Picturing America for Public Libraries

We displayed all of the Picturing America posters in the library, half in the main area and half in the Children’s area, by suspending them from the ceiling so that the pictures on both sides were visible. The posters were on continuous display at the library from February 2009 – May 2009. We had a special story time program for elementary-aged children called “History Rocks” that featured books and media with a historical focus and a scavenger hunt activity using the Picturing America posters. We had two special book displays related to the Picturing America posters: one for American historical Juvenile fiction and non-fiction, and one for Adult American History for March-April 2009.
For the special “History Rocks” story time program we used the Picturing America posters to conduct a scavenger hunt. First we read books that included stories about Abraham Lincoln and made “Lincoln hats”. Then the kids had a scavenger hunt activity where they had to locate the Picturing America poster with the picture of Abraham Lincoln on it out of all the hanging posters. I purposefully selected a picture that was located outside of the Children’s Area so they would have to look at all of the posters in order to find it. I also instructed the kids not to tell each other where the poster was once they found it, so that everybody had a fair chance to find it on their own. All 25 children in attendance, ages 5-10, successfully found the poster and won a small prize to take home.

Submitted by Pauline Lam