Our school implemented a birthday book donation program. Whereby children (or staff) donate a book to the school library in honor of their birthday... or any special event. Our School also acknowledges these donations in our monthly newsletter and puts a book plate (sticker) inside the cover stating who donated the book.
We also teamed up with an independent book seller. If anyone comes in her store, buys a childrens book and mentions our school's name a portion of the profits goes for books for our library.
Another school I heard about had a 'read-a-thon' The children would read so many minutes and collect donations from their friends and family. The money could go towards restocking the library.
(personal note) I took the donation program to an extreme level last year. I celebrated my 40th birthday... had a big bash, rented a hall, DJ & everything. No gifts. Just books for my child's library. My friends and family gave me over 100 books! The Librarian was speechless!
Best of luck! The library has been my "pet project" for the last two years.
Carolyn--I would be interested in some of your ideas for adding books to your library. I am at a small, american international school in Tunisia and we are looking for ways to increase the number of books in our library without too great of an expenditure of funds. Thanks!
Our focus this year was fine arts. Different than yours but somewhat the same as we bought a program of education in the fine arts to be housed in our library. We bought the complete TAKE 5 ART PROGRAM from a company called Crystal Productions. The prints come 5 to a group with 21 groups in the set. They cover everything from landscapes-print making-children at play- people at work-self portraits-multicultural art-math ane art-language and art- science and art-sculpture-early american art-indian artifacts-women artists-horses-urban enviroments-ect... all in all we bought 105 prints which can be displayed on the walls or brought into the classroom. Each print has a bio on the artist, a bit about the art work and questions to ask the kids when you present it in an educational setting. We like to think they helped bring a new angle to the library that will be useful for many years to come. The whole program can be purchased for about 850.00.
Our PTO's main goal this year is our library. We want to make it an educational and fun place for the children. We have implemented several programs to help build up our book supply. Does anyone have any other ideas for the library besides books? Does anyone have any hands on things in their library?
