Unshelving July - Making A Plan in Advance

 It's more than halfway to July! If you haven't put together your plan for July, I am here to help! The easiest one to put on your calendar is the Fourth of July. With the United States celebrating 250 years, I would make several displays or rotate out the type of material on your single display. Make sure you include youth materials, fiction, non-fiction, audiobooks and movies. Also, include the depth and breadth of people who make up the United States. If you can't see your entire community reflected in the items you put on the display, find more in your collection. 

July also includes Canada Day on the first. It's a good reason to bring out fiction by Canadian authors, books about Canadian history, and travel books about Canada. Make it an interactive display by asking patrons to answer trivia questions about Canada. 

The middle of the month is when Major League Baseball will host its All Star Game. This is another event that can include all parts of your collection. The game this year will be on July 14 in Philadephia. 

The 14th is also Bastille Day in France. 

There are so many food related days every month. Picking one or two every year, perhaps related to local cuisine, can include passive programming like recipe exchanges or having local cooks or restaurants come in for a tasting/cooking demonstration. 

With summer reading, some of your display space should be kept for special events and promoting the themes of summer reading. Have your youth librarians come up with a list of themes for the month. In my area, the local professional sports teams sponsor summer reading challenges so I would try to include them on a display as well. When programming ends is determined by your local school schedules, of course. 

How to make a schedule? Start with how many displays you plan to have up and set up a weekly schedule. With pre-planning, you can already have staff lined up to make the displays. The staff you have will also determine the displays. Anyone on staff should be able to participate and have a voice in deciding which displays are set up.  When the displays change out should also reflect, what makes sense for you and your library.  If the displays change out on Wednesdays, it might look like this.

July 2026

July 1-8
    July 4th Display with information about local events [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Theme [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Special Event [staff member name and location]
    World UFO Day [staff member name and location]
    Park and Recreation Month with information about local parks for staycations
        [staff member name and location]
    Princess Diana's Birthday with materials about royal families 
        [staff member name and location]

July 8-15
    Summer Reading Theme [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Special Event [staff member name and location]
    Baseball All-Star Game [staff member name and location]
    Disability Pride Month [staff member name and location]
    National Video Game Day [staff member name and location]
    National Mac & Cheese Day with recipe exchange and event featuring local  
        restaurants  [staff member name and location]

July 15-22
    Nelson Mandela's Birthday/Mandela Day [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Theme [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading Special Event [staff member name and location]
    National Grilling Month [staff member name and location]
    Take Your Poet to Work Day. Display filled with related materials. Passive program where             patrons suggest their favorite poem or poet. Results displayed in library and online. 
        [staff member name and location]
    National Zookeeper Day Display filled with related materials. Information about local zoo.             Partnership where zoo has materials about library programming available. 
        [staff member name and location]

July 22-31
    Summer Reading Theme [staff member name and location]
    Summer Reading End of Summer Event [staff member name and location]
    All or Nothing Day with materials related to choosing extremes 
        [staff member name and location]
    Take and Make craft for Adults. Display filled with related books and patrons receive kit at             service desk [staff member name and location]
     Local Summer Festival with information about the festival. Include materials related to the             festival. [staff member name and location]
    Day of the Cowboy [staff member name and location]

Having a schedule like this available to staff means that anyone can add materials when needed to a display. That divides up the work during a busy time for public libraries. 

I have been asked where I find sources for the other holidays I use for book displays. Here are some options. The links are to July but you can bookmark the main page. While there are always many options for each month, because you are making a plan in advance, you can select the ones that work best for your library. Consider your collection and your community. 

National Day Calendar
Web Holidays
Holiday Insights

I will include information monthly to help you plan your displays. If you are interested in a program for your staff with more details about how to set up a monthly schedule or help setting up a plan for your displays, please let me know!

November Ideas

 It is November and time to transition book displays for the new month. While Thanksgiving is certainly one of the big days of the month, there are plenty of other opportunities to promote your collection in November. With Veterans Day being November 11, it would be a good time to create an interactive display with not only titles related to veterans but also information about library and other local resources for veterans facing issues. You can bring in a partner organization and put a cart of books in the room for patrons to browse. With Pearl Harbor Day on December 7, change the sign and stretch this display out for a little bit longer. 

Every month is dedicated to at least one health issue, disease, or condition. It's not realistic to try to promote all of them with displays, one option is to combine them into one with a sign recognizing them. Add a variety of health books and include bookmarks or flyers with information about local health resources. This would also make for a wonderful social media post promoting your health related resources. November is well known for "No Shave November" which promotes cancer awareness. An easy display, repeatable in any part of your library, is to create a display of random titles with faces on the cover and add a removable moustache to each book. This can be easily filled by any library worker. Spare moustaches and tape can be stored in the workroom. 

Because there are several bear-related holidays in November, one display can be set up with different signs or even all three mentioned on one sign. Any book about bears, with bears in the title, or bears on the cover are fair game. Obviously, this display can be mirrored in your children's area. 

Polar Bear Week (Nov. 2 to Nov. 8)
National American Teddy Bear Day - November 14
Have a Party with Your Bear Day - November 16

D.B. Cooper Day is November 24, the anniversary of the day the mysterious hijacker disappeared with $200,000 in 1971. Set up a display about mysteries, conspiracy theories, and unsolved crimes. Use fiction, non-fiction, and movies. Include any heist books and movies as well. 

Aviation History Month in in November which can create a variety of display ideas related to airplanes. The simplest idea is just books with planes on the cover. There should be history, transportation, and travel books in your non-fiction collection as well as a variety of fiction titles in which flight plays a part. Ask your patrons where they would like to fly to and post the answers either online or on a display in your library. 

Native American Heritage Month is all month. Remember to include fiction, arts, poetry, and cultural books in your displays. One comprehensive display will be easier to maintain than several specific displays. Here are some lists to get you started: 

Recent Works by Indigenous Authors - New York Public Library 
Native American Books for Native American Heritage Month - Powell's Books
Native American Heritage Month - Book Club Reads - Cincinnati Public Library 
Fiction and Non-Fiction Reads for Native American Heritage Month - Goodreads

World Vegan Month is in November. I include a no-turkey display every year and fill it with vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. This display can last all month and is easily filled. I mention creating easily filled displays because there are times when you need those because of staffing or other priorities. November and December are always filled with plenty of staff vacations. Sometimes we need to select the easiest options.