About
People often think that creativity and libraries don’t go together. Libraries have the image to be static and librarians to be too analytical to be creative. Not true, I am analytical and creative and I love to use both these traits in my library work.
When I came to New Zealand I had resigned a fantastic job in a public library (160 thousand media) in The Netherlands, where I worked for 18 years – the last five years as part of the Art, Culture & Education Team. My three colleagues and I were responsible for all the activities involving art, culture and education; actually all activities outside the regular library work. We were responsible for the image of the library, managed art exhibitions, established cultural and educational interactions with schools and made large displays for special occasions. A four meter high Roald Dahl character with a huge paper maché head for a communal library/ theatre event was one of the highlights. I learned to use a jigsaw and a glue pistol as easily as scissors and staple gun to create wall hangings, exhibition backgrounds and displays of any kind.
But the grass often seems greener on the other side of the ditch and that was certainly true for me.
Being at a stage of life that doing something different became urgent I packed
my bags and went to New Zealand for a sabbatical but stayed after the year to join my kiwi partner and build up a life here. I have never regretted my decision for a single moment.
Again I got a great job, this time in the school library of of a private College in Auckland. Lots of variety, lots of creative input and every couple of weeks new displays where I can use all my creativity and experience, though in a totally different way.
I also give display workshops for groups on request. Recently I've presented two workshops – one for SLANZAK's PD day in Auckland and the other during the 2011 SLANZA Conference 'ON THE WAVE'. Participants went home with a fantastic array of ideas how to make eye-catching displays. For more information about workshops click here to contact me.
The challenge in life is to do what you love most and for me that is working in a library and making sure the library environment is modern and up-to-date.
This website is for all who want to make creative displays. I’m getting better every day by working on them and I hope that my experience will help you to have more creative ideas to make the displays you’re working on fantastic, challenging and inviting to look at.
It would be great to create a kind of display-bank where libraries in and around Auckland City can sign up for an exchange of their displays. A courier or a drop off could save a lot of work and time while others enjoy your creations. Maybe we can set up a forum to give each other support when we're having a black-out and no ideas at all. A few suggestions from colleagues are often enough to get your imagination going.
I hope you send me lots of photos (admin@creativelibrarydisplays.com) and a short description of your displays so that I can upload them to this site. Together we can create a database for the benefit of us all; we live in a visual world and what is greater joy than being welcomed in a modern, creative library where the mind is challenged and the eye is invited to explore?
Together we can make it work!!!
