Unshelve With Love - Valentine's Day!

 Romance is the most obvious choice for a Valentine's Day book display. Just remember to include a wide variety of titles and authors unless you decide to focus on a subgenre like romantic suspense or trope like friends to lovers. Here is a link to my posts with information and ideas about romance and book displays. 

Kissing Books, the newsletter from Book Riot, has a list of suggestions in a recent newsletter. With the heading "Bad Romance: The Best Romantic Horror for Valentine’s Day." For more information on horrormance, they have a primer and a list of book recs.  They also suggest horror books for Valentine's Day.  Use their suggestions as a starting point. 

(I recommend subscribing to newsletters and browsing them to get ideas for book displays."

There are other options for "Bad Romance." Check your suspense and mystery collection for tales of love gone wrong. True crime and biographies also have options. Including some self help/relationship books is also something to try. You can place bookmarks around with information about local resources for victims of domestic violence or pair the display with information about your local shelters. Some shelters accept donations of items for those who arrive without anything. 

Dessert baking and cookbooks also can be a display for Valentines Day. If you start in January, you can set up a craft for your sweetheart display. People need time to create something! You can create adult and youth take- and - make craft kits with a simple valentine to craft and add that to the display. 

Getaways? Find travel books and books about exotic, romantic places. Include information about any local favorites. Dig into your fiction and non-fiction. I guarantee you have many books about Paris and Hawaii on the shelf. Check your movie collection for movies that take place in romantic locations. 

Some people choose to celebrate "Galentine's Day" and celebrate female friendship and independence. That's another great theme for a display. Find fiction and biographies about independent women and that feature great female friendships. Look into your self help section for books about living solo and friendship. 

Remember with any holiday that you can pair a display that is exactly what everyone expects with one that is outside of their expectations. So a romance display with some form of a Bad Romance display. A romantic getaway display with a trip-gone-wrong display. Show off more of your collection and introduce your patrons to something they didn't know they wanted!

Unshelve Your Collection - February Book Display Ideas

 

I know - the year has just begun but planning displays in advance will lead to better displays and less overall stress or trying to throw something together at the last minute. There are a number of month long events in February which can be celebrated. For these events, you can leave up displays for the entire month, switching out the focus if necessary.  For example, one of the most popular displays I have put up in February for Black  History Month is one dedicated to cookbooks by Black authors and biographies/memoirs of  Black chefs. Try to move beyond just history books to encompass other aspects of Black  history. One of my favorite lists on the internet is this one - 20 Black Picture Books That Aren't About Busses, Boycotts, or Basketball. It was created by Black librarian Scott Woods. I will also note that when Black staff members from my library have created Black History Month   displays, they always draw upon their own interests and help create a variety of displays that  draw upon parts of Black History and culture that don't always include the same topics that are usually used.  The other month-long events listed below definitely lead to displays with fiction, non-fiction, adult, or youth materials. Many of them could be tied to a presentation by a partner, active  program, or passive program. As far as how long to put them up, I usually suggest no more than one month. If you have  more ideas than you have space, rotate them out weekly or bi-weekly. Try to have fun with  them!

Month-Long Events Black History Month American Heart Month Great American Pie Month National Bird Feeding Month National Cancer Prevention Month National Cat Health Month National Embroidery Month National Wetlands Day  Weekly Observances 2-8: Children's Authors and Illustrators Week 7-14: National Marriage Week 9-15: Random Acts of Kindness Week; Jell-O Week;  Feb 27- Mar 2: National Pastry Week Days of Celebration 2: World Wetlands Day; Groundhog Day 4: World Cancer Day; National Mail Carrier Day 8: Safer Internet Day 11: National Day of Women and Girls in Science 12: Lincoln’s Birthday 14: Valentine’s Day 15: World Hippopotamus Day; International Childhood Cancer Day 17: President’s Day/Washington’s Birthday; Random Acts of Kindness Day