Decor Galore at Post Road

Submitted by Sarah Spiller

Our giant dinosaurs greeting you as you enter the Post Road Library!

Post Road loves to go all out with our decor, especially for Summer Reading, and this year is no different! This year's inspiration came straight from Jurassic Park, with dinosaurs taking over the entire library, from the outside windows to the back of the children's section. 

One of the most important parts of decorating the library is not just the decor itself, but the people behind it. Post Road has a committee of hard-working librarians that gather month after month to brainstorm, put together, and display the decor around the library. (Of course, with the help of Facilities! Thank you Facilities!) Today, we present an exclusive interview with the Decor Committee themselves.

Bertha and her unnamed son at the Ask Us Desk.

Our Decor Committee consists of three librarians: Youth Specialist Sara and Information Specialists Alison and Melissa. Each one of them is a key component of taking the Summer Reading theme from simple ideas to extravagant elements spread throughout the library. 

I gave them some interview questions to answer, so you can see a little bit more into the processes behind decorating for Summer Reading and get the answers to questions you are dying to ask them. Without further ado: the Decor Committee!

Our endcaps in the Children's section.

What was your process like for brainstorming ideas for this year’s Summer Decor?

• Melissa: There was a lot of Pinterest searching, sharing of Pinterest boards, and meetings spread throughout the year to discuss how we could implement different ideas within the library environment and within our budget.
  
  
• Sara: The first thing we did was squeal and say "dinosaurs!", since it is such a visually rich theme. When it comes to the Children's section, we thought about what to put around the youth desk; our first thought was a volcano, but then the idea of a cave came up. Alison remembered we had the floral arch from the regency ball, so we knew we could use that as a nice base for the cave. I bulked it up with cardboard, which also made it asymmetrical, then wrapped it in paper. We decided to use the volcano, but in a different way: we put it above the children’s area on the ledge.
  
  
• Alison: We went down the rabbit hole of dinosaur decor on Pinterest, created a group board, and had multiple meetings to hash through ideas.

Welcome to the jungle (aka the Children's section)!

What was the most challenging part of implementing decor this year?

• Melissa: Having to deal with ideas we had that we couldn’t make work and coming to terms with having more ideas than we could actually make and install for lack of time.
  
  
• Sara: Getting everything ready before Facilities came to help.
  
  
• Alison: The most challenging part for me is always having to edit down the ideas to something that is cohesive and can be realistically achieved with the supplies, space, and time that we have.

One of the many reading dinosaurs in the Adult section.

What tools did you use to make decor go smoothly this year? 

• Melissa: Pinterest and Gemini. (I tried searching on Canva for dinosaur images that would work for the front windows, which needed to be high in resolution and large in scale, but I couldn’t do it. For reference, the tallest dinosaur is 12 feet tall.) I also uploaded a picture of one of our endcaps into Gemini and had it place a dinosaur standing on top of it, so we could understand the look of the endcaps; we have had compliments saying they are so realistic that they look three-dimensional!
  
  
• Sara: The most fun tool I used was a battery operated driver drill; I put a screw eye in as a bit, attached the vines for the cave to it, and then attached it to a doorknob and spun it. (I got this idea from Pinterest.)
  
  
• Alison: Pinterest, Canva for plotting out ideas, and Communico to block off Meeting Room space to work on large pieces.

A pterodactyl with a snake snack in its talons.

What do you wish you could have done differently this year?

• Melissa: I would have liked to fold more of the origami dinosaurs to put up around the library; I wanted more time and to make them bigger. Unfortunately, we don’t have the floor space for life size, 3D dinosaurs made out of paper in the library.
  
  
• Sara: I don’t like how the green vines turned out, I wish we would have done something different with the shapes, so they look more like leaves. I also wish we had started earlier on construction; we started meeting really early, but ordered supplies in the nick of time.
  
  
• Alison: I wish we had time to decorate the Meeting Room, Quiet Room, and Hot Spot. 

One of the bulletin boards in the Children's section.

What is one idea you had that you decided against for decor this year?

• Melissa: We wanted to decorate the quiet room and study rooms (at least the windows), but we ran out of time.
  
  
• Sara: I wanted an excavation site. There were going to be outlines of mountains on the computer carrels, and then a scene on the ground with fossils being unearthed and caution tape around them to make two dig sites.
  
  
• Alison: I wanted two trees flanking the entrance to the Children's area, but we decided to go with the volcano instead. The trees would have been too easily destroyed by little hands.

Teen Space dinosaur fun!

If you had to choose a favorite piece of decor for this year, what would it be?

• Melissa: Bertha or the two dinosaurs at the end of the entrance hall window.
  
  
• Sara: Hmm… I’ve got to say my favorites are the front window print-outs Melissa did because they are so cute and so huge. I think they have a huge impact.
  
  
• Alison: There are so many, but my favorite pieces are the mom and baby Brachiosauruses that Melissa made.

The theme-appropriate Staff Picks sign and shelf labels.

If you had one tip for librarians working on Summer decor, what would it be?

• Melissa: Start early, dream big, and have fun.
  
  
• Sara: Start meeting early; in January and February we had a handful of meetings. It was important we started this early to give ideas to develop.
  
  
• Alison: Design for the space you have and incorporate any quirky building features into your decor.
  

Dinosaurs greeting you as you enter through the doors of the library!

What is your dream theme for summer decor?

• Melissa: Space, again! There is so much potential for decor there.
  
  
• Sara: Classic literature! We could use Curious George, Make Way for Ducklings, Clifford, and Danny the Dinosaur, which are all characters from when I was a kid.
  
  
• Alison: I don't really have a dream theme, but I am really excited about the fantasy theme in a couple of years.

Thank you so much to our Decor Committee for answering all of my questions! 

All of our carts ready to serve the book-reading public!

Before I go, I have to discuss some of the details at the library that couldn't have been completed by anyone other than our CSAs and Circulation Supervisor, Anthony! You may notice in some of the photos that there are dinosaur details in even the smallest of places: on shelf labels or signs for our baskets and Staff Picks. These details are meticulously added throughout the library so we can be festive in as many ways as possible. This year, the CSAs even went a step further and decorated our shelving carts to look like the vehicles that drive throughout Jurassic Park. Each cart features a front window with our staff members looking out in shock as they see the dinosaurs throughout the library. This is another fun way we can customize the library experience for patrons and staff to enjoy throughout the Summer.

If you want to see the details of the carts (it's worth looking at them, trust me) and pictures of the rest of the library, view our Summer Decor folder on Google Drive. Thank you again to everyone that contributed to this year's Summer Reading decor: the Decor Committee, CSAs, and Facilities. I hope you enjoyed this year's Summer Reading decor at Post Road!