SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

August 10, 2017 by Karen Jensen, MLS

MakerSpace: Outreach Activity – Book Face

August 10, 2017 by Karen Jensen, MLS   Leave a Comment

makerspacelogo1

I can obviously not begin to take credit for the fabulous idea of Book Face as it is undoubtedly something that you have seen all over the Internet. What I want to share with you, however, is how we did our Book Face and why we chose to do it in the way that we did.

bookface33

In case you don’t know, Book Face involves taking a book with a partial face on the cover and holding it over your own face to complete the picture. It’s a pretty cool way to promote books and create fun art.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

The Why

On the First Friday of every month the town where my library resides hosts a downtown event where local businesses promote their offerings to the community. It’s a type of music and arts festival with live music and food trucks. We do a monthly hands on activity to promote the Teen MakerSpace that has included things like making buttons and photo booths. They have almost exclusively focused on promoting the Teen MakerSpace and I wanted to do something hands on while also promoting books and reading. So we decided to use our mobile photo booth to do Book Face. My main goal for this activity was to do something hands on and fun to promote the Teen MakerSpace while also reminding the teens that we interacted with that we were a library and have great YA literature.

bookface12

The How

We already have a mobile photo booth, which you can read about here. So instead of taking regular photo booth props, we scoured the shelves for books with a part of a face on the cover. The books would be our props and we would be promoting books. It’s a win-win situation.

bookface31

What we took:

  • The mobile photo booth
  • 16 books with partial faces
  • A smart phone with an additional charger to take and post photos to our TMS Instagram account
  • A hand out explaining book face and a bibliography
  • The other regular stuff: table, table runner, chairs, etc.

The handout that we took had instructions for Book Face on one side, including the hashtag where they could find their photo on our TMS Instagram account and a reminder that they could come into the TMS and we would help them print off their photo to make it into a button or some other ways they could enhance their photo. The back side of the handout includes a bibliography of the books we had on hand.

BookFace Handout

Final Thoughts

This activity did achieve what we wanted it to. People browsed through the books and highlighted some titles. A couple of people asked if we were giving away the books for free, so we had to be vigilant around the table of books to make sure they stayed. One parent complained that the books were inappropriate for teens to even be looking at. But overall, the outreach activity was a success and helped us achieve our goals. We promoted the TMS AND talked with teens about books.

What I would do differently?

Although I would call the outreach activity a success, there are a few things that I would do differently.

One, I would have example pictures on display somewhere. It was kind of a hard concept to explain and although a lot of people found it fun and interesting, we had a lot less buy in then we did with photo booth props. I think display photos and buttons would have helped a lot.

Two, better signage. Bigger and better. Especially near the books.

Three, we just needed more books. And I took exclusively teen books, but since this is an everyone event I would take some picture and adult books as well.

If you have a portable photo booth, I definitely recommend doing this as an outreach activity.

A Book Face photo gallery:

Please note, this is also our current teen book display which is why you will see various backgrounds. We also have taken some in front of our green screen in the TMS.

bookface32 bookface30 bookface29 bookface27 bookface26 bookface25 bookface bookface8 bookface10 bookface2 bookface4

Filed under: Makerspace

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments
Book FaceOutreach

About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

March 2022

Tween and Teen Programming Idea: DIY Photo/Note Holders

by Karen Jensen, MLS

November 2021

Turning Voice Recordings into Sound Wave Art and QR Codes

by Karen Jensen, MLS

July 2019

Rethinking 3D Printing in the Library, it's not as complicated as you might think

by Karen Jensen, MLS

July 2019

Slime, slime, and more slime

by Karen Jensen, MLS

February 2019

A Tale of Three Printers, portable photo printers that is (Tech Review)

by Karen Jensen, MLS

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

One Star Review, Guess Who? (#184)

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Review of the Day – Trees: Haiku from Roots to Leaves by Sally M. Walker, ill. Angela McKay

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Review: Nat the Cat Takes a Nap

by Esther Keller

Heavy Medal

March suggestions: early Mock Newbery possibilities

by Emily Mroczek-Bayci

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Here Be Monsters: On Horror, Catharsis, and Uneasy Truces with Yourself, a guest post by author Rebecca Mahoney

by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Newbery Medalist Amina Luqman-Dawson visits The Yarn

by Colby Sharp

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Best Young Adult Books 2020 | SLJ Best Books

16 YA Novels That Keep It Real | Summer Reading 2021

18 Novels for Teens That Blow the Dust Off History | Summer Reading 2021

21 Middle Grade and YA Novels in Verse for National Poetry Month

23 Latinx YA Picks for Latinx Heritage Month and All Year Long

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023