We all know the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But in school libraries, students do it every day, and they should. Book covers are designed to sell book. They’re crafted by talented illustrators and graphic designers who know how to capture attention, adhere to trends, and entice readers. Covers are visual invitations and works of art. In a world where we compete with screens and short attention spans, using book covers as part of our reader engagement strategy is essential. So what does that mean for our school libraries?
Let’s take a closer look
Grab something to write on and take a slow walk through your library. Count how many books are facing forward. Are your shelves a sea of spines? How many books have the opportunity to sell themselves to passing students? This simple audit can tell you a lot and let you look at your space with fresh eyes. Most traditional shelving features rows of spine-out books, often neatly and tightly packed. This can be overwhelming, hard to read and lacks visual appeal, especially for younger or less confident readers. Forward-facing shelving gives books a chance to shine and helps students make choices based on interest and instinct, not just decoding your library classification system.
What percentage of your collection is ever face-out? Which areas of your collection could benefit from more visual appeal?
Line of Sight Matters
Even if you’re displaying books face-out, ask yourself “are they visible?” Think about your students’ eye level, movement paths, and gathering spaces. A book displayed at the top of a high shelf might look great to you but be invisible to a Year 3 student. Books near walkways, seating areas, or check-out queues can be powerful spots to place books for maximum discovery. Shelving placement and sightlines matter.
Sit on a student chair or kneel to see your space from their level. What do you notice?
Make Your Shelving Work for You
I know you might have shelving that you have to work with (I certainly do, my shelving in the secondary library is not forward facing friendly). But you can make simple changes that don’t cost a lot to boost your face-out displays. A few low-budget tools can transform how your shelves function:
Display stands
Use easels, plate stands, or even small photo frames to prop up featured books. You can also buy cheap library book display stands or invest in the better quality stands if you can afford it. Acrylic stands are great for fiction, premium quality acrylic can handle heavy non-fiction, or while stands are great for the those big and bulky titles.
Bookends
Use sturdy bookends to turn a section of spine-out books into a mini face-out display. Leaning books against these props them up. You might need to take them down over breaks to prevent the covers curling (or maybe that’s just in humid tropical climates).
Front-facing boxes or bins
Great for picture books, book series, manga and graphic novels, clear acrylic boxes can provide space for maximum cover space, and allows books to be browsed quickly. Finding these at department stores makes them super affordable and you’ll find them in a large range of sizes to fit your books and shelves.
Tops of shelves, floating shelves or wall ledges
Every horizontal surface is a space for displaying books. Create display pockets around the room in high-traffic zones or where it might catch the eye of students.
Repurpose furniture
Old magazine racks, wooden crates, or even plant stands can be converted into dynamic displays.
Specialist display equipment
If you have the funds, there are plenty of amazing display stands, shelves and feature stands that can bring your space to life, like these Hero Disks from Merchandising Libraries.
Face-out shelving is a strategy to hook your readers and make it much easier for them to find books. With creativity and a few tweaks, every library can increase the number of covers on display without breaking the budget.
In school libraries, our job is to connect students with the right book at the right time. Forward-facing shelving helps us do just that. When more covers are visible, it’s easier for students to find what they are looking for, or discover something unexpected.