We've had really good success with coupling a book fair with our Grandparent's Day celebration. After our little program, the grandparents are offered the opportunity to add books to the library in their name or that of a child. We dedicate the book with a pretty bookplate inside the cover. The book fair people are at hand with plenty of books. For awhile, this sort of bugged me--sort of like we were saying, "yeah, come hear how much we love you, eat a treat, and get hit up for a book." But when I asked my own parents about it, they said they really liked it because books were something permanent they could dontate (as opposed to money that went to something less sentimental, like bathroom updates) and they were reasonably priced. Now, our grandparents ask to make sure we have the book fair people coming because they want the opportunity. It's well worth a try!
We have had tremendous success with our school Adopt A Book Program. Each month the school librarian selects a variety of book titles for adoption. Parents or children can choose to adopt any book for $15.00. A bookplate is put into the adopted book identifying who adopted it and for what reason; usually a child's birthday, First Communion, special event, in honor of _____.
Each month outside the bulletin board is a recognition board of the books adopted and they are also included in our monthly PTO newsletter.
Thank you to everyone who responded. I am working on a way to get my schools wish list online so parents can select books to adopt for the school library. I'll let you know if I'm successful. [img]smile.gif[/img]
Our school has also had great success getting books donated to the library and classrooms through a fall Scholastic Book Fair, which is operated by our PTO. We're a small K-5 school, about 300 students from a wide range of economic backgrounds, but last year we raised $2000 in cash and had 135 books donated to the library and classrooms through the fair.
We've found that having the wish lists mounted on pieces of posterboard so families can carry them around and actually look at the books listed helps encourage donations--something about seeing the books for themselves makes people want to buy them. People almost never order items that are available by order but not physically present at the fair.
In addition to the birthday book concept mentioned above, you can also do dedication/memorial books. For example, for the Principal's Bday, instead of the PTA buying him a "gift", we donate a book to the library in his name. Donations have also been made to our library as "memorials" for deceased family members,etc.
