A brief look at ‘grams of interest to engage teens and librarians navigating this social media platform.
At the start of the 2015/16 academic year, my library committed to the creation of a Makerspace. This fall we catered to a very specific clientele – we serve as the satellite work space for our Science Olympiad team (the team has outgrown their official workspace over the past few years). As that program grew, myself and my fellow librarians started investigating other low-investment activities intended to attract a wider variety of students. We settled on an origami program, and with the upcoming holiday season, we decided to incorporate a festive twist. Instead of displaying origami on shelves or the circulation desk counter, we purchased an inexpensive, pre-lit, fake white tree. Standing about 3.5 feet tall, our students (and teachers!) quickly filled the tree with colorful origami creations. The circulation desk did end up with its fair share of decorations when the the tree became too full.
Several students, teachers, and administrators commented on the stress-relieving benefit of the program, and many simply loved contributing to the festive tree! Last week, Meaghan Darling wrote about the Finals Fairy in academic libraries. Without meaning to, my library ended up providing a source of stress-relief during not only the intense end-of-term crush, but also the holidays. We try to remember that we serve faculty and staff just as much as students, and the holiday season can be enormously stressful for many adults. We hope the appeal will remain after the holidays, particularly with upcoming Term 1 exams.
Have you found duel benefits in programming that coincides with exams and the holidays? Are you able to put a holiday twist on programming during December, or is this something your library avoids? Please share in the comments below!
