Arts in the Library, by Heather Moorefield-Lang

Collage by the author, Heather Moorefield-Lang

So as a librarian, I already assume that the library is a central location for books, technology, information, and more. But before I became a librarian, I was a theater teacher. I taught middle school drama for five years full-time, and after I became a middle school librarian I still continued to teach a theatre class when time would allow. As a librarian at the school level, I would have drama performances in the library, art exhibits on the walls and in the stacks, poetry readings, and more. Now that I am at the academic level, I still feel the library, a central building on campus, has the chance not only to be the technology and literary focus on campus but a central arts scene as well.

Ways to Invite the Arts into your Library

1. Visual Arts: The library is a perfect location to showcase art. So many students, from different departments, come through the library every day. The visual arts are probably the easiest arts-based discipline with which to partner. Talk to your art department about showcasing student work. Have a book building contest with weeded books and see what architecture and engineering students can create. Partner with the public schools and see if K-12 teachers might want to feature their students’ drawings at the academic level. There are so many possibilities. Whether the art is photographic, drawn, painted, sculpted, or built, there is room in the library and students will always enjoy seeing their work displayed in such a public venue.
2. Theater Performances: Theater takes a little more work. It needs space, although not much room. Actors can make any space work. Find out when theatrical performances are happening on campus. Contact the theater department and see if the directors of the piece might like to give a 10-15 minute preview of the upcoming show. If space is tight in the library, then you can have it outside if weather allows. Another fun option is hosting a night of improvisation or comedy. Poetry slams can also be a really fun and uplifting option.
3. Music: Inviting musicians and singers to perform during events at the library is a wonderful way to showcase student talent and encourage partnerships between departments. Digital recordings of school performances being played in the lobby or foyer of the library are a nice way to showcase the school’s band, choir, chorus, or orchestra too. Bands and singers make noise, of course, but the days of completely quiet libraries are long gone and again students and faculty will enjoy having their work displayed.
4. Dance: More than likely the most common way that dance has taken place in the library lately is through the method of flash mob. This is fine, but commonly not under the control of the librarians. Dance performances, like theater, are a possibility for the library and would be great fun. An option would be recording dance performances on campus and featuring them in a viewable format on library televisions, computers, or projectors.

I have visited many libraries around the world and I have seen the arts featured in just about all of them. There have been art exhibits, band performances, dogs dressed in costumes, cake decorating contests, Dance Dance Revolution, improvisation performances, movie nights and much more. Librarians are only limited by their creativity and imagination. All you have to do is get out there, knock on some doors, make some phone or Skype calls, send an email, shake some hands and open up the opportunity. Once faculty and students know that the library is willing, they will want to take part.

Heather Moorefield-Lang is the Education and Applied Social Sciences Librarian at Virginia Tech. She tweets @actinginthelib and her website is www.actinginthelibrary.com. This is the second entry she has written for this blog; the previous entry is “When Your Technology Dance Card is Starting to Get Full.”

What Makes a Program Successful?

Source

The new academic year starts in less than a month, so we are in the process of wrapping up summer projects and girding our loins for the fall. Part of that loin girding is figuring out what programs we're going to run - are we going to repeat what we've done in the past? Come up with something new? A combination of the new and the old?

In making decisions about the future, I of course have to think about the past: which events were successful, and which were unsuccessful? When thinking about the unsuccessful events, I try to consider what made them unsuccessful and whether or not there's something I think I can do to improve things in the future. And I always have to remind myself that sometimes success or lack thereof isn't something I had control over - weather and unexpected competition on campus have sunk my programs more than once.

In looking at my past successes and failures, I've come up with a few measures I use to judge:

• What was the cost per participant? One of my best attended and most successful programs ended up costing less than $1 per attendee.
• How many people attended? I always compare attendance with the size of my community. Events that might seem poorly attended somewhere else, based on numbers, might be a big success on my campus. I once attracted enough students that they represented just over 5% of our undergraduate population. That's a HUGE success for a dry event on a Friday night.
• Did people enjoy themselves? Watching body language can tell you a lot, but nothing beats actually asking people if they had fun. Another way I know people have enjoyed themselves is when they ask if/when we'll be hosting the event again.
• Did I achieve the goal(s) I had for the event? Sometimes the goals have nothing to do with attendance. For instance, my Banned Books Read Out isn't hugely popular - we only attract 20-30 students every year - but my goal for this event is political awareness and education. Talking about why people have challenged books isn't always fun, but it does always result in learning.

What about you? If you run events at your library, how do you decide if it is successful? Unsuccessful? And how about the other side of it? How do you decide that an event you attended was successful?

A Qualified Success: National Gaming Day

Humans vs. Zombies has spoiled me. The first time I ran it at my library, I had just under fifty students attend, and the second time I had sixty-four. This is on a campus that has roughly 1,200 students, too. I'm used to running gaming events that students love. So, when we only had eleven students show up at our National Gaming Day board game event this past weekend, I was underwhelmed.

My boss was there, and after he and I talked, I can guess at some of the factors that contributed to the smaller turn out:

1. There was a football game happening on campus at the same time as our event. Further, it was the last game of the season.
2. It was gorgeous outside. Sunny, a little breezy, and cool but not too cool. I'm not sure I would have been inside if I hadn't had this event to run.
3. The event ran from 1 PM to 4 PM. When planning the event, I thought about whether or not college students are typically up before 1 PM on a Saturday. At this point, I think they're probably awake, but I don't know if they're out and about (unless there's football involved).

There are some other factors that may or may not have been involved, like where National Gaming Day fell in the course of the semester. For my institution, it fell between the second to last and the last week of the session (our semesters have a twelve week session and then a three week session). Also, it was an off weekend for our program that is geared towards non-traditional college students. Finally, maybe the choice of board games over console or live action role playing contributed.

Here's the thing: considering all we had going against us, we actually did fine. This was our first foray into National Gaming Day territory, and we learned a lot from the event. Also, the students who came to eat pizza and play Clue and Sorry and Uno and Scrabble had a great time. Finally, some of the students who came on Saturday have never been to an event I've run before.

I've decided to call this one a qualified success, and to apply what I learned this year to our event next year. Honestly, though, I missed the zombies.

How about you? What makes a library program successful in your opinion?

There are Zombies in the Library! Or, Programming at a Small, Liberal Arts College

Savage Chickens, "Night of the Unread"

That's right, I said zombies in the library. Humans vs. Zombies, that is. This is the second time that my library has hosted a session of HvZ, and wow was it a success. To be honest, I think I had more fun than the participants did. Everyone who helped run the event had a great time watching them run around the library, trying to shoot each other with Nerf guns, and listening to their stories about how they took out (or were taken out by) members of the other team. It went so well that I'm thinking about doing it again next semester.

So... no, I don't work at a traditional academic library (and I don't want to). Sure, we have all the things you'd expect of a college library - books and databases and study rooms and all - but our programming runs the gamut. There are things that are more academic. For example, we have a continuing series called Library Forum that serves primarily as a venue for faculty to present the work they did on sabbatical. Another example is how we hosted a traveling exhibit from The Gilder Lehrman Institute last year. Further, at the end of the month, we'll be running our 3rd Banned Books Week event. On the other hand, there are the things we do that are just for the fun of it. Humans vs. Zombies definitely fits in that category. Also, we've had a video game tournament. Looking forward, we're planning our first National Gaming Day event.

The theme that runs through all our programming is this: it reflects the interests of our community. It's how public libraries have been making programming decisions for years, and it works for them. It also works for me. I want to make sure that what we do appeals to our faculty and staff AND our students. By varying topics and approaches, and by including some events that are purely social and fun, I do just that.

How about you? What kind of programming do you do at your library?