their story well enough to rule them out (Heathcliff and Lady MacBeth, for example). A couple have a humorous quality about them, but admittedly, they also have a certain creepiness about them as well (Burger King and the GEICO money stack come to mind).


So once we had a list, I gathered photos of the entries and developed a layout to show a good portion of them. If I didn't find a very good photo of an individual, they'd have to be left off. I didn't want any low resolution pixelated images to ruin the look. For some of the lesser-quality images, I could use them for the smallest size photo locations, and for the best resolution and sized images, use those in the most prominent positions. 


I also suggested that we engage the opinions of others by making the display interactive--asking viewers to write down who their most creepy character was and place that suggestion into a jack-o'-lantern. Once all suggestions were collected, we could post the result somewhere...on a blog, on our Facebook page, or both. The librarians liked that idea, so they took on that aspect of the display. A Facebook page was set up asking for patrons to pick from a selection of five offered. Results will come later! 


The 118x69 inch large format poster was printed out in two 118x36 inch strips from the in-house Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 800, trimmed, and spliced together using double-sided clear tape, then T-pinned to the display wall. A few additional halloween decorations were added: faux spider webs, spiders, bats, rats, a styrofoam tombstone and the jack-o'-lantern to place additional suggestions in...all to strengthen the connection of the poster with the Halloween holiday.


That just leaves one question...who is YOUR creepy character in popular culture?

Author Event: David Berman

Marketing collaterals include (clockwise from left): 45x45 inch large format poster,
supplementary display infographic, a television PSA, an internet web banner, and handbills.

Poet/musician David Berman will be reading from some of his works at Headquarters Library, October 20. Note that I mention this first, because if you were to read our initial program description, you wouldn't know this until the very last paragraph. But since the we're having an event that features Berman, I'm focusing on that key piece of information first (and because this blog focuses primarily on design development of promotional marketing materials rather than complete synopsis of visiting authors lives and achievements). Nevertheless--first and foremost--Berman will be here, reading at the Library.


To help promote the event, a variety of marketing collaterals were created using images supplied by the author, including a 45x45 inch large format display poster to hang in the Library, an 8.5x14 inch half page vertical repurposing of an article written in the Library's quarterly newsletter THINK... which accompanies the poster, a television station public service announcement (PSA), an internet web banner, and 250 quarter-page handbills that can be picked up and kept by patrons visiting the Library.

Library's THINK... Autumn Newsletter / Program Guide

The Library's Autumn 2011 issue of THINK... newsletter / program guide arrived in libraries a few days before the beginning of the month. The 12-page issue focuses on the Library's copious variety of resources, services, programs, and events offered to patrons throughout Alachua County. The Library continuously looks for ways to better serve its patrons by delivering more, and value-added aspects to its already diverse selection, and designed to empart the notion of "Library, PLUS", this publication highlights a great selection of these offerings all together in one handy package.


For a downloadable .pdf of the full issue, you can get one here: http://www.aclib.us/your-library/blog/thinkquarterly-magazine-and-program-guide

Library Safety Irony

Last week one of the facilities guys came into the art room  turned on the large laminator that had a 24 inch roll of film in it, then proceeded to begin trimming an 8.5x11 inch page into tiny 1x1 inch slips on the paper cutter. 


I looked over and asked what project he was working on. He said he needed to laminate a ten copies of a list of codes that each member of his department could then tuck into their wallets for future reference. I tried to envision him poking his 1x1 inch scraps of paper into the big 24 inch wide roller of the laminator...and all the wasted film that was sure to result.


"Hey, I have an idea," I said. "How about we use our little laminator that makes ID badges. You can put two of those little slips into one sleeve each, then trim them down to size. It's really fast and you won't even have to wait for the machine to warm up 15-20 minutes like the big laminator." 


"Oh, ok. I was just going to do it the way I done it the last 17 years," he said. "Let's give this a try, and you'll see how easy it is," I encouraged him, wondering just how much film had probably been wasted over the course of the past 17 years.


I pulled out the small ID badge laminator, plugged it in, and let it warm up while my facilities friend trimmed out all the lists on the paper cutter. While he was chopping away, he got interrupted by a call on his cell phone. "I'm laminatin' and choppin' these lists," he repeated a few times into his cell phone. "Yeah, laminatin' and choppin'. Safety meeting? Okay. Right now? Okay. Be right there." He turned to me and said he'd come back to finish right after his facilities safety meeting. Since I already had the little laminator ready to go, I offered to finish the laminating and trim them out, two-to-a-single card size. They'd be ready for him by the time he returned. He thanked me and headed out while I began folding the lists, placing them two-to-a-plastic sleeve, and poking them through the laminator. When they were all laminated, I unplugged the laminator and turned to carry it with me over to the paper cutter where I could finish trimming the newly laminated lists. 

In an ironic twist, the user ran off to a safety meeting,
leaving the paper cutting arm up in this position.

What I saw when I turned around was this: the paper cutter blade positioned exactly as you see it above. I couldn't help but to see the irony in it: Facilities Guy Leaves Paper Cutter Arm In Up Position During Hurried Dash to Attend Safety Meeting.


I had a good chuckle at it, but this is the kind of mentality many people have when they come into the art room to do a project. They pull out all the materials they need to do their project, then when they're done, they just leave it for someone else to pick up after them...that "someone" being me I guess. Never mind that it wasn't my project nor my mess. I find myself both cleaning up, and when I next see them (or hunt them down immediately after) I let them know that part of the creating process includes the cleaning up step afterwards too. Art room etiquette, my friends!...and oh yeah...SAFETY too! 


Thank you very much for being mindful of this public service announcement. =)

Ode to Steve: Steve Jobs Day, October 14, 2011

iMiss You.

Today, October 14, is Steve Jobs Day. About a week earlier, the couple days after Steve Jobs' death, one of my librarian colleagues came to my office to tell me he had heard about a Dress Like Steve Jobs Day coming sometime soon, but didn't know exactly when. I thought that was a pleasant way for the masses to honour the former founder and CEO of Apple's memory. A few days after receiving my first notice the tribute day was coming, my librarian colleague took time out of his busy day while preparing to open a new library branch to phone me: "Scot, I just found out tomorrow is Steve Jobs Day." Fortunately, my own ubiquitous black mock turtleneck shirt and blue jeans were easily at hand back home.


You can find out more about Steve Jobs Day and the Dress Like Steve Jobs Day event at the links below:


Steve Jobs Day
http://stevejobsday2011.com/index.php


Steve Jobs Day
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=167358663346841


Dress Up Like Steve Jobs Day
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130179840411684


Steve Jobs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs


Steve Jobs Greatest Achievements
www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/10/steve-jobs-greatest-achievements/?mbid=wir_newsltr&pid=2452


And my personal favourite web site about Steve that includes links to YouTube videos of interest:
http://allaboutstevejobs.com

Thinking about Steve at my desk.

Prior to even knowing about these events, I already had printed out a photo of Steve and pinned it to my bulletin board at my desk at work. It provided a reminder that gave me pause to think on my own experience using Apple products. 


I was a graphic designer in 1986 when the Mac Classic came to the market. The company I worked for, the Dallas Times Herald, made a big push to begin use off-the-shelf computer products to create computer-generated art in its newspaper. The transition from using rapidiograph pens on vellumn paper, waxing galleys of text to blue line mechanicals, and cutting rubylith and amberlith films for colour separations took time, but we were all about finding ways to do our job faster, easier, and with more efficiency. Apple products made that possible, and as they continued to improve on their products, so did I. The largest portion of my design work has been created on Apple products; all of my industry awards are a direct result of using products Steve Jobs had a hand in creating. So I have a lot to thank Apple--and by extension--Steve Jobs for. A lot has been said about Steve's visionary instincts for developing products, masterful abilities as a marketeur, personal leadership style, and more. I can't add more to that, so I offer the collection of references above for your enjoyment and appreciation of a man that made a HUGE difference in the world.


But wait, there's one more thing.


www.apple.com/stevejobs

Library Monthly Event Signs, October 2011

October event signs marked a transitional stage in the arrangement of event lists
 from "Recurring" and "Special" categories as seen in left and center columns--
to groupings based on ages--as seen in right column.

Monthly event signs created for October marked a transitional period in their arrangement of information. On previous monthly signs, events were divided into two categories--Recurring Events and Special Events--then arranged in order by listing events with multiple dates first (i.e.: "Mondays, 1pm", etc.), followed by events with only one listed date ("Sept. 2, 1pm") listed after. All events indicated what age group they were by displaying age group categories in a specific colour (for example: TEENS, and ADULTS). 


Patrons at at least one branch library indicated that instead of having to look through all the events collectively they would find it quicker and more convenient if events were grouped together in their own age group categories--for example, if all children's events were separated from other age group events.  Ideally, all events for each age group would hold to one page, made possible by cutting event descriptive text to make that possible. This required more editing work on my part, but the end result worked well. I grouped all the same-age group events together, then created a seal icon of a specific colour that contained the age group name. I also used the same seal colour for event titles related to those age divisions.


When needed and where possible, additional art elements could be added to compliment a standard nameplate design at the top of the page that identified what library branch the sign was for. As always, some branches required larger, 11x17 inch signs, while smaller branches with fewer monthly events could make do with 8.5x11 inch signs. Ten branches would receive two signs each for posting inside their libraries.


During this transition, the age grouping effort was only produced for one branch. The result would be evaluated by the branch librarians and later a discussion between branch managers and marketing would help to determine how to best streamline the content delivery during of the production cycle.

Author Event: Suzy Kline

Collaterals for the event included 11x17 inch signs, colour and black/white print ads,
a public service announcement (PSA) TV ad, and a website banner ad.

Children's book author Suzy Kline will be in town to talk about her experiences in an interactive presentation. During her stay she'll be presenting at both the library and separately at a number of area schools.

Publicity materials created to promote her events included both colour and black/white print ads, a public service announcement (PSA) on the local television station, a website ad, and 11x17 inch in-house signs.

The author's publicist provided the library with a photo of the author, as well as Suzy's signature doodle—a little curly-haired smiling face above her signature. Unfortunately, both of these images were small in dimension and low-resolution 72dpi .jpg files. Even upon receipt, the images were already noticeably pixelated, so when it came time to scale them up on a design piece, the pixelation only increased proportionately. I asked the program managers if they could contact the publicist to secure better images, which they did. Unfortunately, all we got back were the same images, so I asked if they could make a second effort--and they did--but no reply came back from the publicist. Too busy to do any better, I guess.

Okay, so we go with what we got: the crappy stuff, plus some images of her more recognizable book covers I found myself.

Promotions for Library Crafting Events

Web ad for one of our library branch groups.

An 8.5x11 inch sign promotes two recurring
craft groups at one of the library branches.

There's a whole lot of crafting going on. Some are age-specific one-off events such as creating Japanese kokeshi dolls, Thai string dolls, paper flowers, embroidery, fish prints, duct tape wallets, marble wallets, sculpting, painting, drawing, beading, and more. Others are recurring groups such as knitting and crocheting where participants come to work on personal projects and/or projects to create as gifts to give to local charities. 

Each recurring craft group is pretty well established with their attendance, but once in a while they like to get the word out that they're still active. So with the help of some domain free photography, I've created handbills, web ads and 8x11 inch signs to promote groups such as Knitting in the Afternoon, Crafter's Circle, and The Rug Bunch.

With the first hint of autumn in the air, maybe this would have been a good time for me to ask the groups to knit up some warm woolies for the designer that used to wear six layers of clothes in his office during last year's winter months. =P

Come Write In: National Novel Writing Month Event Promotions

The event web ad provided the tease; a caption line below provided the details.

Our High Springs library branch will be participating in the event by hosting five separate events: a kick-off party, three Come Write In events, and a concluding party at the end of the month. To help promote it, they asked for me to create an 8.5x11 inch sign, 200 handbills, 250 bookmarks, and a web ad for the library website.

One 8.5x11 inch page provided room enough for
six bookmarks to be printed with essential information.

No art was included in the request, so I pulled a public domain stock photo of a pencil and paper to be the graphic element, and incorporated the event name, location/contact information, and event information together in a simple package. I alternated colour backgrounds on the bookmarks for variety, printing six bookmarks per 8.5x11 inch page, then trimmed to size using the art room's manual paper cutter. Handbills were also created in much the same way: 4-up per 8.5x11 inch page, chopped down to size, this time using the electric paper cutter. For the web ad, the image contained only the event name and location text placed over the pencil/paper image. The supportive language would be placed under the image in a caption line on the web site.

Library Teen Chef Competition: Who's Cuisine Will Reign Supreme?

Event promo collaterals included 8.5x11 inch signs, quarter-page handbills,adhesive contestant shirt labels, judge lanyard labels and a web site ad.

Late in September, our Tower Road library branch held a competition for teens called Teen Chef Competition. Participating teens would divide up into teams with an equal number of teammates, then each team would take turns selecting a food item from a common table. Later, a timer would be set and the teams would assemble the best looking and tasting food dishes they could using the combined items they'd selected. All this within a certain amount of time. Each team's three dishes would be presented to judges who would score the entries on plate presentation and taste. The combined scores would determine which team would win the event as Top Chefs.

To publicize this second annual event, I was asked to create a new logo for the event and then apply it to ten 8.5x11 inch signs, 100 quarter-page handbills, 24 contestant team shirt adhesive labels, 4 judge identification lanyard labels, and a web ad for the library web site.

For the contest logo, I used a selection of kitchenware clip art: a plate as a center element, over which a knife, fork and spoon of different colours would be placed, topped with stars of the same colours to suggest the idea of different teams, and then the event name. Shirt labels utilized the same text styling as the logo, but placed over the image of different coloured clocks to help differentiate teams from one another and to emphasize the timed aspect of the challenge. Shirt labels were printed on 8.5x11 inch adhesive Avery label sheets that had 2-1/2 inch pre-cut areas on them. Once peeled off, contestants wore them on their shirts. 


That, and whatever food they may have added to complete their wardrobe during the chaos (food stains not included in design).


Photos of the event can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/acld/sets/72157627734221984/

Banned Books Week in the Library

A banned books display for 2011 used the same solution as for the 2010 display.

Our Youth and Adult departments celebrated Banned Books Week by displaying a selection of formerly banned books in their separate alcove display spaces. Each display space which is recessed 12 inches into walls on different floors measured 118x68 inches. 

YS banned books posters.

I suggested that if he was interested to save time, I could import his book photos into a layout program that had a pre-created template containing the back measurement wall, the call letter plaque, and a set of hands/arms that extended out from the book to hold the plaque. He was game for it, so I whipped out a sample of one book sign set, adding the additional elements of eyes to help complete the amorphization of the book--including a shadow behind each book--and the title to the plaque, then sent it to him for consideration.

He liked it enough to do the remaining books in the same fashion. By the next day, he had all of his book line-up images, each printed out on 11x17 inch pages. He would later add these to his larger display space being developed with a large banner headline and other visual elements that pulled the display all together.

For the adult display, the visual team wanted to utilize the same solution we used last year that showed 11x17 inch printouts of book covers along with a headline set into the series of book covers. We had such a good response from patrons last year over the display that we wanted to do it again, only this year we would show a different selection of books. Fortunately, we had already printed enough different books to choose from for last year that we didn't need to do any additional work for this year. The librarian selected among the unused covers and together we hung them up in rows across the display wall.

The total number of prints made for the adult selection from last year and finally used this year was 72 books. Total number of prints for the youth display was 20 books.

The children's department banned books display.