Friday, May 27, 2011

GIFSL* 64: Cheap Bookmark Week (Friday)

This is one of my favourite ideas.  It taps into libraries as places with facts and information: facts and information can can be fun and light as well as heavy.  It offers the opportunity for some fun interaction when you hand over the book and bookmark.  It recycles something you can find in op shops on a reasonably regular basis.

See that price tag?  $4.  The most I've paid for a box of Trivial Pursuit is $6.  And what's inside?


No, they're not question cards, they're bookmarks!  Lots and lots of them!  No guillotine work today, just some fun to be had.

It's probably a slightly pricier idea than some of the other ones from this week, but here's a comparison.  A commercial library supplier I checked had quite a few bookmarks which came in bundles of 200 bookmarks for $40.  In this box of Trivial Pursuit I got 200 bookmarks for $4.  A tenth of the price.  Still cheap as chips, and fun! (This idea is part of my presentation about Re-Imagining your School Library: I've presented it in Newcastle and south-western Sydney in the last month, so I know there are TLs in those areas scouring their op shops and garage sales for Trivial Pursuit!)

Links in again with a theme of the library being a place where you find facts and information (and fun, the unexpected, a happy moment) - oh, there are lots of ways you could tie this in to a wider promotional theme.

Hope you've enjoyed the Cheap Bookmark Week ideas on the blog this week - do comment, your feedback is always appreciated.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries, an ongoing series on this blog.

4 comments:

Laureen said...

Well I'm glad that I didn't through out all our boxes of Trivial Pursuit" supplementary questions in our recent house move.

Ruth you seem to look at things and see them as bookmarks. I currently look at things to see if I can use them as a prop or costume for the school musical.

Laureen

Anonymous said...

Love it, Ruth! You are very creative! I am a high school TL, currently working in a Primary school. So many of your great ideas can be used in my primary school, but I wish there was a dedicated primary school equivalent of you!!! The kids must love you and the library :)
Alison

DebHogg said...

Fabulous idea!

Ruth Buchanan said...

@ Laureen: it's all about the creative imagination, one way or another!

@ Deb: thank you!

@ Alison - thank you. And the kids at my school who've never been to any other high schools think that all school libraries are like the one they have, so they take it for granted. Others know that libraries, like schools and classrooms and all sorts of educational things, come in various flavours and styles; and they generally appreciate our library, which is nice.