Techno Tuesday: Subscription Database Brochure

One of my favorite subscription databases is Novelist K-8 Plus.  I like how users have the capability to search for books by series and the Read Alike feature is a great resource for finding new books and series for kiddos that are stuck in book limbo.  This past week, I created a brochure for my Technology course explaining how to use and access Novelist K-8.  I love that I could make something that will help caregivers remember what this great resource offers and how to access it once they get home.

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One of our course readings is the book The Non-Designer’s Design Book Fourth Edition by Robin Williams.  Williams shares her four design concepts through the use of a colorful acronym CRAP: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.  I thought that the information in this book was useful and I tried to keep the principles in mind as I made my brochure for Novelist K-8.

As one of my side hustles, I still maintain a Teachers Pay Teachers Store in order to share all of the resources I created when I was teaching.  When I first started my TPT store, I joined several Teacher Sellers groups to learn the best way to package and upload my resources.  Several Teacher Authors suggested the use of PowerPoint to create the resources because of the ease with which you can manipulate items on the page.  Also, when you save the document, the thumbnail icon displays an image of the cover page.  Many of my resources were originally created in Microsoft Word or Publisher which, compared to PowerPoint, limited how I could manipulate the text and images to make the resource appealing for my TPT store.  

I tried using LucidPress for this assignment, but had limited success.  I think that LucidPress has some great offerings for layouts, but I did not find one that could accommodate the screen shots of Novelist K-8 Plus to look the way I wanted.  I had some difficulty capturing clear screen shots at first but then stumbled on the Snipping Tool in Windows 10.  With a little practice, I was able to use the Snipping Tool to grab the specific images of our library website and Novelist to use for my brochure.  

The biggest challenges with creating this brochure were working within the space constraints (a single 8.5- by 11-inch page), making sure the information presented logically, clearly, and concisely, and having screen captures that were clear and meaningful.

I am happy with the final product and look forward to sharing it with the patrons that I serve.

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