New Display for Audiobooks

The audiobook collection in our library hasn't been displayed very well in the past.  The laminated cards were held in a small box on the same piece of furniture that held the video and DVD cards.  When the audiobook cards were kept there, they looked ugly and were hard to browse.

I've been thinking about a better way to display them, and think I've come up with one.

To the left of the circulation desk we have a corkboard hung over top of an old doorway that dates back to the early days of the Rec Centre.  As of last week, this corkboard was just used to hold old pieces of paper like a thank you certificate from 2001.

I cleaned it off yesterday, and started printing smaller copies of the laminated cards for the audiobooks.  Now patrons can come in to the library, easily browse our audiobook collection, and pull the card off the wall for the audiobook they want to borrow.

Now, the impetus behind this project is our incoming youth audiobook collection (which I blogged about previously).  When the youth audiobooks come in, they'll be arranged on the lower half of this corkboard.

"But Jacob," you're thinking "there isn't enough room for many more audiobooks on that corkboard!"

You're right.

This corkboard is being used as a test audiobook display.  If it works well, helps audiobooks to circulate, and is liked by patrons, my plan is to buy a roll of cork and use the cork to cover one (or more) of the wall panels on the outside of the reference room, opposite the magazine racks.  Then we'll have a wall to display all of the library's audiobooks in an easy-to-browse way that doesn't take up much space.

But before we make that investment, I want to make sure that a corkboard display of audiobook cards will work.

So where do you come in?  Easy!  Borrow some audiobooks!

More Library Rearranging

If you haven't been to the library in the past few weeks, you haven't seen the results of our last round of rearranging.

First, we moved the plants, round table, and bank counter (I'm still not sure why we have this thing in the library, and I'd be happy to give it away to anyone who wants it) away from their place next to the fire exit.  With the extra room in that area, we moved the final two shelves of adult fiction from their old location (up against the walls near the magazines) and placed them back-to-back, butting up against the adult fiction shelves closest to the back door.

A day later, I was in the library while it was closed, and I thought "Hey!  There's room for some seating here!"

So I grabbed a few of the green wedge-shaped chairs from around the library and made a small curved couch out of them.  Now instead of a cluttered area with tables and bank counters and plants, we've got a nice little reading area.

It looks better, works better, and unifies the library's adult fiction section again.

But it wasn't good enough.  When we first started moving the archives into the reference room, my ultimate plan was to clean out the corner of the library where the archives had been to make another reading area.  I was a little bit bored last Saturday and started moving things.  Sharon joined in, and her husband Brian gave me a *lot* of help moving the archive filing cabinet and rotating the first adult paperback shelf.

The end result?

Another nice, bright reading area instead of a closed off corner that was essentially wasted space.

A side benefit to this rearranging is that the light coming in from the end window is no longer limited to a dusty corner.  The whole left side of the library is brighter and looks better than ever.

So, what's next for the library's layout?  Who knows!  Stay tuned!

Youth Audiobook Collection Underway!

When Sharon and I talked about our plans for 2010 last fall, we decided that we'd like to spend some money on creating a youth audiobook on CD collection.  However, when budget time came around this spring, it was seen as a fairly low priority compared to other things and we put the project aside.

In mid-April, I came across a note on the back of the library's Telus bill that said something like "Do you know what Telus does for communities?" with a URL.  I visited the site, and found that Telus has grants available for various projects in Canada.  So I filled out the application, ran it by our community grant writer for suggestions, and sent it off in early May.

On June 9th, I received a phone call from a Telus representative who told me that they thought our plan to create a youth audiobook collection was great and that it was the exact sort of project that Telus likes to fund.  When he told me Telus would be giving the library $1000 for this purpose, I had a hard time responding to him and thanking him.  I thought my grant application had been pretty decent, but really didn't expect such a positive response.

A few weeks later, the cheque arrived in the mail, and Sharon and I started to make plans.  We researched audiobooks we thought would be good for the library, and asked children who were participating in Wednesday Club to suggest audiobooks they'd like the library to order.  Unfortunately, the suggestions we've received to this point are not available in audiobook format, but we'd like to encourage everyone to keep trying!

Yesterday, Sharon and I went through the list of audiobooks we had researched and selected a group of them to purchase.  Here's what we ended up ordering:

A.A. Milne's Pooh classics boxed set
Akimbo and the elephants
The Alchemyst
Anne of Green Gables
The Bunicula collection
Charlotte's web
The Chronicles of Narnia
Coraline
French for children
Geronimo Stilton books, 1-6
Green eggs and ham and other servings of Dr. Seuss
Hardy boys #1:  the tower treasure
Hatchet
I miss you, stinky face
James Herriot's treasury for children
The Lightning thief
Magic tree house books, 1-8
Nancy Drew #1:  the secret of the old clock
The Outsiders
Ramona the brave / Ramona Quimby, age 8
Ramona the pest / Ramona forever
The Roald Dahl CD collection
The Spiderwick chronicles, books 1-5
Tunnels

We still have nearly half (about $450) of the Telus grant left for more audiobooks.  Sharon and I have ideas, but we really want to know what our patrons want.

If you can think of youth audiobooks you'd like the library to order, please let us know!

(That being said, there are two sets of books we will not be ordering at this time:  Harry Potter and Twilight.  Both series, while extremely popular, are incredible expensive in audiobook form.)