Catchy Captions

I generated a picture of an alien from a graphics program I had at home (PrintShop) or you could use clip art as well. I used the overhead projector to enlarge the image and traced it onto lime green paper. I traced the features in black magic marker. Then I put colored images of the planets, flying saucers (or anything else that reminded me of outer space) etc. in the background. The caption read, "Earthlings...Take Me To Your Readers". The students loved it!

Tracie Lake-Kinnaird, Media Specialist, Dearborn Public Schools, Dearborn, Michigan

Your Road to Success

Put a road map of the United States for the background. Make a road of of black construction paper going across the map and make cars, trucks and semi-trucks out of die cutouts, going in both directions. Put road signs (in road sign shapes such as caution, exit signs, and advertisement etc.) with motivational sayings. EX: Leaders this way (w/arrows), caution: road blocks ahead, risk takers straight ahead, follow your dreams, caution: don’t follow the crowd, success is hanging on when you want to let go (with clip art of a monkey hanging on), mistakes are merely steps up the ladder, this way to new opportunities, think about your goals, not your limitations. Make the cars and trucks pop out with some folded (like a fan) construction paper.

Cindy Hildebran (cindyhildebran@lycos.com), Bradford Union Vocational Technical Center, Starke, Florida

Oh the places we've been
(with apologies to Dr. Seuss)

We let teachers and staff know that we would like postcards from their summer travels. They did not have to go far away, even the nearest cities have postcards. I assembled a bulletin board under the caption "Oh the places we've been". Students and staff enjoyed seeing pictures from summer vacation trips.

Betty Sepe, Cuyahoga Falls High School, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Today in History

My wonderful clerk keeps my large bulletin board up to date, daily and weekly. She uses dates from LM_net and a book of special days. She uses photos, posters, holiday cut-outs, etc. and changes the bulletin board. We use black paper for the background. Teachers often compliment her on the board and students have commented "I didn't know it was National Dog Week."

Peggy Miller, Librarian, Las Vegas High School

What's the connection?

I select books around specific themes and then have the students guess what the theme is. I have used survival, award winners, time travel, banned books, etc.

Bet You Can't Read Just One!

I'm in the process of eating many small bags of Lay's potato chips ---I'm going to use the caption "BET YOU CAN'T READ JUST ONE!" , then I'm going to take another suggestion and decorate the board with small bags of chips. I'm going to put laminated copies of my bibliographies for SEQUELS and SERIES books in the reinforced chip bags, so the students can take the list, get their books, and return the bibliography to the bags on the bulletin board.

Linda Locker (locker@greenapple.com), Harmon Middle School, Pickerington, OH

Books Fuel Your Mind

Ginny Harrell, McGarrah Elementary, Morrow, Georgia

Friends Don't Let Friends Read Junk

You can use everyday and famous slogans and tweak them just a little to create an attention getting bulletin board. I heard the remark "Friends don't let friends drive drunk" and changed it just a bit. You could have pictures of friends reading, book jackets, or pictures of book covers.

Judy Serritella, Lovejoy High School, Lovejoy, Georgia

We're the Talk of the School

The board features pictures of students and teachers with callouts stating what they had to say about the library and the librarians (all nice, of course!). Kids love to see themselves on a bulletin board.

Nancy Garabed, Council Rock HS, Newtown, PA

ARMS Media Center: New and Improved!

Since my school was new, I had many many book jackets and wanted to display them. It was great to be able to say "yes" when students asked,"Hey, do you have these books?" I kept the book jackets as a frame and changed the middle of the board for an entire year. Here I have a book quote from Groucho Marx. For fall I had a tree with falling colorful leaves. Christmas was a big gold star. When this board began, it read," ARMS Media Center: New and Improved!" Since I had gotten such a large shipment of new books in.

Emily Salmon, Austin Road Middle School, Stockbridge, GA

Earn the HOPE All Ye Who Enter Here

Instead of 'abandon hope' from the famous quote, we have a sign that reads "Earn the Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here" on the bulletin board outside the Media Center. In Georgia, all students who maintain a "B" average through high school are eligible for the HOPE scholarship which will finance their college education. The HOPE scholarship is financed through the Georgia lottery, but don't capitalize the word and it can still work.

Judy Serritella, Lovejoy High School, Lovejoy, Georgia

Stressed for Success

The month of February is a stressful time of our seniors. FAFSA is due on the first, scholarships deadlines loom: this is their last semester before hitting the big, wide world. I promote career and college oriented reading materials.

Sadie Longood, Dallas (Oregon) High School Librarian, saintsadie@yahoo.com

Fishing for a Good Book?

This bulletin board was designed as a springtime bulletin board, but depending on where you live, you could use this almost any time during the year. Use an old pair of blue jeans perched on columns to resemble a dock, a fishing pole, some plastic fish. The background is blue with green plants to simulate underwater. Book jackets or actual books are displayed.

Holly Spanier, Osseo Junior High School, Osseo, Mn.

I covered the bulletin board with wrapping paper purchased from ALA. Then I printed out information on a "new invention"...the book.

Judy Serritella, Lovejoy High School, Lovejoy, Georgia

See Who is Shining at Anywhere High School

One of the bulletin boards in my media center stays up all year. Title: SEE WHO'S SHINING AT FORBUSH HIGH SCHOOL. We have a sun in the corner and cut out articles about our students from the local newspapers. Luckily, I am in a rural high school and we have two local weekly papers that are good about covering the positive things our students do. My student assistants cut out and post the new articles each week. Students are always looking at it and will tell me if I miss their pictures.

Mary Carter, Forbush High School, East Bend, NC

Blue Light Special

Blue Light Special: Now available in the LMC.

This bulletin board stays up all year, but the photocopied magazine covers are changed monthly. A list of magazines that are in the LMC are in the center of the board. Used Christmas blue lights around the edge blink off and on throughout the day.

This board promotes our magazines that are used for pleasure reading.

Barb Devore, Oakville Senior High, St. Louis Mo.

This is Your Brain...This is Your Brain on Books

My bulletin board is 2 feet high and 9 feet wide. I divided it into three sections. I developed my graphics with Microsoft Publisher, using a picture of a brain. For the first picture I made the brain quite small, for the second, the brain is (freakishly) huge. The captions are: This is your brain.

This is your brain on books.The third section just has the sentences: Any questions? Ask your librarian.

Maria Levetzow, Bettendorf Public Library, 2950 Learning Campus Dr, Bettendorf IA 52722

Jennifer Oberholtz, Carlsbad High School

Before They Were Movies

At the Hermitage Branch Library of the Nashville Public Library System, we mostly do bulletin boards that bring attention to special events. However, we came up with a board that can go up any time of the year and which could change from year to year: "Before They Were Movies."

Most children don't realize that Disney did not create Sleeping Beauty, etc., so, using our color printer, we printed off a VHS cover of a movie that the children are familiar with to match a cover of the book the movie was based on. Some of the books/movies we used were "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Stuart Little," "Little Women," and "Matilda."

We used star-shaped Ellison cut-outs as our boarder and made sure we listed the call number for each book (example: JUV Fiction Rowling).