A Back to School Welcome

I recently came across an article written by librarian Catherine Morton on how she welcomed teachers back to school with a bag full of free items and library promotional material.

Her idea was inspired by librarian Buffy J. Hamilton's back to school welcome bags. I decided to try my own.

My goal was to introduce the library & its services to new staff and to remind veteran staff members of what we can do as well.

First, I reached out to our local book shop, Heath's, and asked them if they could help with free stuff.

Help out they did, giving me four large bags full of key chains, buttons, pens, pencils and more.

 

 

Included in the bags were bookmarks we made advertising the library's Instagram and Twitter accounts as well as book recommendations from students in our book club.

 



 

 

I then created a postcard using the program Canva that highlights the services the library can offer teachers and made sure they all got one.

 

 

 

Next, I reached out to Glenthorne's Patron of Reading, award-winning author Eve Ainsworth. I asked Eve if she could offer some words of inspiration for the teachers as they entered a new year.

 

I put Eve's quote on another postcard that went into the welcome bags.

 

 

 

I then printed off a short welcome message on a library due-date slip and stuck it to the bags before I filled them up.

 

 

 

It was great to see close to 140 bags filling the staff's pigeonholes, waiting for them to return in September!