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Library Outreach

Library Displays · Donating Videos and Books to Libraries

Library Displays

Library displays are a simple, but effective tool activists can use to educate the public about the suffering of farm animals. Many libraries make space available to community groups who are willing to design, assemble, and erect their own displays.

Contacting Your Library About a Display

• Ask the librarian if your library has display space.
• Ask if community groups and nonprofit organizations can use this space for displays. You may need to provide library management with information on the organization you represent, make assurances that your display will be appropriate for all library visitors, and explain in detail the contents of your display.
• Find out how much space is available for a display. Consider down-sizing your display if the space seems too small or find a different library that can accommodate you.
• Remember that many libraries have waiting lists for display space. It is very likely that space will not be immediately available. Fill out all the necessary paperwork to reserve a space for your display then explore other libraries that might allow you to get started right away.

Purchase a Display from Farm Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary now carries two types of pre-assembled library displays. We offer a Factory Farming display and also a Veg for Life display. The displays consist of educational and attention grabbing signs and a black 32" x 48" foam trifold display board. The signs are laminated for extra durability and are attached to the board with Velcro. The Velcro attachment allows for easy conversion depending on your audience or event. The price for one display, including one set of laminated signs is $25.00. The display plus both sets of laminated signs is $40.00.

Planning Your Display
The best library displays include text, images, and literature. Your display, ideally, will not only catch the attention of library patrons, but also hold it. Photographs, posters, and a wide variety of brochures and pamphlets can be ordered from Farm Sanctuary. We recommend displays designed around Farm Sanctuary's Veg for Life or Sentient Beings campaigns. The Veg for Life materials provide informative resources on the benefits of a vegetarian diet for health, for the environment and for animals — relevant to a broad spectrum of individuals in your community. The Sentient Beings Campaign offers information and pictures educating the public about the dynamic personalities and behaviors of farm animals, showing people often for the first time that farm animals are more than just "food." The positive and broad approach of these campaigns may be more likely to be permitted in libraries than displays with graphic factory farming imagery and information.

TEXT:

1) The largest section of text in any display should be the title. Make sure the title of your display can be seen from a considerable distance away. Also, be sure the title effectively captures the message you are trying to impart.
2) All of the text in your display should be straight forward and easy to understand. Try to maintain a balance between text and imagery. Every image in your display should be accompanied by text, but you do not want to overwhelm your viewers with too many words.
3) Consider using memorable, historical quotes or thought-provoking questions about animals to grab attention.

IMAGES:

1) You do not need to use graphic photographs to get your message across. Pictures of calves in veal crates or hens in battery cages, for instance, reveal the cruelty of factory farming methods without overwhelming viewers with blood and gore.
2) The images in your display should impact library patrons on an emotional level. A simple photograph that reveals the intensity and feeling in an animal's eyes often has the power to move an audience. If you can get your audience to feel something when they look at your display, they will be more likely to pay attention to your message.

LITERATURE:

1) Be sure to stock your display table with literature that library patrons can take home with them. Provide a wide variety of literature on farm animal issues so that patrons can read up on the topics that interest them most.
2) Take-home literature is crucial to any effective display because it allows viewers to consider your message long after they have seen your display. Take-home literature also increases the possibility that those who saw your display will contact your organization or tell others about what they saw.
3) Consider working with the librarian to make animal rights books in circulation at the library available at your display table. If your local branch does not carry many titles on animal issues, you can donate books to the library yourself.

Once your display is up and running. . .

• Make sure to visit the library frequently to restock literature and straighten your text and photographs
  
• Move on to another library! Contact as many libraries as you can to set up another display and continue to spread the word about farm animal issues!

To order literature, click here.

Donating Videos and Books to Libraries
The next time you visit your local library, take a look around you — here is your community, and there are dozens of chances every day to educate people on farm animal suffering. By making videos and books on vegetarianism and farm animal issues available to the public through your library, you will actively educate your neighbors on the reality of the food animal industry, eradicate misconceptions that farm animals are commonly raised in humane environments, and reveal to many the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle.

The factory farming industry's efforts to hide what goes on behind closed doors and discourage vegetarianism have been successful until now. Recent public opinion polls demonstrate that Americans are against farm animal cruelty once they know it exists and many more Americans go vegetarian everyday. Supplying your local library with powerful videotapes that reveal farm animal abuse and books that show how rewarding a vegetarian lifestyle can be, will educate your neighbors on the realities of modern-day farming and tempt them to change the way they eat.

Vegan Vittles

Vegan Vittles is Farm Sanctuary's own innovative and informational cookbook. Filled with hundreds of delicious recipes, information about factory farming and vegetarian philosophy, and countless tips and resources to help people enjoy vegetarian cuisine, Vegan Vittles would be an excellent addition to any library collection.

Order a copy of Vegan Vittles from Farm Sanctuary today.

Life Behind Bars

Life Behind Bars provides a rare first-hand look inside factory farm warehouses and exposes the brutal reality that agribusiness wants to keep hidden from public view. This powerful documentary, narrated by Mary Tyler Moore, is the perfect tool for educating others on the issues of factory farming.

Here's how to donate educational videos and books such as Life Behind Bars and Vegan Vittles.

1) Contact your local library by phone or stop by in person. To donate videos, ask for the librarian in charge of the audio/visual department. To donate books, ask for the librarian in charge of book donations.
2) Describe the video/book you are offering to donate. Share our one-page description of the Life Behind Bars video with your library. Try using our script with ideas on how to approach your library.
3) If your library has a bulletin board or area to display pamphlets, post information that the video is available for viewing or circulation at your library. Download a promotional poster for the Life Behind Bars video to display.

Order a copy of Life Behind Bars from Farm Sanctuary today.

To get more involved in this and other activist projects, join Farm Sanctuary's Activist Network. Please click here to fill out our online Activist Questionnaire.

For additional information, please call (607) 583-2225 ext. 229 or e-mail activist@farmsanctuary.org.