Signage

School’s coming! I went back into the library yesterday and finished rearranging my picture book collection. Last year was my first year teaching, and I was much more concerned with getting my lessons in place and figuring out what I was doing to worry too much about the look of my space! But as the year went on I realized there were a few changes I would need to make. It sounds crazy, but there were way too many bookshelves! The previous set-up a lot of half-filled shelves, and books turned front-wards for display. I definitely liked the open look, but it took so much space. The reading rug could barely hold a class of 25 second-graders, forget about getting the fifth grades down there. And the tables were so close to one another that kids couldn’t pull out their chairs without hitting one another. It just didn’t work, and I knew some of those shelves would have to go.

I was able to reduce the situation somewhat with weeding (books from the 60s! eek!) and eventually decided I would just have to bite the bullet and get the shelves a little tighter. I was pleasantly surprised with how well everything fit. The shelves are definitely tighter, but there’s still plenty of room. And with four (!!) shelves gone, I have so much more space. The extra space meant I could move things around, and would help solve a problem with the picture books, which had previously spread halfway around the room. Now they’re all near one another, and in alphabetical order (believe me, that’s more impressive than it sounds).

But oy! I forgot how exhausting it is reshelving books! I would say I moved about 2000 books in two hours, and this morning, my back was definitely letting me know it! So when I went in today, I decided to give the heavy lifting a break, and work on another part of my make-over, signage. As part of my reorganization I pulled down almost all of the art in the library. We’re in the basement, and have very high ceilings, but the shelves run along every wall. So I don’t really have much bulletin board space, and what I have is very high up – too high for interactive posters or anything that needs to be read up close. There were some extremely dusty framed book cover posters, and this gem:

stunning, isn't it?

When I was thinking about what to put up, I realized that I really didn’t have any signage. Bad librarian! So I got to work, and started on some new signs, to help guide the way, and brighten up the space. Here’s what I have so far:

I’m waiting on the laminating machine to return from its summer vacation and then I think we’ll be in business!