Top 5 Ways To Keep Your Library Merry & Bright This Season (Freebie Included)

Oh, how we love this season in the library! With finals around the corner, we often get the chance to see our students more often as they come looking for a quiet place to study or simply decompress. No matter how stressful their day has been, we want the library to be the bright spot in everyone’s day. Here are the top 5 ways we are keeping the library Merry and Bright this season:

12 Days of Giveaways!

This is an annual event we use to encourage students to visit the library. The concept is simple - if a student checks out or renews a book on any of the 12 days before winter break, they are automatically entered to win the daily prize drawing. We deliver a small prize to one winner each day - usually one of the candy cane-shaped plastic containers of candy you can find for about $1. It’s an easy way to invite them into the library and gives them something to look forward to each day. You can find the FREEBIE HERE

Merry and Bright Decor

We used soft colors with bright lights in all our decor this year. Their days are stressful enough. When our students walk into the library, we want them to instantly relax and feel at home. The colors in this decor are calming and the lights keep things fun and playful. Our Merry and Bright decor is consistent throughout the library - students will see it on our doors, circulation desk, bulletin board, and displays. We also have bookmarks, due date slips and book inserts all with the same theme. All of these and more can be found HERE

Guess the First Snow Day

We have this contest posted on one of our doors and it is a winter favorite! This is an easy passive programming idea - we challenge students to grab a sticky note and make a guess about when the first official (no school) snow day will be. The closest guess wins a prize. They love it and you know who loves it even more? The teachers! Seems like we have a teacher winner every year. You can find this activity HERE.

Bookmark Challenges

We offer two bookmark challenges in December. One is a simple reading challenge. Students get a hole punched on their bookmark each time they check out in December. They may not have a ton of time for outside reading this month so this challenge just encourages them to get a book checked out. The other is a Winter Break reading challenge - this is a minute challenge to encourage students to read their book over break when they have the extra time. We offer small Chromebook stickers as prizes.

Which Is Better?

We work in a high school and the appeal of this one still has us scratching our heads. They LOVE this! Each week we post a question asking which of two options is better. Last week, we asked whether students prefer to decorate for Christmas before or after Thanksgiving. Students drop a pom pom in the fishbowl to cast their vote. Almost every student (and staff member) who walks into our library stops by the circulation desk to check the question of the week and add their pom pom. It’s the simplest concept, but it WORKS!

You can find our December “Which is Better?” questions, bookmarks, and more in our December Library Essentials Pack.