Harry Potter Book Day

Harry Potter Book Day, is an annual international event. For five of the last six years that we have participated in this day, it was in February and called Harry Potter Book Night . . . in 2023, they made they switch from night to day and from February to October. The change worked out in our favor because we were preparing to move library buildings in February 2023 and would not have been able to participate, but because we moved at the end of June, Harry Potter Book Day 2023 was our first major children's and youth services event in the new building!

Preparing for events like this one is my absolute favorite thing about my job. As a library director, so much of my day revolves around dealing with issues, managing the collection, managing staff, budgets and finances, etc., but with events, I have an opportunity to be crafty and paint! Growing up, I wasn't allowed to paint much because I tend to make a mess, but as an adult, I can paint as much as I want! I just don't always have the time or opportunity . . . but library events allow me to paint at work!

Over the years I have discovered that small detailed paintings are not my forte . . . my Children's and Youth Services Coordinator excels at this!!! I, however, love large scale paintings! The kind that only need to look good at a distance! Most of the paintings below are on 4ft x 8ft foam insulation board, which is my favorite size to paint. Each board was painted for each game/station and the kiddos would rotate through the stations at their own pace, over the course of two hours. If you've read any of my other blog posts or if you have been to any of our events, this format should be very familiar to you because it is what I found works best for us. For this event we closed down the library for our regular services and only allowed event attendees in the library, as we needed all hands on deck and we spread out across the entire first floor. For our 2024 Harry Potter Book Day, I plan to move everything in the Children's Wing and maintain our regular library services during the event. I'm already looking forward to October and can't wait to see what my team and I can come up with this year!!