When you hear “library Halloween programs” you probably think of a Trick-Or-Treat story time or a teen Halloween party. But adults can enjoy Halloween programs as well. With the right partners, Halloween programs can be affordable, educational and entertaining for adult library users. We hold many of the programs on weekends or in the evening so working adults can attend.
Banned Booooks: There's Nothing Scarier! is a reading challenge geared toward readers ages 18 and up.
Hosted on Beanstack, this reading challenge invites adult readers to spend time reading banned books in the month of October, with curated reading lists and Banned Book prize bundles as incentives.Â
Banned Books Week is October 1 - 7, 2023.
On the Sunday before Halloween every year, the George Reynolds Branch Library is taken over by the Haunted Library for two fun-filled hours in an open house-style program.
We have fun and spooky activity stations throughout the entirety of the library. Activities include crafts, Bobbing for Donuts, Not-So-Spooky Storytime, face painting, candy guessing game, Spooky Photo Booth, Slime Walk (like a cake walk, but you win slime), Monster Bowling, Spooky Creatures and more! Each station has a treat or a prize to give out to participants.
It’s that time again! We rounded up some great library craft videos from across the internet that are perfect for Halloween.
Whether they are doing in-person craft events or take-and-make kits, these libraries share their creative crafts for the spooky season.
Happy Halloween! With social distancing in place, spooky season is looking different this year ... but that won’t stop librarians from doing some creepy crafts.
Need some last-minute Halloween crafts? Here is a quick roundup of five library Halloween crafts you can use for take-and-make kits or virtual craft-along sessions to get your patrons feeling spooky before the 31st.
Scary Stories originated with the desire to connect with our tween/teen audience during COVID-19 and the Safer-at-Home order.
Library staff record and edit the scary story videos at home to be eerie as possible. The videos go live Saturdays at 9 p.m. on our Instagram and YouTube accounts.Â
On Saturday, October 27, 2017, the Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield's public library, welcomed over 200 parents and children for our inaugural pumpkin carving party. We provided the pumpkins, carving tools and stencils.
We also used the event to introduce the joy and benefit of seed saving and our newest library initiative, the Berkshire Seed Library. We are hosting this event again on October 27, 2018.
In lieu of celebrating Halloween, the L.P. Fisher Public Library held a pumpkin painting party at the end of 
October.
About five years ago, I created a program called Haunted Library. Our Teen Advisory Group (TAG) really looked forward to this program every year. They absolutely loved planning this event, making up different themes each year and going all out from the beginning of the school year until Halloween. It was so awesome because they were fully invested.Â
In graduate school, one of my professors showed our class a photo of a reference desk lovingly decorated with paper ghosts and small pumpkins for Halloween. The professor then posed the question, “Is this a place where you would want to ask an academic research question?” Opinions about library holiday decor aside, there are clever ways you can promote services, collections and staff around a Halloween theme.
