Library and Information Week 2011
We Find Stuff!
23 - 29 May 2011
Great Ideas
Join existing Library & Information Week Events
If you haven't already done so, register now and visit the links below to get involved in these national Library & Information Week events:
Host your own Library & Information Week Events and Activities
This year's LIW theme - "We Find Stuff!" - lends itself to displays and activities for all libraries, whether big or small. On this page, we've collected some ideas from ALIA members to help inspire your own ideas for Library & Information Week activities.
We FIND stuff. We MAKE stuff. We DO stuff. We HELP with stuff
- We Cook Stuff! - organize a cooking demonstration or cookbook display. Think of a tie in to nutrition campaigns and resources, or cookbooks like 'The 4 Ingredients Cookbook' or 'Junior MasterChef' to make the activity friendly for children
- We find "What to do with the stuff in the 3rd drawer down" - simply use cooking books, or craft books on recycling. Create a display using 'Stuff from the 3rd drawer'.
- We find "How to use the sporting equipment stuffed in the back of your garage" - easy to display with books on sport - would look really great if you have really old sporting stuff (e.g. wooden tennis racquets, quoits, knucklebones, vigaro, etc.)
- We MAKE stuff! - Organise a second-hand book sale to raise funds for your library. Any unsold books can be used to hold a 'Make Your Own Journal' workshop, where blank pages are inserted into old book covers to make a journal.
- We BRING stuff to the community! - Organise for a library display to be held in your local mall or shopping centre to promote your library and its services
- We hunt for stuff! - organize a treasure hunt in your library using the familiar method of clues and riddles, or think about creating a treasure hunt around the Dewey Decimal System used in your library.
- We find "How to use the genealogy stuff you find on the Internet and at the Library." - display with Genealogy books - or better still get the Genealogy Society to hold a display. Can also run Internet sessions showing use of Ancestry.com
- We blog stuff! - Run a session in which library staff demonstrate how to find stuff on blogs and social networking sites
- Stuff is more than books! Create an event or activities that address the lack of understanding of the range of services & resources on offer in a library. Focus on a narrow topic or create a series of workshops and events throughout the week focusing on an area of 'stuff' other than books
- We find the answer behind the question "Why did we buy that stuff when on holidays?" - get your staff to bring all those ridiculous things you buy when travelling e.g. the Hawaiian shirts, the Mickey Mouse ears, all those dust collecting items like teaspoons & thimbles, etc. or postcards/photos.
- We find "What is that stuff?" - get staff or if you know someone that collects odd/weird stuff then hold a bit of a "guess that object/stuff" display. Similar to what they do on 'The Collectors' TV show.
- We have NAUGHTY stuff! - Organise a read long for adults of erotic short stories and poetry.
- We find "Overdue library books" - have an amnesty for overdue library books - this one may be an old, done and dusted idea - but you can get back overdues through an activity like this one.
Promote your Library & Information Week events and activities
There are some very easy and cheap ways to promote your library in the lead up to, and during, Library and Information Week Events:
- Order official Library & Information Week Merchandise
- Download LIW Resources and Images and use these in your email signature to promote the week and your library
- Download LIW Images, or make your own, and include in any organizational newsletters at your library
- Download LIW Images and make a PowerPoint Slide or Image, and ask your IT department to make it a screensaver in your organization in the lead up to LIW
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