DINO-vember, The Easy Way

November can mean many things to many people, but to me, it means dinosaurs in the library! I have been celebrating this event since 2017, and have mastered all the tricks to make it fun, easy, and engaging for the public!

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of Dino-vember, take a look at the ALSC blog archives, there are lot of fun examples there. But the gist of it is that libraries and staff get crafty thinking of ways to engage patrons with dinosaurs all month long. You can do it no money or lots of money and in big and small ways.

Using what you already do:

I think the best hack for this is to find ways to incorporate dinosaurs into already occurring programs. Then staff don’t need to add too much work their plates and also can create a themed big program for the library that is easy to brand and market to patrons.

• Monthly Family Movie is easy to add a Dino option. We chose The Land Before Time which will also appeal to our millennial parent patrons.
• Using our regular iterations of Toddler Explorations like art and sensory:
  • For the art iteration, we are making Dino Handprints, and for the sensory iteration, we will bury plastic dinos in tubs of sand and patties of baking soda and then use droplets to drop vinegar onto them, to excavate them.
• Monthly Food Craft for tweens and teens, this month we will make Dino dirt cups, mixing pudding, cookie crumbs, and gummy dinos.

Things to add in:

Usually, I will add in a family story time all about dinosaurs. We host it after school, which is not typical for us. It’s an easy reach since it’s just another story time and there are lots of great Dino books to read! I know one of the Dinosaur vs books by Bob Shea will make an appearance.

Add passive opportunities so that patrons can engage with the theme even when nothing is actively happening. This month, we will do a scavenger hunt with die-cut dinos hidden all around the library. They can search for the dinos and get a sticker for completing it.

Years ago, I also created a quiz to find out What Dinosaur Are You? and then kids can add a sticker to their corresponding dinos on the walls. I will reuse this idea this year.

Decorations! Honestly, this is where you can go as big as your budget will allow. Colleagues and I have spent lots of time and energy creating things like life size dinosaur footprints to tape to the floor.

But, if I have the money, which I did this year, I ended up buying dinosaur decorations.

If you have the money and the right silly staff member, you could also buy one of those inflatable dinosaur costumes and take all sorts of hilarious social media posts for these events.

I like big programs because they seek to unite patrons and staff in a group activity. It’s so exciting hearing children and adults remark on the decor change, look up Dino books, engage with the activities, and learn that the library is there for big, silly, fun things!

Check out these links for more ideas. How are you celebrating Dino-vember?

All images courtesy of A. Steinbauer