Spectrum PR Column
September 1997
Making a Case for Display Cases
Carol Bredemeyer, Salmon P. Chase College of Law Library, Northern Kentucky University (Highland Heights, KY).
AALL Spectrum, Volume 2 No. 1 September 1997, p. 31.
Many libraries are blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view) with display cases. They can be a public relations tool with your primary patrons and visitors to your library. My library once did a display about a visiting professor who kept bring people into the library to see it. Displays can highlight aspects of your collection or focus on library or book related events.
One of my library’s four display cases has a semi-permanent exhibit about Salmon P. Chase, for whom our school is named. Another features new book jackets. The other cases rotate exhibits approximately every two months. At the beginning of the academic year, we have a display of faculty photos with short bios. This allows our new students to learn something about their professors as well as those they see bot don’t have for class.
Illustrations help make for great displays. You may want to keep files of the display materials as well as a sketch of how they were set up. I have been researching a display on food law, to be illustrated with product packaging (cereal boxes, canned goods, etc.). Background color, either paper or fabric, can help your display stand out.
Using the calendar can help you start a display program. Black history and civil rights in January and February, National Library Week in April, and Banned Books Week in September are all great display ideas. We fill one of our cases with legal cartoons in December when the students are stressed during exams
Some of our best displays have been an art law display by a librarian with a degree in art combining books on art law from our collection with art books from the main library; famous trials highlighting books from our collection; and celebrities with law degrees that includes pictures from newspapers and magazines - check the law-lib archives for lists of names; and the Lizzie Borden story - complete with axe!
Displays may be as simple or complex as you like. Some displays have accompanying notes similar to those describing art or museum exhibit pieces. You may also want to include bibliographies or other handouts with some displays. Sometimes you want to do quick timely displays such as the publications of a visiting lecturer or recent opinions of a newly appointed Supreme Court justice.
The size and shape of your display case(s) may limit the types of displays you can create. Some displays work in a flat case but not in an upright case with shelves and vice versa. It can be hard to fill a large case - our largest case has two halves and has at times housed two separate small displays.
Creating displays may not be a part of every library’s life, but there are lots of possibilities.
Last Updated: January 20, 2003
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