For the past four years, our Teen Librarian has hosted a literary-themed Peep Show. The event takes place sometime between April and May, around the Easter and Passover holidays (or whenever the Peeps start popping up in grocery store displays).
A Cadbury egg can get it, but I find these spongy little morsels inedible. So I much prefer them as an objets d’art as opposed to a food product.
The response to the first show in 2019 was pretty overwhelming. We had to take over both floors of the library to display all of the entries. In 2020, the Peep Show went virtual along with everything else. We posted the entries to our Facebook page, where people also voted for their favorites. We were delighted to receive a solid number of entries (I forget the exact number, but it was around 10) given the parameters. We hosted the event again last year, still virtual, but our participation bottomed out. Clearly we ran into virtual burnout.
For our 2022 Peep Show, we were once again hosting an in-person competition. Our door count has been significantly lower since reopening post-COVID, so these days we’re always nervous about how interested our patrons will be or what turnout or response we’ll be able to generate. We had nothing to worry about with this event. Participation fully rebounded–not quite to 2019 levels, but we still had more than 30 entries.
How Does It Work?
Patrons assemble their Peep Show dioramas at home. We don’t provide any supplies. Our only instructions are that entries should be inspired by literature, however they choose to interpret that theme.
Patrons turn in their completed dioramas to a librarian in advance of the advertised deadline. Once the show begins, we set up an exhibition somewhere in the library, assigning each diorama an entry number with the title and creator’s first name.
We run the event out of our Adult & Teen division, but we welcome entries from all ages. We find that families often create a diorama together.
During the Peep Show, all library visitors are invited to vote for their favorites using ballots that we provide. Our categories are: Most Creative, Funniest, Best Use of Peeps, Most Unique, Most Like the Book, and Cutest.
Result: A resounding success! We had more than 30 entries and more than 200 patrons voted in the contest. Our Teen Librarian tallied the votes, announced the results, and attached ribbons to the winning entries, which we kept on display for another week. The feedback we received was entirely positive. Several people who participated thanked us for hosting the show and told us how much fun they and their families had while creating their dioramas.
Take a look at a few of our 2022 entries below.
Public Library World 