Best book display: public library here had "Books you might have overlooked." All had people on the cover art. All the people had googly eyes. I've seen many displays over the years but this is the first that saw me back!

My library has a letter writing program where kids write to Mr. Mouse, and he writes back and includes a coloring sheet and stickers. There’s a little mural in the children’s library of Mr. Mouse’s home and a few friends.

They also have a bee hive with a window hive that people can look at. It’s near the rooftop gardens. A lot of their landscaping includes curated wildflowers and native plants.

They have art throughout the library on all levels.

It’s honestly an intimidating and gigantic library so the little touches matter A LOT.

A small door leading to the children's section, in addition to the normal door.

At our library we do a weekly whiteboard poll with fun questions that patrons can answer usually with a magnet but sometimes it's a write-in response. Occasionally we ask questions we actually want an answer to and might record the responses but most of the time they're just fun silly questions intended to make patrons feel comfy and welcome.

At the Coronado Library in San Diego, they have large stained glass panels telling the story of The Wizard of Oz. 

For the winter, I like to have free tea bags and hot cocoa packs available with a book display. Granted some people take more than 1 but overall people really seem to like and appreciate it.

A children’s library I worked at had a paper “rubber duck” decoration that the youth programmer hid in a different spot (I think weekly?). I forget what happened if a kid spotted the duck… Maybe they got a sticker or bookmark or something.

They also had a big stuffed dog. He was like the children’s library masco; his bandana got changed monthly to fit each season/holiday.

One of the libraries I work at have been getting a butterfly kit once a year/term.

You can buy a kit that comes with a net enclosure and it tells you which plants to put in etc.

We sit it behind an open display case. Patrons come by and look at the caterpillars all the time, especially kids. I love taking a tiny break and watching them.

Then after a few weeks there's a kids event to release the newly hatched butterflies! It's really cute and teaches them about nature. I presume it's also good for the environment??

A pajama story time at 6:30pm

I painted a hopscotch on our walkway during covid. Repainted it last year, since it gets used a lot. I see a lot of parents teaching their kids how to do it.

We bought a pack of black cat silhouettes, about 12" each, in different poses. Put them all around the library, and gave kids a check off sheet to find them all. They each had a small number sticker, and a name that was either a staff members cat or a literary reference.

One library I've seen uses a bubble machine during their weekly baby storytime, along with a matching YouTube song. It is so fun to watch babies explore bubbles. They also had a special event before a holiday, instead of their usual storytimes, of bubbles, music, and stations to play in an outdoor, enclosed courtyard. Another library I've seen has an outdoor playground in the shape of a bird. The indoors have an enclosed children's section with a playground. People will often spend the day reading with their kids, taking them outside to eat, and back inside to play. Miserable levels of sound for staff, though, honestly. They convinced a farmers market to open across the road, so people will visit the market and then the library afterward every weekend.

A library had a book of large blank toned paper, and people/artists/anyone could check it out and add in whatever. Drawings, collage, paint.. was cool to see the local artists in a big mix

We do a rotting pumpkin every year - it gets a name and is put in an acrylic box and the decomposition cycle is tracked. It's super gross but very cool. We've also done story walks and chalk activities on the bike trail behind the library.

I do scavenger hunts for the teens that mirror the ones that the kids have in the Children's room. 🥰 They love getting a little prize.

Our library does all sorts of interesting themed shelves, right now there’s some for Christmas/hannukah (with fiction, normal nonfiction arts & crafts/interior design/cookbooks, large print) Rory Gilmore’s reading list, a display of football adjacent books by the computer lab (used by teens and adults), and I’m not even sure what the kids fiction has currently.

In the past they’ve had displays stands on the black power/black panther movement, your standard “read it before you watch it” display of books with movie adaptations, the kids section had a display of books sorted by color at one point back when school started up for the year, gardening books have a display by our library of seeds almost year round (once it’s too cold to plant, the library of seeds space switched over to a table of resources for local food pantries or similar organizations), Jane Austen display, Taylor swift display + a reading prompt based off every one of her albums, “read the past 100 years” display & reading challenge list for reading a book 1923-2023 in honor of the libraries 100th year, and I could probably go one but honestly I just love the displays & the craft projects, decorations, etc. they have.

We also have a library of things, the kids library* makes up half the downstairs library, a teen space for kids to feel safe doing homework there or chatting in a more sectioned off area but librarians can still see through the glass windows & if yelling happens it’s still quite audible. There’s also area outside with a dedicated hopscotch board and some other outdoor play things that are blocked off from the rain but easily accessible to families if their kids (or teenagers) get the zoomies.

Our resource centers are also huge for me as something I appreciate since our area isn’t always the best.

*in almost all libraries I’ve been in, I’ve never seen a specific thing our children’s librarian has set up. There’s a decent sized baby rug + board book shelves for babies to have tummy time in or plus some stools so parents can sit with a older kid (think 4-6ish years old) while the baby gets to crawl around and interact with books on their own. We have a lot of families who may not even have the space to store baby books due to living in shelters or unstable housing, so having a section purely for babies to look at board books that are high contrast, make animal noises, interactive elements like flip up to find an animal or sensory input from different page textures, etc. is something I don’t think people realize how important it is.

I’m only in my 20s & joined as a friend in part to just get early access to the book sale books lol. But the libraries I grew up near/in weren’t as well funded as ours is which makes me sad for the kids in the area I grew up in, but it also makes me so happy to see kids & those in need get the help & nourishment me and my family couldn’t always have access too.

There are mascot costume companies that specialize in costume rentals of children's book characters, for meet and greets at libraries. Like this one: https://costumespecialists.com/portfolio_category/childrens-book-characters/

My library has the children's department over an entire floor and the staircase up to it (along with the department itself) is painted to somewhat resemble a rain forest. They also have their own dedicated room for things like crafts and such on said floor (comes with a sink area, presumably for when they're working on messier crafts and such) as well as a small area with toys like blocks and such. They also have their own dedicated reference desk.

The teens also have a dedicated area to themselves, but theirs is on the ground floor.

There's also ceiling tiles in the lobby that are randomly painted.