As well as a space for quiet reading they are the perfect place for showcasing the world of writing and literacy. Being honest, I’m not the biggest reader in the world but I certainly enjoyed the last book I read. It’s called the ‘Salt Path’ and it’s about a couple who lose everything including their home because of a so-called friend. Add to that a life threatening illness for the male character prompting their decision to walk the whole of the South West coast path. It’s a true and heart warming story and one that brought me to tears a couple of times. Of course, since reading the book I have talked about it and recommended it to various friends.
I’m also interested in reading the follow up books the author has now written. So what I’m getting to is even if we are not the biggest readers of books, we can still be inspired by others to read more. We all have our favourite genres when it comes to reading and this can easily be showcased within a library environment. I asked my colleagues at TrilbyTV what their favourite genre of books were and of course received an array of suggestions back. From true crime and thriller to horror, sci-fi and fantasy through to poetry about sailing. If I hadn’t asked the question then I would have never known. So if we don’t showcase choice and diversity in a library space then we will never inspire young people to read more and become authors in their own right.
That’s why the idea of digital signage within a school library is an interesting one. You can absolutely see why a slide or two recommending the ‘Salt Path’ to others would be a great idea. As well as a book review slide with a few stand out comments from my experience reading this book. It’s not going to be for everyone, so I need to highlight the reasons I enjoyed it so others like me can enjoy it as well.
A nice example comes to mind from St Bartholomew’s Primary Academy who share book suggestions from school head teachers across the Diocese of Salisbury Academies Trust. They deliver these book recommendations to pupils using their BookFlix template helping to engage them even further. Lets not forget the world we live in and that young people will engage with platforms and content they are used to.
On the flipside I remember my colleague and TrilbyTV Customer Success manager Tom Pickrell telling me about a customer who was sharing a live underwater feed from YouTube on their library screen. Their thinking was that seeing fish and an underwater world would keep their students relaxed while in that space. I kind of get this mindset, although most interesting was that the librarian was an award winning author in her own right!
So surely the library screen should have been full of her experience as a writer to inspire young people? Content that promoted her favourite books, books that inspired her to read and tips when it comes to writing and becoming a published author. But it wasn’t, it was showing an underwater live feed from Miami Harbour in the US that had no connection to the students whatsoever!
Our TrilbyTV Content Catalogue actually has some content to inspire young writers from our friends at Pobble which is perfect for a library screen. It contains a number of slides that help young people think about who their audience is when writing. There’s also useful sentence starters, writing tips, sentence challenges and story ideas. This set of six slides can be downloaded from our Content Catalogue here.
For more ideas on what content can be created and shared within a school library environment I’ll hand over to TrilbyTV Customer Success Manager Terri Roberts.
When you think of screens in libraries, you’d be forgiven for thinking their only use is to remind students to hand in their overdue books or to be quiet and turn off their phone. With TrilbyTV there’s an opportunity to do so much more.
Take QEH Bristol who’s Library video showcases QEH Library Book Bingo, encouraging students to explore new genres by gamifying the experience and asking them to review what they read. Which genres would you choose? Personally, I’d choose Graphic Novel, Recommended by a friend and Translated from another language.
Another example from QEH Bristol inspires students to get involved with local literature events. Their Bristol Teen Book Award 2025 content is bright, bold and easy to read and has a QR code for students to scan to nominate their favourite reads.
How about ACS Egham, who share books students can borrow based on national and public holidays throughout the month using our Slideshow feature. I certainly didn’t know it was National Biscuit day on May 29th – Count me in!
