Bulletin Bored? Or Bulletin Boards!K‐12

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2000), "Bulletin Bored? Or Bulletin Boards!K‐12", Library Review, Vol. 49 No. 3, pp. 139-156. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.2000.49.3.139.2

This is a useful American series, now at its eighteenth number (the 18th is Color and Shape Books for all Ages, by Cathie Cooper, 1998) which started with Arden Druce’s Chalk Talk Stories in 1993. The punning title of Bulletin Bored? refers to the generally boring and inept graphics of posters and signs in libraries, particularly those serving children and young people. Sivak is a librarian and PR expert and Passatore an art instructor, both in Pennsylvania. The “bulletin boards” they discuss are not electronic bulletin boards but, literally, those posters and other artistic devices used for publicising library activities and generally making reading fun. “K‐12” means intended for first to twelfth grades in school. It is essentially an ideas book for working children’s librarians, full of useful images of patterns and lettering, and numerous thematic images (for example, autumn, winter, Valentine’s Day, reading, the environment, multiculturalism). One can take these, blow them up, create posters and overheads out of them, and improve the graphic impact of one’s publicity materials. Lots of advice on how and where and why to use them, some very exclusively based in American culture (such as Thanksgiving, Graduation, Patriotism), others (above all Social Issues) striking and widely applicable. This fills a gap in the field but will probably be of only marginal use to librarians with steady hands of their own and/or access to talented colleagues, technicians, and enthusiastic young library users.