We Celebrate

Great things are happening every day in our school libraries that strengthen instruction across the curriculum. But school libraries and school librarians have so much more to offer. When we combine the strength of our talent and the strength of our collection we can present a successful celebration event while increasing awareness of what we offer. We all know that April is School Library Month, but there are a whole lot of great things to celebrate throughout the school year. Marketing and public relations are vital to school libraries. Promoting what we do along with our print and digital resources to our stakeholders extends far beyond the confines of the school library.

The key to getting a high turnout for an event is to plan and promote your event in print and social media outlets. Check out the resource at the end of this article to read more about how to market your school library. A successful celebration begins with planning, lots of planning: the event, the time frame, who’s involved, what’s the activity, etc. If your school has a diverse population, promotional materials should be produced in the represented spoken languages where possible. If you don’t have a specific idea, you may find one by browsing dollar and thrift stores, movie theatres, etc. Book tie-ins for elementary titles can be found at Kohls.com and search “kohls cares for kids” for $5.00 books and matching plush companions.

Popular Celebrations

Let’s begin with some of the popular celebrations. Googling the event name will bring up ideas and activities from fellow librarians, professional associations, and even publishers. Anytime you are promoting a specific title always check the publisher’s and author’s website for information and activities. Publisher websites often offer downloads that include flyers, trivia contests, bookmarks, posters, etc.

January is 100 Days of School Month and is celebrated in elementary and middle schools around the country. The month may vary with year round schools. There are numerous fiction books on this topic, so check your collection. January’s celebrations also include Chinese New Year, Winnie the Pooh Day, and Inauguration Day.

February. Although Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday is a national holiday celebrated in January, African American History Month is celebrated in February. The U.S. Government’s site for African American History Month is a great place to begin (http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/). Who Am I? Trivia Contests, Famous Firsts, are all popular activities to highlight the achievements of African Americans. This is an opportunity to collaborate with your social studies teachers. Don’t forget Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day, World Read Aloud Day, and American Heart Month.

March includes Read Across America Day. No one is ever too old for Dr. Seuss! The National Education Association's (NEA) Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss (http://www.nea.org/grants/read-across-background.html).The NEA Read Across America resource materials offer numerous opportunities for involvement in children's reading throughout the year. The only thing you need to do is plan how, where, and when you will read to a child or teen in your life - everyday. Don't forget to join the Read Across America Fan page and Cause page on Facebook and check out the Read Across America Channel on Schooltube.com for videos. High school libraries may want to celebrate Women’s History Month (http://www.nwhp.org/). We celebrate women’s history; recognizing the achievements of women in all facets of life—science, community, government, literature, art, sports, medicine—has a huge impact on the development of self-respect and new opportunities for girls and young women.

April is School Library Month (http://www.ala.org/aasl/slm). This is a good time of the year for districts to join in the “theme.” ALA and library supply vendors have promotional items to celebrate school library month: pencils, bookmarks, etc. If funds are limited, have a contest in March for students to enter their design to support the theme. It's also National Poetry Month (http://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/home), Poem in Your Pocket Day and Math Awareness Month (http://www.mathaware.org/index.html).

May. While we may think of Cinco de Mayo as an adult celebration, Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican culture, achievements, and fortune of Mexican Americans. Partner with the child nutrition department in your school to share in your celebration. The cafeteria is a part of the school where students congregate daily, so a display area promoting library events should be considered. Don’t forget to collaborate with your public library to promote your local summer reading program initiatives.

June. On August 3rd, 1949, President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day. In 2015, the American Library Association marked GLBT Book Month™, a nationwide celebration of the authors and writings that reflect the lives and experiences of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community (http://www.ala.org/glbtbookmonth).

July is America’s Birthday month! Take advantage of all the red-white-blue available and be creative. America has a lot to offer and so does your school library.

August is Back to School Month. This is a the time to welcome new and returning students with a fresh look…new bulletin boards, display of new books, maybe rearranging some furniture. Think of what you can do so that when students enter the library they think “something is different….what is it?”

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month (http://www.ala.org/librarycardsignup), a time when the American Library Association and libraries across the country remind students and parents of younger students that the most important school supply of all is @ your library®—it's your library card. Print/download the public service announcements and videos from the ALA website. Playing on this idea, get a group of your teachers and administrators to pose holding their public library cards. Partner with the public library to create a display and perhaps have a representative onsite one day. Many students and their parents do not realize all of the resources that are available to them from the public library. If your local public library has a teen librarian they will usually be glad to do booktalks and talk about teen programming at the public library.

Don’t forget Banned Book Week. Check out the Banned Books Week YouTube Channel. Perhaps you could have some of these videos of celebrities reading from banned books playing in your library before and after school each day. Save and use ALA’s free downloadable clip art to display in your flyers, newsletters, bibliographies, or posters.

September 15–October 15^th is Hispanic Heritage Month. This is a culture fit activity that should be celebrated as part of America’s diversity.

October brings us Teen Read Week (TRW) a national literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of ALA. It's aimed at teens, their parents, librarians, educators, booksellers and other concerned adults. It is held each year during the third week of October. YALSA and ALA along with the ALA Bookstore provide posters, bookmarks, digital downloads, publicity toolkits, etc. There are a plethora of websites that feature TRW ideas and activities.

November is Picture Book Month (http://picturebookmonth.com/),an international literacy initiative that celebrates the print picture book in an increasingly digital age. During this month we also celebrate National Children's Book Week. This time-honored tradition has been celebrated the week before Thanksgiving since 1919, and is dedicated to spreading the word about children's literature and encouraging the joys of reading.

December is a time of year to think of others. Perhaps a book drive contest between grade levels. New and slightly used books could be donated to homeless shelters, Ronald McDonald Houses, Covenant House, or any charitable association that works with children and young adults. Check with the association prior to organizing any event to determine guidelines and criteria.

More Ways to Celebrate

Want to discover other appropriate, delightful, or whimsical celebrations to assist you in planning for your library during the year? Check out these sites: This publication, School Library Connection, publishes a monthly almanac online of events you can use. The ALA's divisions sponsor a variety of library promotions throughout the year that libraries of all types can get involved with for promotion and to create awareness of library issues. Check out the link to see how you can bring these promotions to your library (http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks). Other popular sites include National Awareness Days (http://www.national-awareness-days.com/), Reading Rocket’s Literary Calendar ( http://www.readingrockets.org/calendar) and McGraw Hill’s Special Months (http://www.mhprofessional.com/templates/chases/special-months.php).

There are also celebrations that can be done at any time during the year: Dress up as a children’s book character day, biography day, books into movies, release of a new book by a well known author or the next book in a series, Skype events with authors, poetry slam, authors and poets birthdays, literary periods such as the 1920s, special events such as the Olympics, Superbowl, local and state events such as book festivals, etc.

The 50^th anniversary of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was celebrated in 2014 (http://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/stories/1960s/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory). To commemorate this event, Penguin Random House founded the Roald Dahl’s Miss Honey Social Justice Award (http://www.ala.org/aasl/awards/social-justice) available to AASL members. Children love the book, and an event based on the book can promote social justice/tolerance. Document the planning, execution, and outcome of your event and submit an application for the award.

Promoting Your Event

When it comes to promoting your celebration/event, social media is one of the most powerful tools available. To effectively promote your event you have to format your content to suit the social media platform. For example, if you share a link via your library or school’s Facebook page, you have the opportunity to create a post that truly will stand out amongst the rest; all you need is an attention-grabbing headline, a clean, relevant image that piques interest, which might be different from the featured image used in your content, and a short, compelling description. Using this formula, you can entice readers to click on your content. In the same manner, appending your content with hashtags can help make your content more discoverable for those social networks that support them.

Before the event, generate excitement: announcements, flyers, displays. Get your library club involved. No matter what you are celebrating be sure to publicize it by using all available channels, such as Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. and invite the local news channel at least 2–3 weeks in advance, especially if the event has a unique twist. During the event take photos and video. Check that photo permission release forms are signed if the release is not included in the school handbook. Student testimonials and short video clips can be used to promote the event the following year. Share the event success with the school stakeholders and the local community through all publicity channels available.

As school librarians we have so much to share with our stakeholders. To survive we must strive to increase the usage of our resources whether they are print or digital. Promoting what we do and what we have will get them “into the physical door and virtual portal.”