St Patrick's Day - Books about Ireland

St Patrick' Day is a great holiday for children's book displays. It's a holiday when school is in session so those teachers and homeschoolers will be coming for books. For adult books, I use it to highlight books about Ireland, fiction and nonfiction. Your collection likely includes many titles that would fit. Unless it's your only job, filling book displays can't take up all your time. I find it helpful to involve other staff in filling them because they will include books I didn't think about.

Women's History Month - Historical Fiction

Women's History Month offers a lot of options but when given a chance, I will try to include some fiction. People who won't pick up a long history book will invest the time in a novel that appeals to them. Expand your definition of historical fiction and don't forget mysteries and romance. Your display should include a wide range of time periods and places. 

Women's History Month - Biographies/Autobiographies/Memoirs

One of the changes I pushed for in my library was to relocate our biography section near fiction. People never dabble in non-fiction will make an exception for a good biography. Take a second to bring a diverse and inclusive collection of books to your display. Choose books about women from a variety of backgrounds, places, and time periods. 

This display also is easy for anyone to fill in as it empties. Expanding who on staff helps to fill in a display like this will hopefully diversify what books are selected. 

Year of the Rat/Lunar New Year

This display was set up using the theme of The Year of the Rat as a frame to actually promote books by Chinese and Chinese-American authors. The size of the display can be dictated by the number of titles you find in your collection.

People love to suggest displays with this sort of theme especially when it's bouncing around social media. I think the best use of the idea is to use it to put books in front of people that they might have not discovered on their own. 

The display was popular and was refilled several times. 

Women in Horror Month

Women in horror month is part of an international grassroots effort to promote the work of women in all parts of the horror industry. February is a great month to promote horror titles written by women in your library. People love to read horror all year so don't just put up a horror fiction display in October. 

I usually include some psychological suspense in horror displays because it will draw in those people who say they don't read horror but who would love books by authors like Jennifer McMahon or Paul Tremblay. This can also help you keep the display full and to increase the diversity of the authors you include. 

Other resources: 

Women in Horror Month official website

Ladies of Horror Fiction

RAforall:Horror 

Absinthe

Absinthe book display is fun and can be used at any time of the year. There is plenty of public domain artwork that can be used for signs. Historical fiction, historical romance,  and steampunk can be used to fill out the display. I was also able to find some cocktail books that included drinks that used absinthe. There are also non-fiction titles that review the history of the drink.

Other Resources: 

Absinthe Fact and Fiction from Discovery.com

Absinthe: How the Green Fairy Became Literature's Drink from BBC.com
Devil in a Little Green Bottle from the Science History Institute

The Art of Drinking Absinthe, the Liquor of Aesthetes from NPR.org

World Fragrance Day.

World Fragrance Day is March 21. This is a good display for mixing non-fiction and fiction, A/V materials and books. Perfume, fragrance, fashion, and lifestyle are all subjects to check in your catalog. Being more flexible with how the items fit into the theme helps keep displays like this filled. 

Adult fiction was surprisingly easy to find as perfume and fragrance are popular themes but fragrance/perfume is one of those themes that are present in popular non-fiction as well. I found guides to perfume as well as histories of fragrance and various fashion houses in our collection. 

Do some quick research on the history of perfume to find materials in your collection that is tangentially connected to the theme. The idea is to help people discover hidden gems in your collection not to strictly maintain a theme. 


Other resources: 
Perfume Society

Strange History of Perfume from Bustle.com

The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Perfume from Longreads.com 


The Fragrance Foundation - World Fragrance Day