Librarian trading cards
A hallmark of my approach to academic librarianship is breaking down barriers which can exist between new students and librarians. By incorporating librarian trading cards into our first year program we are able to hand out our contact information, as well as a little bit about ourselves as–you know–people (Secret Weapon: Board Games, for example).
Librarian trading cards are a fun way to connect with students, they give students a direct way to contact me, and the faculty love them too! Part of the key to success is to connect with genres that resonate with both students and the librarians in a fun way. Asking our student employees to engage in the process of generating ideas for themes helped ensure the relevancy of our ideas.
First Year student orientation
A major part of academic library outreach should be an effort to reach and connect with first year students. While the forms this might take can and should vary from library to library, an intentional and deliberate approach addressing some basic needs we sometimes miss can be an effective beginning.
I developed and orchestrated a successful library event that reaches all incoming students. It doesn’t take place in the library, and no student learns how to find a book. So what is the point? You can’t do it all in an orientation, but you can position the library and the librarians to do more later. By making the focus of your effort approachability and awareness, students will begin to see the library as more than an insert library cliché of your choice here.
Part of this effort ties in to our Personal Librarian Program. The evening of the orientation, we hold an “after party” with dinner, live music, games, table events such as sand art, airbrush artists, make your own essential oils, etc. I use this time to walk around and meet new students, once again breaking down barriers.
This is possible through the strong partnership I built with our Student Affairs department, who sees the value in this orientation approach. They offer a great deal of support in a variety of ways.
Learn more:
Copenhaver, K., DiNardo, C., Koclanes, A., & Schuler, N. (March, 2017). Cephalonian 2.0: Transforming large-scale library orientations to support student success. Contributed paper presented at the Association of College and Research Libraries conference, Baltimore, MD.
Minor marketing
Stickers! T-Shirts! Magnets! Keychains! I have designed a variety of things for various marketing style give-aways. Sometimes these are used for a specific purpose. T-shirts as a reward for asking a question during our orientation are an example. Exclusive stickers used as an incentive for taking a survey are another. Other times these become more general in nature, such as non-exclusive stickers or skateboard keychains with a cheeky phrase which can be used across many events.