Cross Posting w/RA for All - Unshelve Your Collection!

I wrote this up for the blog RA for All which is home to Becky Spratford, the best readers advisory trainer out there and the head Halloween Librarian. She knows the best ways to effective turn your entire staff into people who can recommend books and help patrons find their next great read. Becky is also a tireless advocate for library workers while also serving as the secretary for the Horror Writers Association. Find more information about how you can bring her into your library for staff training here. 

Shelves and shelves of book spines can create a great picture but it's not always the best way for a patron who is browsing your stacks to find their next great read. That's why this year I am encouraging everyone to unshelve their collections. All this means to find as many ways as possible to get your collection away from being lost in your stacks and out where it can be discovered by someone. 

There are simple ways to accomplish this. The easiest is to purchase some easels and put one book face out on every shelf. You will be amazed at what will be checked out simply because you put it face out on a shelf. This also is easy for any library worker to help keep filled; all that has to be done is a book picked from the shelf and placed on an empty easel. There is a sort of serendipity to this as everyone in your building will likely pick a different book so what’s faced out will constantly change. 

Book displays are another way to unshelve your collection by curating a small collection of materials on a theme and grouping them together. I cover basics and try to provide ideas on my blog and in my presentations for library workers. The magic behind book displays is that they the covers are faced out and can catch someone’s eye. Mix up fiction and non-fiction. Move materials to a part of your building that is far from where the rest of the collection is located. Add audiovisual materials to a display with books. Keep the signage and decorations simple. The focus should be on the covers.

Your eBooks and eAudiobooks are a treasure that not everyone in your community know about. You can unshelve them by setting up a book display with covers from the titles included in your digital collection. Add QR codes to the website and information about how to sign up for the service. You can mix the face outs on your shelves by adding signage on some shelves with suggestions for titles in your eBook collection. 

Whatever social media accounts that your library uses can also help unshelve your collection. One idea I have suggested is a “Five for Friday” series. Just pick five titles on a theme and take a picture. You can put them on a cart, table, or have a staff member hold them. A schedule can be set up and anyone who works in your library can have a chance to pick a theme and their five items. Add a short paragraph explaining the titles and provide information about how to put them on request. If staff are comfortable, you can have a short video where the staff member explains their choices. 

If a topic pops up in the news, use that as a reason to add a post with some titles that might be of interest to someone who wants more information. Find a theme similar to what you would use for a book display and create a grouping of covers for your social media. If someone has the interest and skills, you can create clever graphic or just use a series of book cover images. 

Don’t limit your unshelving efforts to your building. Partner with local businesses and get small posters and fliers out into your community that include titles and covers from your collection. You can use local celebrations and events for inspiration. Create bookmarks with covers that can be given away. Make some themed posters and book marks with coffee related titles for a cafe or pizza related titles for a pizza shop. There are pet speciality stores that are popping up. There are many pet related titles in our collections. Remind the people in your community who don’t regularly come into your building how amazing your library is. 

For the rest of 2025 I am going to try to discuss ways of unshelving your collection that can be used by libraries regardless of size or budget. Reach out to me if you have ideas that your library has used to show off the titles in your collection. I would love to share them! Let’s use this year to help readers discover what treasures are waiting for them on our shelves. 

Unshelve Your Collection Idea: 2025 Hugo Award Finalists

 Readers Advisory expert Becky Spratford has many posts on her blog, RA for All, detailing how to use literary awards in your readers advisory. I've linked to them and I strongly encourage you to read through them for some great insight on how they can help you as you assist readers in finding their next great read. 

Recently the 2025 Hugo Award Finalists were announced. The 2025 Hugo Awards, will be presented on Saturday evening, August 16, 2025, at Seattle Worldcon 2025. They honor works of science fiction and fantasy. I find awards like this helpful as I don't read as much science fiction or fantasy compared to other genres. It's a great way to get insight as to what are the best works in those genres. 

An example of using the awards in an online list can be found on the Chicago Public Library's website. Include nominees past works and short story collection in which the authors are included to add books to the display if you don't have all of them in your collection. You may find holes in your collection as you search for books which can be brought to your collection development librarians. 

Beyond the current nominees, use the lists of past award winners and nominees to fill in your display. There are lists of winners for best novel on Goodreads. 

Both WorldCon and the Hugo Awards are often enmeshed in controversy. Currently it's regarding the use of ChatGPT to vet participants. If you search you will find more. This is just a heads up if you choose to use the Hugos to promote your collection. Always know your community and use that as a guide as you work through ways to market your collection, services, and programs. 

I would be amiss if I didn't point you to Montana State University Billings great LibGuide collection devoted to literary awards. Let it inspire your own efforts on whatever scale you can manage!

Unshelve Your Collection - Bring it Out Into Your Community

 

Book displays and online book lists work for those patrons who enter your buildings or view your website and social media accounts. It is possible to extend your outreach to those in your community who aren’t currently using the library. By increasing the percentage of members of your community who use and appreciate the library, you are increasing the stakeholders and voices who can be asked to speak up during times when your library could use more defenders such as when budget cuts are on the horizon.

One option is to partner with local businesses and non-profit organizations to create book lists designed for their customers or clients. Books and Brews for a local microbrewery would be an example. Create bookmarks that their customers can take with them that have a suggested lists of titles as well as basic information about your library. Small fliers or posters with a QR codes to eBook displays and your website can also be made available. The idea can be expanded to include whichever agencies or businesses that your library partners with.

Building a relationship with your community is beneficial as far as bringing your library to the forefront of residents’ minds as someone to partner with in other kinds of projects and events. You may find that your library’s opportunities to expand its reach increases through bookmarks and online lists. Programming ideas could be created through this kind of partnerships. Local experts in a variety of areas, craftspeople, or local historians may be discovered and brought into your library.

Another idea would be to use donated books to expand your reach. Use labels and stamps to brand them with your library. Create a label or flier with read-alikes and put it on each book. Add a bookmark with information about your library including digital services. Reach out to places like doctor’s offices, laundromats, barbershops, beauty parlors, senior centers and so forth with an offer to add free books for their customers to read or take with them. Provide a contact who can drop off more books when necessary. Giving away the books in a program such as this will be more valuable than whatever book sale revenue your library may lose.

Finally, look to local events, concerts, and festivals. Create book displays, online book lists, and social media posts to promote them and in exchange ask for permission to do a library card sign up at the venue. Patrons can get on the spot readers advisory, take away information about library resources, sign up for cards, and so forth (depending upon your library’s technology.) Patrons will both find out about events in their community and those who attend local events can be reminded about their local library.

If you brainstorm with your co-workers, you can likely discover other opportunities to expand the idea of a book display or book list outside the walls of your library and into your community.

Grabbing Ideas from Anywhere to Unshelve Your Collection - Reading as an Escape

 I realize not everyone sees a potential book display idea everywhere. But you should be keeping notes if something does give you an idea for a potential display or list. Recently, I saw a post by Atlantic columnist Yair Rosenberg about a book called Breaking Bread With the Dead: A Reader's Guide to a More Tranquil Mind by Alan Jacobs. While I've not read the book, it did give me an idea for a display about reading and books as an escape to a more tranquil and calm place. Even the title of a book can help create a display that might have nothing to do with the content of that book. 

During turbulent times some people seek out cozy, calm, and sweet reads as an escape from the news and whatever else is upsetting in their life. Cozy reads have become part of each genre and have increased in popularity. You can bring out titles from your backlist and help people find gentle, sweet, and comforting fiction. 

Each member of your staff may have a comfort read - these are often books that are re-read during times of stress. An interactive display or passive program can be created by asking your patrons to provide their own comfort reads. Expand it to your social media by asking people to comment with suggestions for comfort reads. Suggestions from readers will help fill the display and online book lists. A program with local speakers talking about meditation or other ways to relax can have a cart of books put in the room which are related to the theme. 

Think about what brings you comfort and relaxes you. Find music and movies that work. There are cookbooks with comfort foods, baking cookbooks, and books about warm drinks. Perhaps titles about meditation, getting a better sleep, or the benefit to slowing down can be included. If you include youth materials, there are books about sleep and napping that you can find as well. 

There are a variety of ways to explore the theme of "a tranquil mind" that you can explore. This also means that as materials are checked out, you can fill the display from all over your collection. Fiction, non-fiction, youth materials, and A/V can all be used. 

One book title mentioned in a post can lead to a variety of ways to promote your collection so keep your mind open and write down ideas as your find them!

Welcome to 2025 - The Year We Unshelve Our Collections

 I am back at home after spending some time with friends for New Year's Eve. While we all re-evaluate what will be different in 2025, I want to encourage you to unshelve your collection more this year. I've chosen that well-used library phrase to describe taking books out of the stacks and moving them around your building to show off what treasures are in your stacks. 

Even if you have a small building and no fancy fixtures to use for a book display, you have a surface somewhere in the building that has space for a few book easels. Even without a sign, you can display books near your catalog computers, service desks, near the printers, on a cart anywhere in your building... Walk your building as if you are a patron and you will find places. 

Take pictures of titles on a theme and put them on your social media or blog. You can even create flyers with book lists and QR codes that link to your eBooks, library card registration information, and website. Partner with local businesses to put fliers in their buildings. Offer to create lists that complement special events or local celebrations. Spreading the word about the great titles in your collection needs to happen beyond the walls of your library. There are still people out there who don't know we offer digital books and audiobooks.  Every new user is a new library supporter who can potentially advocate for the library when it's necessary. 

Don't forget to archive the titles you displayed and put on lists either online or somewhere in your building so that they can be recalled for a curious patron. This idea from Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH is one of my favorites. That way anyone on staff can assist a patron who asks about a book that was on display a month ago.

If you would like staff training in passive readers advisory, including genre specific displays, book displays, displays that include passive programming, or passive readers advisory in general - please contact me at Lila [dot] Denning [at] gmail [dot] com. 

Book Display Idea - Using School Library Journal

I'm sure we all receive promotional emails not only from publishers and library vendors but from outlets like Library Journal and School Library Journal. Don't be so quick to delete them and move on. The staff at School Library has some really wonderful ideas that you can borrow for a book display or book list online. 

A recent mailing from them included an article called Reverse Engineering: Taylor Swift Inspired RA Tools in Canva. This February 2024 post from Karen Jensen (Teen Librarian Toolbox) includes several images she made in Canva. The idea of making readalike lists or displays for each of Taylor Swift's eras is one you could use throughout a month. 

Next up was 8 YA Thrillers That Blend Influencer Culture with Page-Turning Plots. While this article is about YA fiction, you could reproduce it with adult fiction as well. If you have non-fiction about influencer culture in your collection, you can add them. I would include some non-fiction about social media in general. 

This October interview by Amanda MacGregor called A ‘Fear Factor’ Rating Adds Spice to the YA Horror Halloween Season, a guest post by Tony Jones has titles you could reference to do a "Chilling Fears" display with YA fiction for post-holiday winter months. Horror has no season and is read all year. With its increased popularity, adding a YA display to draw attention to the horror in your collection for teens is a great idea. Another area to get ideas is this September article called Short Stories, Big Scares: 7 Middle Grade & YA Horror Collections.

If you check their website under News and Features, you will see a variety of articles. The headlines alone can spark an idea and send you out to unshelve your collection to draw attention to the great books that need some help to find their reader! While their audience is librarians who focus on youth, the ideas can easily be transferred to adults. 

I will leave you with another great idea that can be used with your juvenile, young adult, and adult collections - Out of This World: Eight Sci-Fi Graphic Novels | Stellar Panels. As popular as graphic novels are at the moment, I'm sure that you can find titles in all three collections which could use some time under the spotlight. 

Subscription information for School Library Journal is here. 

Examples of Great Marketing of a Collection - LaGrange (IL) Public Library

 While I was in the Chicago area for the Adult Reading Round Table conference, I stopped by the LaGrange Public Library with Becky Spratford who serves as a trustee there. I took some pictures to share some of the great marketing decisions they have made to unshelve their collection and bring it out in front of their patrons' eyes. 

When you enter the area with the adult non-fiction and fiction stacks, you are greeted by a display of books with the theme of Illuminating Winter Tales. There is one sign with only the title and suggestions of other books on the sign. 

The display itself is simple and clean with the emphasis on the books. It's also blends genres on the display. You could add a QR code with a link to an eBook collection with the same theme or a blog post about the theme. Overall, it's a great display that brings book covers to readers as soon as they enter the space. 

They make use of endcaps to provide more reading ideas. This one is tied into a reading challenge "Feeling Blue." They have used the only sign to provide more reading suggestions. This sort of display is easy for anyone to fill in. 

There is a "Warm Up With a Hot Romance" endcap. I love the visual effect of the multicolored covers. 

I love the idea of having a display with titles recently returned, especially if they are backlist titles that might be new to a lot of readers. 

There is not a season for those interested in genre fiction. I love the horror display up in December. While you should fill displays. Having one with empty spots will help reinforce to other patrons that the books are on display to be checked out. 

   

The first step in unshelving your collection and letting the covers help sell your backlist titles to patrons is putting easels up on the shelves like they have done here. It draws the eye to the shelf and is a simple way to put up faceouts. You will be surprised what will get checked out simply because it is faced out. 

Using Library Aware from EBSCO does make some of this signage easy but you can replicate these great ideas. Don't feel intimidated if your library can't afford that product. Use the idea and go from there. Offering readalikes for books with long wait lists is another way to draw attention to your backlist. 

Finally, this is a great use of a bulletin board in a public library, Encourage people to place holds so you know what will be popular!

I loved seeing how LaGrange promoted their collection. Hopefully, you saw some ideas that you can borrow for your own collection. I will try to post more pictures from libraries I visit. 

Let Publishers Help You Unshelve Your Books - Bookcation Edition

 

I opened this email today from Simon & Schuster. It's a cute idea that you can definitely use to help promote your backlist titles. You can save it or repeat it in the summer just by switching the text around. You can use any fiction or non-fiction in your collection. I think that using travel books would be fun. 

This is a great display theme because it can be adapted to any part of a collection that could use a boost in attention. That also makes it easy to fill while it's up. This is a huge benefit to anyone who has smaller book displays or leaves them up for several weeks. It also means that anyone can help add books when needed. 

Make notes when a publisher email sparks an idea and use it to promote your collection. 

Using the Edgar Awards to Unshelve Your Collection

 The nominee list for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award has been announced. The awards will be presented on May 1, 2025, at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square. Some of the nominees are by popular authors or are best sellers that you likely have many requests for (The God of the Woods by Liz Moore is an example). But dig down and you will find books that haven't circulated as much or have been overlooked by your patrons. 

Those books that haven't gotten the attention at your library should be the focus of your display. Post the entire list and include verbiage that explains your holds list. Use the buzz that the Edgar awards can give to help give a boost to titles that need it. The God of the Woods doesn't need our promotional assistance. 

Another option is to mine the lists of past nominees to find backlist titles that would benefit from the spotlight. While you might not have enough of the current nominees to keep a display filled for a few week, the database goes back to the 1940's so you will find titles in your collection that your readers have not discovered. 

The MWA does have a full color listing of the nominees in their newsletter, The 3rd Degree. One page just has the covers of the novel nominees if you want something smaller. 

Other awards given include the Grand Master award. This year Laura Lippman and John Sandford will be honored. Neither of these authors really needs our marketing assistance but you could dig into your stacks and find read-alikes for both of them while having signage that announces the awards. You can add a copy or so of Lippman and Sandford's books if you want to draw some more attention to the display. 

I hope this helps spur some book display ideas!

Using Book Awards to Unshelve Your Collection - Plutarch Awards for Biography

 The 2025 Plutarch Awards Shortlist was announced recently. The Plutarch Awards are: 

A distinguished panel of judges from the Biographers International Organization (BIO) is proud to announce the five books shortlisted for the 2025 Plutarch Award, the only international literary award for biography judged exclusively by biographers.

(from the BIO website)

While some library workers and readers may not be familiar with these awards, they can definitely be used as part of passive readers advisory in book displays. Biographies are very popular with readers and these awards represent what those in the field believe to be the best in their genre. Setting up a display with information about the awards, the organization which awards them, as well as the current shortlist is a great way to provide information to your patrons. 

Set up the display away from your biography section and include information about where to find it if your building is large. Don't assume that every patron knows what your collection includes. Displays can be put on book carts if necessary so that they can be moved to different parts of the building. 

To fill in the display, you can use previous years winners as well as other titles from those authors. There is an information page about the award with biographies and bibliographies of winners as well as a news page with press releases from previous years. The display can even be filled with biographies that your staff picks. Ask for titles which could use some more attention. Double check the display to make certain that it includes a diverse group of subjects as always. 

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 By Crossing Genres

Many authors and readers are not tied to a single genre any longer so don’t keep your book displays tied to a single genre either. Create a display of “books that are successful as in two genres.” Another version of this idea is a display of books from one genre that would appeal to fans of another. While "romantasy" may be the hottest blend of genres right now, there are certainly many more. 

Your signage can reference "Try romance and..." while including romance/science fiction, romance/mystery, and even romance/horror blends. "Love in Space" could include romance and science fiction. Mystery and horror could have a sign that says "The Dark Side of Crime." Don't forget westerns, historical, and inspirational fiction as well. The titles and subtitles of online book lists can also inspire you. 

I'll include some lists below to get you started but remember to focus on what you have in your collection which could use some attention rather than trying to create a perfect display. 

Murder & Mayhem - 10 Romance Mystery Books to Fall in Love With
Crime Reads - 7 Spectacular Books that Mix Mystery with Romance 
Book Riot - 44 Mystery Romance Novels to Read Right Now

Book Riot - Love & Other Epic Adventures: Science Fiction Romance Books
Goodreads - Science Fiction Romance

Romance.io - Most popular science fiction romance books

Goodreads - Mystery Horror Books

Novel Suspects - Thrillers Brimming With Mystery and Horror
Crime Reads - 20 Essential Crime and Horror Crossovers

Also, genre blending was the topic of the first panel I ever moderated at the Horror Writers Association's StokerCon! I will be in Connecticut for StokerCon this weekend. I hope to post pictures and updates both here and on my social media accounts. Then it's on to ALA Annual in Philly. 

Unshelve Your Collection Idea - Book Club Picks for April 2025 from Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly does a great service by including a regular feature in which they list many book club picks, some with celebrities leading them and some you may not have heard of. 

There are a number of book clubs included that focus on diverse works such as the Jewish Book Council Book Clubs, Mocha Girls Read, Sapph-Lit, and the Subtle Asian Book Club. Some of them have their own dedicated websites, some are based on Substack, and others ariden organized on social media.

A rotating book display with a small footprint would be to pick one or two a month and focus on their recent and past picks. I would avoid those which pick well known books unless you want to do a "Try these titles while you wait for [popular book]" display. Picks by Reece's Book Club or Read with Jenna tend to have holds that build up quickly. Working on a display like this would be great readers advisory practice for a library worker who is new to readers advisory. 

If you have local book clubs that either meet in your library or elsewhere in your community, you can include them as well. Promoting reading is a always something we should do. Not everyone will be able to come to the clubs which are directly sponsored by your library. Giving patrons online options and options outside of your building will encourage both reading and the discovery of books and authors they have missed. Don't see it as a competition. 

Unshelve your collection - Pairing Books on a Display (includes partnership/passive programming ideas)

 

I have written about book buddies as a book display before – those books that have similar vibes or remind you of each other. Another version on this theme is to create book pairings, like those created in restaurants with wines. Book clubs sometimes will pair books to give their members a way to gain a deeper understanding of a theme or context. You can provide some suggestions for any patron by creating a book display or online book list with pairing suggestions.  

One way to think about it is to pair a classic title with a book that updates or takes another view of the story - think Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. The latter updates the story from the point of view of the first Mrs. Rochester. Another would be the work of H.P Lovecraft with books like The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle. That novella looks at "The Horror at Red Hook" from the viewpoint of a black man.

 Newer fiction titles can be paired with older books. Non-fiction and fiction can be paired together. You can cross genres by pairing romantic suspense with a mystery or traditional suspense novel.  It can be done to give patrons an option while they wait for a title with a long hold list or as a way of providing patrons with an option after they finish a great read.

Below you will find some lists with pairing suggestions. Ask your coworkers for ideas and don’t forget young adult and juvenile materials! Let interested staff present it as options on a dating app or wine list. 

Perfect Pairs: Books that Go Together Like Cats and Bookstores - Book Riot
What are good pairs of books to read together? - Reddit
Books in Pairs: Pairing up my 2024-reads -  The FictionFox
classic vs. Contemporary: Novel Pairings by Character and Archetype - lit & more
My Favourite Fiction and Non-Fiction Book Pairings - Keeping Up With the Penguins
Books that are better together: 16 favorite novels for book clubs - Modern Mrs. Darcy
Adult Fiction and Nonfiction Read-Along Book Pairings - Book Riot

If you want to go a step further, find a local coffee or wine shop and ask them to help you curate a list of drinks to pair with various book titles. This is clearly not something that has a firm right or wrong answer. Patrons of both the library and the business can be encouraged to contribute their own suggestions for pairings. 

The book list and drinks can be posted in the local business and on their social media and/or website. It is a fun way to draw in readers and highlight your local small businesses. By putting the information in the business and on their social media you may reach an audience who is not already using the library which should be one of your goals with marketing. 

Here are a few lists to give you an idea of what is possible:
Wine and Words : Perfect Pairings for Book Lovers - Drink in Life
Literary libations: 21 book & drink pairings for every taste - Libby Life
Pair Your Favorite Coffee Drink With A Matching Book! - Union University Library Blog

Unshelve Your Collection Idea: Book Club Picks.

A great choice for a fill-in book display or when your bucket of ideas has run low is to see what the various book clubs have chosen. Fortunately, Publishers Weekly has a list of more book club choices than one could imagine. 

You can check this page monthly and focus on a different book club each month. There are options beyond celebrities and booksellers like-

Black Men Read

The Jewish Book Council

Mocha Girls Read

Sapph-Lit

Subtle Asian Book Club

Good Morning America YA Book Club

Eclectix Book Club

Don't forget to include the book clubs at your library as well as your local independent booksellers!

Unshelve your collection - Finished Series

 I received Book Riot's newsletter for romance called Kissing Books yesterday. The primary topic was about different romantasy series. There was a subheading that I thought would be a great theme for a book display:  Finished Romantasy Series to Consume Immediately. This is a way to bring attention to some of those series that your readers may have missed. 

There are readers who would rather not endure the stretch of time between novels or even whether or not a series will be completed. Remember that part of the reason to have a lot of different kinds of displays is to capture all kinds of readers. 

You can obviously expand beyond romantasy. This is a fun project for anyone on staff who is a fan of a particular genre. Expand the search to include your eBooks collection. It can also be paired with a display of new series . You can create a sign with a message like "Get on board now!" I find that setting up contrasting displays is a fun way to reach more people and to showcase more titles. 

Don't forget to mirror the display with young adult and juvenile titles so that younger readers are not left behind. 

Here are some lists to get you started: 

Goodreads - Completed Series

Epic Reads - 40 Completed Book Series to Binge Guaranteed to Keep You Reading

My Heart is Booked - Must Read Completed Series

Owl Crate - Six Best Completed Romantasy Series For When You Need The Next Book

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

Unshelve with help from journals - Publishers Weekly - New Historical Fantasies Reimagine the Past

Genre blends are everywhere and patrons are checking them out. Publishers Weekly recently featured an article about historical fantasies - New Historical Fantasies Reimagine the Past. The article includes a breakdown of some of the major trends in this blend as well as providing some titles. There is also a link to an article about historical fantasy with mermaids. This is a great idea to borrow for a book display or online book list. 

Some more places to check for titles: 

Goodreads: Historical Fantasy Books
Goodreads: Best Historical Fantasy

Penguin Random House: Historical Fantasy Books to Escape Reality
Hachette Book Group: Thrilling Historical Fantasy Novels 

Johnson County Library: The Past, But With Dragons

Reactor Mag: Five Fantasy Novels Set in Interesting Historical Times
Fantasy Book Review: Best Historical Fantasy Books

If your library subscribes to Novelist, you can check there for read alikes as well. 

Using this idea can be a way of promoting your fantasy collection outside of romantic fantasy.

Some lists, like the Goodreads one, include titles that might lean more to other genres like horror (Grady Hendrix's Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is included). Don't let that stop you from adding a book to a display. This isn't a test and there aren't really wrong answers. Go into your stacks and find some fantasies with a history angle that can be part of the display. 

You can include a link to the Publishers Weekly article if you post a book list online. Otherwise, you can include a QR code with a link to the article in your physical display.