Miyo Davis at St. Francis College Library wanted to host a Library Study Break for students during finals, but didn’t have the budget for a huge event. Inspired by this post on Librarian Design Share and an idea she got from a talk at an ACRL conference about librarians as research therapists who are available to assist with issues patrons have while researching, Miyo demonstrates that chocolate is always the best medicine.
Miyo describes her design process below:
We have a ton of leftover Demco® Processing Circulation Label Sets 1-5/8″ x 2-9/10 (SLB spine labels) so my first prototype was a result of just typing up our contact information into the OCLC Label Program. It was an effective way of getting out our contact info but didn’t really have any personality. I then downloaded a Microsoft Word template from DEMCO’s website. Working in Microsoft Word gave me a lot more flexibility with font size, style, color and allowed me to add pictures. For my second prototype I experimented with incorporating our school logo. This looked nice, but again, I felt like I could take the design a step further.
Going with this theme [library therapy], I thought it would be funny if the labels on the candy looked like the labels on prescription bottles. With a little personalization, I turned the library into a pharmacy and the chocolate became “Prescription Chocolate” and “Emergency Chocolate.” They were a big hit and the students appreciated the joke.
These are fun and very timely. If you are interested in the original Word file to create your own library therapy chocolate, contact Miyo.
December 17, 2013 at 3:02 pm
I love these, Miyo! We may have to do something similar at our library in the Spring.
December 18, 2013 at 5:50 pm
I love this idea – I just passed it along to my director for finals week this spring!
January 22, 2014 at 6:26 pm
I love this. Last year we handed out candy hearts during Valentine’s Day with the message that Jarrett (our library) loves students, but this is a cute idea we could do anytime – especially finals. Thanks for sharing, Miyo!