Things I’ve made for you to buy.
Put your library’s logo and patron barcodes on iPhone 5/s cases. Great summer reading prize giveaways and Friends’ fundraising items.
This idea is a response to the type of library-chic fetishization that Jessamyn wrote about so well here. Don’t get me wrong, I like geeky library pride stuff as much as the next librarian. But I figured: why not making something in the same vein that promotes actual libraries and encourages library use?
Here’s another notebook for jotting down all of your great library improving ideas!
They measure 3.5″x5″ and contain 32 pages of dotted grid pages. Optimized for brainstorming, they fit in your pocket so you can have one you wherever you go. I think it is best one yet!
$3 each
$8 for 3
$25 for 10
(plus some modest shipping charges!)
Visit the Walking Paper Shop to check out the new Creating the Future for Libraries notebooks, pencils, and, for the first time, a calendar! As usual, free shipping. Orders of 30 or more get a price break. Contact me for arrangements.
CFL Calendar
These calendars work well on staff kitchen refrigerators, in staff rooms and by reference desks. 12 months of creating the future for libraries with lunar phase information and fun historical facts.
Measures about 4.5″ x 5″
Easy to hang. Valuable birthstone and birth month flower information.
Limited run of 250.
Featured typefaces: Tungsten & Milk Script
CFL Symbol Notebook
Do libraries really want to be associated with someone reading a book alone? I say “no” and here’s our take on the universal library symbol. People gathering around content! It feels a bit more active and alive.
32 blank pages.
Limited run of 250.
Made from recycled materials.
Featured typeface: Futura Bold.
Decisions Notebook
Embrace your role as a library user experience designer with this notebook. It’s ready for you to fill with user friendly ideas.
32 blank pages.
Limited run of 250.
Made from recycled materials.
Featured typeface: Ziggurat Black
Designed in the USA and Canada with Amanda Etches-Johnson and printed in the USA.
Patrons Pencils
Three pencils to help you and your coworkers remember that you should be arranging the library for patrons, not librarians.
For safety reasons these ship unsharpened. Plus, sharpening pencils is fun so I’ll save it for you.
Word is already out on the streets but I should probably still announce the first in what will be a series of limited edition library related notebooks. I’m selling them on a new section of this site called WALKING PAPER GOODS.
Not only does this first notebook (WP01) read “Creating Future Libraries,” if you look a bit closer you’ll see that it reads “Creating the Future for Libraries.” In a totally synchronous post, Stephen Abram explains:
None of us and no organization is owed a future – no matter how wondrous its past. I believe that we adapt and create the positive future we want. Some are more fatalistic. The future just happens to them and they feel powerless to influence the outcomes.
This just about explains my thoughts and the notebook aims to emphasize positive action. In my wildest dreams people will get them as gifts from colleagues and a light bulb will turn on and a bell will ding and they’ll start thinking about creating (the) future (for) libraries.
These notebooks are optimized for brainstorming. They fit in your pocket or purse so you can have it with you wherever you go. You never know when inspiration will hit. Also, their length, 32 pages, makes them inviting. I sometimes get a funny feeling writing in notebooks I know that I’ll be carrying around for a long time because it seems like everything must be for the ages. Not so with the CFL notebooks. There’s less pressure to make everything in it totally rad which allows for more brainstorming.
For info about the next run of books, see WALKING PAPER GOODS or contact me to reserve copies of the next book (WP02).
A big thanks to Jenny Levine, Stephen Abram, Lauren Pressley and Rachel Bridgewater for their enthusiasm and support.
P.S. Please still think about the future of libraries even if you don’t have one of these notebooks.
