ALA Graphics

Supporting Libraries, Literacy, and Reading

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Top 5 Ways to Celebrate Star Wars Reads Day at your library!

October 10 is Star Wars Reads Day! This year marks the fourth annual installment of the event, which commemorates Star Wars and reading. How is your library celebrating? Here at ALA Graphics, we’ve come up with the top 5 ways that you can celebrate this day with your patrons and students.

1.       Host a series of Star Wars film programming events to gear up for the new film Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters 12/18/2015! Set up a projector and have weekly showings of the old school episodes in the weeks leading up to the new film. What better time to kick off the series than on October 10? Watch the official trailer for the new film below!

2.      Create a display with classic Star Wars novels, comics, and more! Encourage your users to explore all that your library has to offer. Check out the Origami Yoda Series Set that ALA Graphics offers. It’s sure to brighten up your display and encourage readers to awaken the force within them and READ. If you haven’t discovered the Origami Yoda book series yet, read up on it here! These books are great for middle school readers (though we’ve heard Star Wars fans of all ages like them too.)

3.       Host a Star Wars storytime event on October 10! There are some great Star Wars board books and picture books out there. The examples below are linked to www.goodreads.com. This way you’ll be able to easily review the best book for your storytime event and age group!

        Star Wars: ABC (board book)

        Star Wars: Colors (board book)

        The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight (picture book)

4.       Check out Pinterest for some “far-out” Star Wars craft ideas, and host a Star Wars themed crafting party!

5.       Discover activity sheets, free digital banners, and more on the official Star Wars page: http://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-reads-day-fully-armed-and-operational-on-october-10.

Make sure to check back near the end of October to see the latest offerings from ALA Graphics. If you’re a Star Wars fan… you’ll definitely want to take a look! All new items will be posted here on the ALA Store by October 19!

Have great programming event ideas for Star Wars Reads Day? Share them here!

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READing Starts Early!

Proud Reference/Young Adult Librarian, Pamela Ross from Hampden, Connecticut shared her photo of three-week-old grandniece, Mackenzie Elisabeth (thank you!) and her early love of books! The team, here at ALA Graphics, then used a background from the READ Design Studio DVD. So cute and thank you so much for sharing!

Have a photo you’d like to share? We would love to hear from you! Drop us a note at [email protected].

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We're all packed for #alamw13! See you there!

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Hi Tumblrs,

I’m Bobbi, the newest member of ALA Graphics and I’m now doing the Tumbling.  As a way of introducing myself, I’m sharing the READ® poster that hangs in my office and looks over my desk – yes, that’s a young Mikhail Baryshnikov READ poster.   

I am extremely proud and excited to work for an organization that empowers libraries and helps open the doors to worlds of information and enjoyment.  Just as Mikhail inspires me – your work inspires me and I look forward to sharing information with you.  Having worked in a public library where I designed READ posters for our staff and city council members using the READ Design Studio software sold by ALA Graphics, I feel like I’ve come full circle.

 My coworkers here at ALA have an interesting mix of READ posters inspiring them every day – do you have a prized or particularly inspiring READ poster in your library? Please let us know;  we’d love to see what posters you have– including READ posters that may have been created by someone in your library. 

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There's still time to sign up for a free event kit for Star Wars Reads Day on Oct. 6!

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Always a sucker for a vintage print ad -- these ads for libraries and books are fantastic! How many of these would you love to display in your office?

[all-the-fucking-names-were--blog]

This.Is.Perfect! :’)

[fishingboatproceeds]

Does anyone know who actually made this poster?

[wilwheaton]

FOREVER REBLOG.

[fishingboatproceeds]

The creator of this poster has been found! She is nerdfighter Erin! Hi, Erin! (Hopefully this will be available as a poster on DFTBA.com soon!)

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Nerdlicious.

[neverindanger]

The Library by Sarah Stewart, Pictures by David Small

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Thanks to Children's Book Almanac today, was reminded of this classic from one of our favorite author-illustrator pairs. What are some of your favorite back to school stories? 

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Introduce yourself with READ

After our last webinar on More Creative Uses for your READ Design Studio files, we were inspired by the enterprising Karen Dower, a library technician at the Stanton Campus Library of Delaware Technical Community College.

To further promote reading and library patronage I started creating trading cards from the posters that I had already. Some basic info was gathered from staff/faculty members willing to participate to put on the back of the card. The cards have been a hit with students, faculty and staff who come in the library to collect the newest card.

Staff and faculty members have commented often that they receive many compliments from both students and co-workers about their posters and all have seemed quite honored to be featured. Whether this has created an increase in library usage or reading, which was the original goal of this campaign, I can't say but at least the posters are being noticed and talked about which I take as a positive outcome since it is increasing awareness of the library and the enjoyment of others in reading.

Great idea, Karen! Here are two we've enjoyed:

To make your own library trading cards out of a READ poster you've already made, create a new document in Photoshop or other photo-editing software sized to the dimensions of your trading cards. Make sure the background is transparent or white and the color is RGB. Move the READ poster into this space, and re-size by holding down the Shift key, to keep the dimensions proportional while adjusting the corner arrows. If you're printing the cards commercially, simply save your READ poster in this reduced size as a .jpg or a .pdf. Create a word document and add the content you wish to use for the back of your card, then save as a .pdf or .jpg.

If you're printing yourself, you can create an 8.5" x 11" document in Photoshop, Publisher, or even Word, and copy the poster file over multiple times - perhaps 6 per page. Do the same with the short Word document listing your subject's trading card attributes. Make sure your front and back will align, then set to duplexed printing. To listen to the full recording or view the slides from any of our READ Design Studio webinars, visit the READ Design Studio Info Page. Whether you're a new or an experienced user, you're likely to learn something new! If you have additional questions, or wish to share your READ Design Studio projects with us, e-mail [email protected].

[theparisreview]

Christoph Seelbach’s photographs of beautiful libraries around the world.

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Cool and beautiful!

[nz-ny-blog-blog]

The NYC Phonebooth Library

“There are 13,659 payphones on NYC sidewalks, even though there are over 17 million cell phones. Is the pay phone an anachronism or an opportunity…”

Nice little idea, but it does seem funny that both are becoming a bit obsolete. The payphone being replaced by the cellphone and books by readers.

Still, nice.

Via.

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The quaint British phone booth library has its charms, but this NYC library gains points for grit.

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Why We’re Here

And you may ask yourself… how did I get here? If you’re a fan of the posters, bookmarks, gifts, incentives, and do-it-yourself READ® posters that support the work of the American Library Association, you’ve come to the right place.

Letting the days go by … letting the cobwebs build on our venerable READ Design Studio blog, we at ALA Graphics  have been plotting and planning, and finessing the interwebs, and are now (finally!) excited to launch our new Tumblr blog (here) and home page at alastore.ala.org/alagraphics/. We wanted to take our blog and go bigger, make it better, serve everything you want to know about ALA Graphics, and link to the ALA Store to make your purchases easier and more informed.

The home page is your chance to learn more about the products you see in the catalog and online, view a featured story about how others are using products to enhance events and promote libraries, and plug into resources tailored just for your kind of library.

It’s your place to share with us, too. Tell us what’s hot at your school or library, what celebrities you’d like to see on READ® poster, submit photos of your products and programs in action, and receive a chance to win a prize. Our new home page is your window into the ALA Store, and your place to link up with major library events, find answers to your questions, see examples of great self-created READ posters, as well as subscribe to the catalog, change your address, manage your e-mail subscriptions, and more.

Thanks for shimmying your way over here with us. We hope to make your visit enjoyable. And don’t hesitate to let us know how we can help.

Be one of our featured stories! We want to hear how you used Graphics products to enhance your celebrations or everyday programming. To be considered, send an e-mail to [email protected].

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Tell us about your Teen Read Week & win a prize!

August has rolled its lovely, lazy head around, which, for some of us, turns a little switch, and those fall thoughts start creeping in -- can't help it, not sure if we like it, but try as we might, we're planning. The urge to prepare for back-to-school fun starts nudging its way into our consciousness, and so the gears start turning: "What's going on? What are we going to do?"

What's sure to be exciting at your school or library this fall? Teen Read Week, of course! October 14-20 is the time to drum up some spooky fun and show teens all the treasures lurking in your library. We know how much fun you're going to have have sharing It Came from the Library with teens and their families. Starting today, we want to hear from you!

Tell us about all the cool things you've done or are going to do, and your responses will be considered by YALSA for inclusion in next year's TRW Manual. We're going to run a contest on Twitter and Facebook, with a different downloadable prize for each randomly chosen winner.

On our Facebook page, tell us: What’s been your favorite or most successful Teen Read Week project?

 The randomly chosen Facebook winner will get the NEW NEW NEW TRW READ Poster File.

On Twitter, we want to know: What’s your most unique way to engage teens at the library?

Our Twitter winner will get a copy of the TRW Manual Download.

Reply to us here on Tumblr and you'll be entered in both drawings!

One entry per person per media. Deadline for both contests is August 24.    

[laurenthelibrarian]

There’s a nerdfighter ALA poster! It’s awesome and I want it for my library event. (Poster here)

[libraryadvocates]

ALA: also against suck.

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More awesomeness. We can dig it.

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Please come sit on my desk, dear Origami Yoda. The poster will do for now. 

[missjennx3-deactivated20120813]

#Scholastic stickers ❤🐶 (Taken with Instagram)

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Now these bring back some good memories! Who else could use a Clifford sticker today? At least, we've got the new poster!