displays – Jennifer Eltringham

2018 Favorites, December 2018

With this display I hoped to find an interesting way to connect the students with the people behind the library. I had library employees send me their favorite reads of the year and then tried to display them in a way that was reminiscent of a bookstore. I thought it would be difficult to get buy-in on this, but my colleagues were more than happy to share their favorites.

Please feel free to remix/reinvigorate/reuse these materials, I would love to see pictures if you do!

Poster

National Aviation History Month, November 2018

No one had claimed the replacement display for my October display, so out of necessity I put this one together – and had a really fun time making a propeller out of foam core for the sign! Our university has a high population of veterans and active duty students, so I hoped it would speak to their interests.

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Please feel free to remix/reinvigorate/reuse these materials, I would love to see pictures if you do!

Book List

Characters with Disabilities in YA, October 2018

I had planned to put together a display for Teen Read week and a few of my colleagues approached me about including a disability theme for National Disability Awareness Month. Thus a hybrid display of YA novels featuring characters with disabilities was born.

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Please feel free to remix/reinvigorate/reuse these materials, I would love to see pictures if you do!

Poster

Book List

Book Spine Poetry, June 2017

This is my last public library display for the foreseeable future. In August 2017 my position at the public library changed, and then in the winter I transitioned to a position at an academic library. I tried to go out with something a little different, and this was a fun display that got patrons involved. The following pictures are my initial attempts at book spine poetry.

The following are poems that I found throughout the month that patrons had put together:

Please feel free to remix/reinvigorate/reuse these materials, I would love to see pictures if you do!

Poster

Women’s History Month, March 2017

Still feeling invigorated by the Women’s March, I put this display together in March of 2017 with one of my favorite posters I’ve ever made, featuring a photo from the collections of the Library of Congress. When selecting materials throughout the month, I made sure to include own voices narratives, women of color, and transwomen.

Please feel free to remix/reinvigorate/reuse these materials, I would love to see pictures if you do!

Poster

Light, December 2016

This is a “Shoot, I forgot I was doing a display and now I have to put one together at the last minute” kinda deal. Nonetheless, it’s one that I’m pretty of proud of. It was during a time that felt particularly hopeless and dark to me, and I could only imagine that others were feeling the same. I also didn’t want to do a traditional holiday display, but a quote from a Doctor Who Christmas special seemed relevant to me at the time: “On every world, wherever people are, everybody stops, and turns, and hugs, as if to say, ‘Well done, well done everyone! We’re halfway out of the dark.'” I wanted to feel like I was halfway out of the dark, and I wanted everyone who might be feeling as hopeless as me to look forward to the light as well.

The books on this display were a combination of light science, spirituality, cultivating hopefulness, and light and color in art.

Please feel free to remix/reinvigorate/reuse these materials, I would love to see pictures if you do!

Poster

Treat Yourself, October 2016

I’ll be the first to admit that this display was particularly self-indulgent. I learned that Donna and Tom’s Treat Yo Self Day from the TV show Parks and Recreation supposedly falls in October and couldn’t not take the opportunity to work that into my display for the month. At its heart this is a display about relaxing, taking care of yourself, and indulging in the finer things, so it was easy to incorporate a wide variety of materials.

My library serves a population with a high number of people experiencing homelessness, so I knew this display could be potentially alienating – not everyone is able to treat themselves in the Tom/Donna way. I tried to emphasize ways of treating yourself and self care that weren’t very costly, such as meditation, as well as including films that cast a critical/observational eye at excess, such as The Bling Ring and The Wolf of Wall Street.

TREAT. YOUR. SELF.

Clothes! Fragrances! Massages! Mimosas! Fine Leather Goods!

You’re part of the treat yourself team now, okay? You’re gonna treat yourself. | Yeah! I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna… I’m gonna treat myself! Thanks you guys.

Plain white socks? That is not a treat!

Velvet slippies. Cashmere socks. Velvet pants. Cashmere turtle. I’m a cashmere velvet candy cane.

It’s the best day of the year!

National POET-TREE Month, April 2016

I saw a display similar to this on the School Library Displays blog, and was immediately taken by the idea of a “poet-tree.” My tree was smaller – I made it by anchoring branches in a styrofoam half-dome and placing it all into a small metal bucket. I printed poems onto yellow, green, and gold paper and cut the shapes of leaves around them. Then I punched a hole in each and tied a string through. The idea was for patrons to tie a poem they liked onto the tree, but it hasn’t really caught on. I do think some of the leaves were taken, which is maybe even better. If I did this display again, it might be more of a giving tree. The books of poetry are all by contemporary poets with a focus on POC and female poets. I wanted to express that poetry isn’t old and boring, but current and urgent.

Please feel free to remix/reinvigorate/reuse these materials, I would love to see pictures if you do!

Poster

Small Explanatory Standee

Emoji Reads, April 2016

I totally saw someone do a similar display on Twitter, but I cannot, for the life of me, find the original inspiration. Thank you, kind stranger! I think patrons are a little afraid to check out these books, but according to my coworkers, people are having a fun time trying to figure out the books the emojis describe.

I’m afraid that Apple or someone will come after me if I post the files I used to create this display, so the photos of the finished project will just have to do.

The Roaring Twenties, March 2016

This was by far my most successful display to date. It circulated over 60 items and I was constantly struggling to refill it. It even circulated a book about Duchamp – DUCHAMP, PEOPLE. I’m not one to brag, but I’m pretty sure this display made modernist art a thing again. After my experience with all the stuff for the Native American Heritage Month display, I made no supplemental materials for this one. The poster was made on the Cricut machines in our district’s Makerspace.