Library displays Part 1
People really do judge a book by its cover


"Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them." --Samuel Butler


Once upon a time there was a sad, lonely library. It wasn't old or worn down but rather was a newer library in a high school that was only a few years old. It was spacious, with tall ceilings, lots of windows, and couches and tables grouped to invite students to stay a while. Banks of computers filled one side, and a reading area with periodicals filled the other.




But there was a popular misconception about the library: people thought the library didn't have very many books. Books were not easily accessible! All of the library's wide-open spaces meant the book stacks were hidden in the back of the library. Look at the photo -- you can almost see them back there.



But that problem might also have helped bring about a solution. A television production company that rented the school during the summer moved into the library and turned it into a movie set. A Hollywood set designer was in charge of that transformation.



Eventually, when the time came for the television folk to leave, that same set designer and the librarian came up with a plan to liberate the books! Set pieces were sold, and some donated, to the library. The designer placed them such that students coming into the library were not just invited by the open space, but by books -- and not just rows of book spines, but the front of books, with their titles and inviting cover art easy to see.



The look is quite different. The difference in student traffic into the library was immediate. It turns out the idea of displaying the books instead of just having a library space to store them is an idea with both science and art behind it.




The next post will explain some of both of those components. In the meantime, the photos will start telling that story.