Welcome back to Linking Our Libraries! We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and our members are all types of libraries and their staff.

Today’s episode is part of our series on Library Basics. We are working through some of the skills people need in every library. Not everyone is going to school for a Master’s degree in Library Science, and that’s fine. We want to be sure everyone has the skills to be comfortable in a library and to be successful for the community you are serving.

Library programs are part of the basic triad of things every library does, or should be doing: programs, materials, and services. Materials are pretty basic: books, software, toys, other nice things. Services are ever-changing in libraries, but things like computer training, library card sign up, helping people find books, and other such good things we do to work with our community members. And then programs are the third part, and both the hardest and the most fun part!

So, what is a program in the library? The ALA’s organization National Impact of Library Public Programs Assessment gave us a few defining traits in their article “What is a Public Program, Anyway?”

1. “It’s social, not individual. Many people outside the library world still think of libraries primarily as collection holders and lenders — an individual service — but more and more of libraries’ work is about supporting interaction.
            
2. It’s intentional. That is, a program should respond to particular needs and interests, rather than be developed opportunistically. (However, we recognize that this trait remains an ideal rather than a description of the current state of library programs.)
            
3. Nobody has to be there. Many K-12 and academic libraries provide extensive academic instruction, and those aren’t public programs. We don’t consider a library event a program if it occurs during a course meeting time or as part of coursework, if attendance is restricted to that course’s students and instructors, and if students are penalized for failing to attend.”

And beyond that – it’s anything goes for programs! This is where the exciting stuff in a library can happen. This is where you can use your creativity, bring in your own interests, and connect with community members  to both share their skills and and to really enjoy things from the library. Programs can be in person or online. They can be weeks long, or just a few minutes. You can spend a lot of money, or absolutely nothing. There are no limits to the possibilities!

And, that itself can be kind of daunting. When everything is possible, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and not even know where to start. So today, we will walk you through some basic programs, and help you work on your own programs. We want you to leave us ready to do a new program this week in your library! There is no bad place to start. The only problem with programming is when it does not happen.

Where do we start? You know you need programs, and you want to start a few good ones. It does not need to be too over the top just yet. The first step is to set a goal. What do you want to do? Have fun? Learn a new skill? Talk about books? Amplify something going on in a classroom? Make things? Any of these will be fine goals to get you started. Just pick one of them to get started.

The second step is to plan. Yes, that seems obvious, but sometimes we think enthusiasm will carry an entire program. It’s not a great idea to bank on that. So just set up a plan for the program. What do you want to accomplish? Will there be snacks? Who is responsible for doing it – you? A colleague? A member of the public? Someone you have to pay a few thousand dollars to come over? Do you need crayons? Glitter? Fishing poles? Books? A projector? Get all of that ready in advance, and have everything in the room and ready before you start. If you are involving other people besides yourself, a short rehearsal or conference on expectations will make sure everyone is on the same page and ready for action. It does not have to be a big complicated plan – just think through everything that you want to happen, and get ready to make it all work.

The third and final step is to evaluate. Do some self-evaluation. Did anyone participate? Did things work the way you thought they would? Did anyone check out books? How did it deviate from your plan? (It always does this.) Were you ever able to get the glitter off the floor? (Spoiler: No, you never will. It’s still fun to use.) You can do some informal evaluation of the participants during and after the program. If they are doing individual work, walk around and ask how it’s going. If you are Zooming, ask questions and have people wave their hands to answer yes/no questions. And you can do a more formal evaluation, by giving people a paper survey at the end, giving them a link to an online survey, or both. Again: don’t get overly complicated with questions – just ask a few (five-ish is about a good number), and make them meaningful to the event itself.

Definitely, do not feel like you have to reinvent the wheel – or the program. Libraries around the world are doing interesting programs, so just use one of their ideas! It’s not stealing (unless you are really doing it wrong!), we are a sharing profession and we are all stronger when we work together. We have shared a bunch of great program ideas on our website, and we found most of them on the Programming Librarian website. You can search through a ton of great programs that library people have submitted. Tell the site what type of library you are in, and then you can choose a potential topic. “Social distancing programs” is a popular one right now!

And do not feel like you are in this alone! Even if you don’t feel too creative, or this all sounds like a lot of extra work – outsource this stuff. We know of libraries who have done very few of their own programs, but they are active in reaching out to community members. You can find someone to come in and talk about a trip to some interesting place in your area, or around the world. A local theater group could come talk about the process of creating visual stories, or they could do a short show. Set out a box of assorted paper, glue, and other crafting supplies and tell people to enjoy themselves. Talk to other library people around your area – what are they doing? It would be great for a library of any type to partner with a different type of library to share ideas and programs. What is going on in your local hospital library? Maybe something that the academic library would like, or the local elementary school?

Remember to aim at your whole community. In public libraries, it’s easy to do fun craft projects for kids, but what is going on for 20-somethings? Or retirees? If you are in a school, your already overburdened teachers may not want to participate in one of your programs that takes a lot of time – but they might enjoy a monthly book talk during lunch, or stopping by to do some jewelry making for a few minutes, or something online where they could participate on their own schedules. And ask people what they might like! It’s fun to surprise them with neat new things, but it’s also okay to give people exactly what they ask for and want.

And, of course, you want to do a little bit of marketing with it! We have other podcast episodes where we talk about marketing, so you can check those out any time. But do some simple things: talk about the upcoming program on your social media, put up some signs where they will be seen (not next to the door!), send it out in the newsletter, ask your parent organization (school, hospital, or whoever) to share the news. Give it a fun name, so people will be interested. Write up a description that sounds like a fun, or interesting, or scary program – not just a boring event that nobody wants to attend.

We hope you are now ready to take on some of your own programming! It is a fundamental part of library work, no matter what type or size of library you are in right now. Take the ideas you worked out today, and go do something fun in your library. And send us pictures or an email about it – we would love to hear from you!

Now, let’s get to the part of every episode that we love: sharing a book we are reading. We will link to these books on our shownotes pages, and the link will take you to Amazon. You probably know this, but when you click one of our links and then buy anything at all from Amazon, they give us a small percentage of their profits. That support really helps us, and although it’s anonymous so we won’t know it was you – we appreciate you taking the time to help us!

• Dress Coded, by Carrie Firestone
• A Song For A New Day, Sarah Pinsker

This was a quick overview of the foundations of programming. We hope you feel like you are part of the larger community! Here are a few takeaways for you:

• Set a goal, so you know what you want to accomplish
• Make a plan, so you are ready to anticipate any issues and to have a good time
• Evaluate, so you know what you can do to make it easier, more fun, and better attended next time
• Be creative, but also feel free to draw on resources you find online or talking with other library people

Come back next week, because we have more information to share about libraries! This is just the beginning, and there are so many other great things to share!