- Arik B.
- Tuesday, January 07, 2020
Our newly renovated branch has several wonderful display areas and shelf spaces to highlight our many thousands of books and videos. When I’m stumped for a display idea, I often pop over to Chase’s National Day Calendar to see what’s on the celebratory agenda for the coming month.
Did you know that January 1 is National Bloody Mary Day? Richland Library offers a wonderful title, The New Bloody Mary, with more than 75 recipes of this cocktail classic. Alas, it’s only available as an ebook—doesn’t quite work out for a display.
Let’s see what else the first month of the year has to offer us: there’s National Oatmeal Month, National Bath Safety Month, and National Menudo Month. Hmm. Not sure I can scrounge up enough titles to fill a shelf there.
How about National Folic Acid Awareness Week? We could go with Lara Vapnyar’s Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love, as well as Aliza Green’s The Bean Bible. Still, I think we can come up with something a bit snazzier.
Let’s see. January 6 is National Cuddle Up Day. National Joygerm Day is January 8. Wait, what’s a joygerm?! Had to look that one up—thankfully it doesn’t require a bottle of Lysol.
You’ll be “shocked” to learn that January 9 is National Static Electricity Day. Also, you’ll be thankful that we offer earplugs at Southeast for January 28, which is National Kazoo Day.
Have you ever wondered where all these commemorative days, weeks and months come from? Here’s a fun article over at National Public Radio that provides a bit of history on the matter. Still, I’m running out of time and need to pick this month’s displays.
Ooh! January 2 is National Science Fiction Day. And, hey, the final Star Wars installment was just released. Plus, the new Star Trek series, Picard, is right around the corner. What a perfect time to fill our end caps with classic titles by Ray Bradbury, Neil Gaiman, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Doris Lessing, etc.
Also, just so happens that January is both National Slow Cooking Month and National Soup Month. A bit of book browsing and looks like we have several dozen mouth-watering titles to offer our community. “No soup for you!” Not so at Southeast! It’s time for the “Simmer” Learning Challenge.
Okay, one more display to go. National Irish Coffee Week. Nah. National Blood Donor Month. A good cause, but our collection’s a bit anemic there. National Michigan Day. Um, all due respect to wolverines, but no.
Aha! January 16 is National Nothing Day. Seriously, I’m not making that up. Easiest display I’ve ever had to put together. Actually, I’m just kidding. We’d never let a shelf go empty here at Southeast. Come on by and see the awesome titles just waiting to be checked out by you.