Hello,

I received 2 responses from Libraries regarding my current event book display email when I asked the questions:

What is your display called?
Who is responsible for filling the display (one person or a team)?
Do you include follow up information on how the books relate to current events?
How has the display been perceived by patrons?

Response 1:

Does anyone have a display that features books that relate to current events in their library? Yes-- depending on the local or widespread interest of the current event. We haven't generally featured displays on what might be termed "Breaking News", except for BLM, vaccine awareness, vetting "fake news" etc.

Other events include: Major national and some international holidays and Indigenous Peoples, American Indian Heritage, Black History, Women's History, Juneteenth, etc.

Other: Voting Registration Day, Election Day, Banned Books, Pride Month, Constitution Week, Earth Week, etc.

Displays hosted in the Main entrance area and children's dept for children's books on the featured theme.

If so, I have a few questions:

What is your display called? We title each display appropriately to the theme.
Who is responsible for filling the display (one person or a team)? Programming Team: Marketing, with Adult and Youth services pulling related books.
Do you include follow up information on how the books relate to current events? Not usually the books, no. We include supplementary material on the display topic when available. Sometimes brochures, flyers, bookmarks, voting guides from League of Women Voters, national Voter Registration & State voting materials,
How has the display been perceived by patrons? Patrons generally respond favorably, and the books displayed circulate.

Notably: We've had one "patron" (loose definition: never reads, checks out materials or attends programming; uses our internet and drops his wife's daycare kids unattended on our preschool storytime or juvenile dept) complain that we can't feature just certain cultural/ethnic groups ( Native American, Black History Month, BLM), we have to represent them all, (especially (his) Italian Americans). We did different features for a year, he never came back to thank or complain.

Response 2:

We don't have anything designated a Current Events display. However, we do have several display spaces and sometimes we fill one of them with books related to some current event. We did this when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Thanks!

Rosemary

Rosemary Isbell

(she/her)

Youth Services Librarian

Baldwin Public Library

300 W. Merrill St.

Birmingham, MI 48009

248-554-4676