Programs are great! Programs are one of the three things libraries provide to their communities. (Books and services are the other two.)

There are many people in your community who do not want to read books, and are not looking for help with computers or tech  – but they will come to you for interesting programs. It is a good way to let people know about the value libraries bring to the community!

What kind of programs are right? It can be anything! There is no need to even make it loosely library-related (though, offering up books on your program topic is a nice touch).  Just find out a few interests in your community, and have a program. It can be you running it, it can be someone from the community, or it can be an outside expert. Anyone is fine, as long as they can hold the interest of an audience.

If you are new to programming, you may have a bunch of questions. No worries! We will walk through some basics here, and then you can improvise and build on these ideas to make things special for your group.

• Figure out what to do. Ideally this will come from community interest – maybe your patrons mentioned something specific, or you read about a person doing a cool thing, or you heard about from a podcast about people like those in your community. Great! Do that.
  It’s also entirely fine to just do a program because it’s something you like. Do you knit? Change car tires? Do yoga? Awesome! Do that.
• Plan it out. Okay, this is a step that gets skipped sometimes, especially when you are in a hurry. But ideally you will want to think through the program. I like to visualize things: what will the first minute look like? What happens half way through? What do I do when things start to go wrong? How do we wrap it up? How long is this going to be? Will I ever get the glitter out of the carpet? (Spoiler: Nope. Just live with it.) Thinking through everything can remind you of the parts you may have glossed over when it all seemed like a great idea that would just happen on its own.
• Be creative! You don’t necessarily need to have artistic skills, but be ready to be flexible with the program. If the room you want is booked, can you meet outside? If it’s raining outside, where else would you go? How can you accommodate people with not only different abilities, but also different interest levels in your program? Can there be a side activity for kids, or for adults, or for teachers? Unless it was clearly a flop, try something a couple of times before you decide it is definitely not going to work. Part of good programming is being ready to bend and adjust it to fit the unexpected situations that will arise!
• Advertise! You can be very formal, and for a semester-long program series, that would be a good idea. Or it can be a note on your website, on your parent organization’s page, flyers on the walls of the library, notes sent home with books checked out, or just you emailing everyone you think may be interested. Specifics are not so important, and you will get more ideas on this as you get more knowledgeable with your community. Just remember to do it, so you aren’t left sitting alone with 300 lime jello packets and a glue gun. (Unless you make that persona choice, and we are not judging if you do!)
• Evaluate and Share: Again, this does not need to be very formal, though of course it can be. At least solicit some feedback and write up your own impressions of things that went well and that went not-so-well. Numbers are powerful, and can show interest in your work. Stories from your patrons, and from you, can be even more attention-getting. Try to include both types of ideas in your evaluation process for the best information to share with everyone else!

Still looking for some programming ideas? We have a whole series of suggestions right here!