Mini-Library Kits

Apr 5, 2022

$101-250

Byline

Gwen Glazer, Head of Collection Development and User Engagement, Croton (N.Y.) Free Library

To celebrate National Library Week, tween, teen, and adult patrons can create their own mini-libraries at home and then add them to the full display.

Advanced Planning

The goal was to create a fun, creative, appealing way for adults and teens to acknowledge National Library Week. I saw these mini-libraries on the Programming Librarian Interest Group on Facebook (many thanks to Pamela from the Tamarack District Library for posting her craft back in February!)

I started purchasing materials about a month beforehand and my Teen Advisory Board helped create some examples. Teen volunteers also helped me assemble the kits and create instruction sheets. I then printed out ALA's signage and set up the display the night before we posted about the craft on our website.

Each kit came in a cello bag sealed with a 2" circle sticker and contained:

1 metal tin with a Croton Free Library sticker
3 sheets of origami paper
5 popsicle sticks
10 mini-books (vintage, stylish, Style1)
6 trinkets (plants, cups, bottles, donuts, hedgehogs, etc – anything on a 1:12 scale works)
1 tiny library card (I printed out a piece of paper with images of our library card, then laminated it and cut them out)
2 book-related stickers
1 instruction sheet (see full PDF)
1 tag with a sticker for anyone who wants to drop off for the display

Marketing

I took several pictures of the completed mini-libraries and our display and posted them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. I shared it with multiple community pages and posted it on our website.

It was quite successful and our kits were gone in less than a day.

Budgeting

The materials cost around $3/kit. The metal tins were the most expensive parts.

To cut costs, I used some supplies that we already had leftover in our craft closet. I also did not include scissors or glue, which might have been nice but would have driven up the cost. I figured most patrons would have them at home and the library could provide them ad-hoc if they did not.

Day-of-event Activity

I set up the display (which includes books about libraries and reading) right before advertising the kits as available. Circulation staff gave them out, just like they do with our regular craft kits. They were handed out on a first-come, first-served basis.

Program Execution

We gave out all 30 kits in less than 24 hours! I deliberately chose an evening we were open late and started advertising at 6 pm so that people who worked might see it that evening and be able to come in to grab one. There were still some left the next morning.

We're hoping some final mini-libraries come back to join the display, but even if not, patrons seem to enjoy them. Some adults who had never taken out craft kits before tried them for the first time and I think it engendered positive feelings.

Advice

Definitely involve your teen volunteers if you can. They were really excited about the display and took photos of their own mini-libraries. They also saved me a tremendous amount of time and work assembling the kits!

I also wanted to make sure they associated the kits with our library, so I put stickers with our name on the kits and bags with tiny library cards that are replicas of our own.