The Ubiquitous Librarian

CeLIBration 2007 – recap (Diddy ain’t got nothin’ on us)

On Saturday we kicked off our welcome event from 7 – 11pm. If you read my blog, I'm guessing you've seen my past posts on this subject. We hit over 700 students, far exceeding my expectations. This event is targeted toward freshmen (our incoming class is typically around 2,000) however, open to all students.

PROMOTION

If you're planning some type of event I highly recommend aligning yourself with the undergraduate/orientation/student success/freshmen Office. We were able to generate large attendance by not competing with other “official” campus events. Furthermore, we gained free publicity by becoming an “official” event.

We also handed out event flyers at incoming-student orientation “marketplace” sessions throughout the summer, and pushed the event (and other library info) at a Residential Assistant/Housing Retreat. I posted a Facebook flyer ($5 per day) for several days leading up to the event, however I don't think those are very effective. I also invited members of the Class of 2011 group . During orientation sessions, most students registered for classes in the library—so we made sure that CeLIBration information was visible to them.

Here is a sample of some of our advertising, courtesy of Dottie Hunt:

We had these around the Library and students received smaller B/W copies too.

All-purpose flyer.

Each event had it's own poster.

FOOD & DRINKS

Every group on campus is giving away free food this week. It's a draw, but you need more than that. We gave away 100 large pizzas (I would tell you company, but they wouldn't give us a deal, so no free publicity) and 50 batches of movie theater style popcorn. We also had an assortment of refreshing Coca-Cola beverages.

ACTIVITIES

Doors opened at 7pm and we didn't schedule any activities until 8. We wanted to give everyone the chance to grab some food and wander around. Our objective was to fit 30-60 people in different areas throughout the library. This gets them in and around the building.

• Board games were very popular, as was DDR. Retro video games (from the 1980's) were not so much, but that's because Macs suck we had some computer problems with our non-Windows operating system.
  

  

  

• Speed-dating was a success. Several librarians from other schools have laughed at me for this—and that's fine, go on hating. We had 3 full sessions, again. We moved it into our gallery, added tablecloths, small mirrors, and flowers, together with a small floating candle—it was very classy; many people called it Parisian. We also raffled away several pairs of movie tickets to female participants to help get things started. Nice work J.S. Shout out to Mr. Hines on the mic.
  

  

  

• Improv Comedy is not my really thing, but the students loved. They had a big audience (50+) for two performances. If you have performance groups on campus you should invite them in from time to time.
  

  

• Ninja Tag was wild. I watched one round and was worried someone would get hurt. It was fast and violent—so hence, very cool. The pictures don't do justice to how dark it was. There was also loud music blasting. This year we doubled the playing space (got rid of some antiqued books!) and I hear we added an extra round. This event was in great demand. The setup was very labor intensive otherwise I'd advocate we do this monthly on a Friday night. Essentially it is a game of team tag played on a darkened floor with black lights. Ninja t-shirts were given to winning teams. Nice work B.T. (Stay East)
  

  

  

  

  

• Poker was packed. I had space for 40 players, but there was greater demand. I had to turn a lot of disappointed people away and felt bad. Never underestimate the appeal of gambling. I bought 800 chips (20 for each player) and several decks of cards. We gave away a rad trophy along with a $100 prize. Because of campus regulations, I could not give a gift card, but had to award a “real” prize, therefore I asked the champion to select something from Best Buy / Amazon to be sent to him. Custom prizes are better anyway. Thanks for the help C.B. and the Security Team.

We had refreshing Coca-Cola products plentifully available throughout the night, however for the championship round I wanted to kick it up and so I provided the gentlemen with Red Bull Energy Drinks to help vitalize the mind and body. (I'm still seeking sponsorship for my Halo 3 event on September 25th.)

• The Ice Water Challenge wasn't something we planned, but once the sodas were gone students challenged each other to see who could stand in freezing pools of ice water the longest. Gotta love Georgia Tech!
  

  

 

We also had a DJ from our campus radio station spinning CDs outside of the library, t-shirt giveaways , and the Outdoor Recreation club messing around in our water fountain. Overall it was a cool event. I was stuck in the poker pits most of the time, but it seems like the people enjoyed themselves.

 

CLOSING THOUGHTS 

• We use to hold our welcome event on the first Saturday after the semester started, however turnout kept declining— so last year we switched to the Saturday before school started and had over 500 in attendance. We have compete with some casual sorority/fraternity rush events, but several hundred students is a huge success in our eyes. Besides, Greek stuff probably doesn't really get going until 11pm anyway.

 

• We benefited from a central coordinator—keeping everyone on track and handling the larger details. Lori Critz did a great job again this year. We also had event coordinators who handed the dirty details of each activity. This works so much better than planning-by-committee. We each had a set budget and the freedom to develop our events as seen fit, meeting occasionally to bounce ideas. We also had a large pool of volunteers. I'd guess between 15-20 library staff members helped out at the event, including our Director, an Associate Director, and at least 2 department heads. I think it's important for Admin to participate—however, we also pulled widely from several departments, which was a great benefit. I also think that these types of events are better for staff bonding/morale building than any type of contrived gathering. (Thanks to everyone for helping out, although no one in my library reads this blog.)

 

• I've been learning so much about textured experiences lately. Lighting is everything. I heard many students remark favorably about the space. We could differentiate the activities/areas based on color. Varying table shapes and sizes are incredible. Portability. Personalization. I was always an early believer in modularization, but now my faith is confirmed. Atmospherics are powerful, whether you are designing space for studying or for poker—set the right mood. Now if I could only get someone to listen to me about the importance of a signature scent.

 

• I am 100% against library staff being required to wear any type of official attire. Jeans and a black t-shirt is appropriate. (Come on Jon!) However, my opinion is often wrong. A few people (5-6) asked me who was hosting the Poker Tournament, as in they thought it was a frat or the housing office, etc. While we were able to get people into the library, I am not sure it was clear that it was us who organized the event. That's something for us to discuss next year. We definitely want to take credit for something successful—if it's a flop we'll blame someone else, like the Admissions Office.

 

• It doesn't always have to be about the library. That's the key really. We're not blasting them with Boolean or databases or policies. We want to get freshmen in the door, showoff our space, and hopefully make them feel comfortable. Let them see that we are approachable and not stogy. We want to set the bar high and raise their expectations of what the library is or can be. We also want to tap into their minds early on—before they even step foot in the classroom—they all know where the library is now. We really need to do this type of thing (library branded entertainment activities) more often, I'd say at least twice a semester. If we can offer a mixture of fun and academic events geared freshmen throughout the first semester—I think it would pay off in the long run. Just a theory.

• Set up as much as possible the day/night before.

All photos taken by Katie Gentilello.

Raising our Game – ideas for the next phase of Gaming @ the Georgia Tech Library

If you are a librarian with a blog then you have to mention gaming from time to time. This is my obligatory post. Here are a few upcoming projects -- a peek at what's on my drawing board.

POKER

Many librarians have expressed interest in our CeLIBration event. We're gearing up for this annual “welcome” event the weekend before the start of the Fall Semester. (Aug 18) This time around I am hosting a poker tournament (and we've still got ninja tag , speed dating , retro video games, board games, ddr , improv, and pizza.)

Poker, Round 1 begins at 8pm. 10 tables, each with up to 5 players. Participants are given 25 chips at the start. After 1 hour of play, the top chip-winners at each table will advance to the championship round starting at 10pm. Those 10 battle it out for a trophy and a fabulous prize.

I'll post a follow-up review of the event later this month, along with our advertising strategy.

HALO 3

Harry who? Halo is the gaming equivalent to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or Star Wars for you old timers. People will camp out at Best Buy in order to purchase this game. Halo 2 sold over 7 million copies -- we're talking $125 million on opening day. Epic!

This is a great opportunity for all types of libraries (academic and public) to be a part of pop-culture, or at least geeky gamer culture. I am going to try and talk our admin and commons coordinator into letting me host a Halo 3 party on Tuesday , September 25 (the release day.)

We have an 80 inch screen with surround sound that would be awesome. We can dim the lights or illuminate that particular area, pull up couches and comfortable chairs and really offer a unique gaming experience. Something like this in our East Commons:

 

If it goes forward, I might put in some calls to Red Bull or Monster (coca cola), GameTap (Turner), and Microsoft (xbox) to see if I can get a few giveaways. Maybe start at 7pm and roll until whenever (we're 24 hours so…)

It's something you should think about too; I highly recommend you take advantage of the opportunity... you could probably easily find an enthusiastic gamer (use your online social networking connections for more than chatting with other librarians) and invite them to bring their friends, xbox 360, and halo 3. You give them space and a big screen and maybe invest $100 in food or try to get it donated.

GAMING THE WALL (like gleaming the cube, dude!)

This idea developed today on the reference desk with Dottie Hunt – the last hour on the last day of the summer semester. We were talking about the “halo 3 experience” and she suggested that we project a game outside on the wall of the library. This conversation evolved to “gaming the wall” on a Saturday after a football game. We have thousands of people walk by the library in route to their cars—so why not offer a distraction? It would be cool to have an ncaa football video game projected on a huge wall, hooked up to speakers. Or maybe a battle royal type game? This could be a big payoff in terms of street cred.

We could do it Sept 29 (vs. Clemson) and develop that week into some type of gamer's heaven (remember Halo 3, Sept 25), but I like November 1 (Virginia Tech) better because it's a Thursday night game and it's Va Tech vs. Ga Tech -- outdoor gaming fits nicely into the “techie” stereotype. Plus it will be televised on ESPN. I would love to take on Herbstreit and he can even play with his gator bait team . Perhaps this is something we could tie in with Homecoming too… I'm sure we could get funding from someone somewhere? Obviously there is still a lot to be worked out, but I just like the idea of gaming on the wall.

For more info on gaming @ GT, check out Lori Critz's presentation . We don't mess around in our library:

Welcoming Freshmen Event - 2007 - (preview)

The murmurs have begun about what we’re going to do this year for our welcome freshmen event. Last year we had a decent turnout and I hope we can continue that success. I also hope we call it something other than CeLIBration, but people around here tend to like to stick with a name rather than mix it up.

The biggest lesson I learned last year was the need to make the activities structured more concurrently. For example, with speed-dating a patron needed to commit a full hour and consequently had to miss out on other activities. So I am going to strongly urge that we try to build everything into 30 minute segments.

Last year I co-hosted/co-coordinated speed-dating, which had a high turnout, but I have no interest into doing that again. I hope someone else will run with it this year. If anything, several of the patrons I spoke with said they’d like to see some type of formalized meet-and-greet activities in the form of a game or whatever. They liked spending a few minutes in the company of strangers. So with or without the dating structure, we have to do something.

This year I have two activities I am going to try to pull off:

1. I want to invite several football players to come in and accept the challenge from the student body to beat them at their own game: NCAA Football for Xbox or PlayStation. Rig up a few consoles and set the games to 10 minutes and see what happens. I’ve met several of the players and they are cool and approachable and I think they’d get a kick of out playing as themselves in a public setting. I think the students would enjoy it too—a chance to mingle with the athletes. Our season opens at Notre Dame and bank on it, GT will win.
   
2. The second idea I’m floating around is a poker tournament. Take 5 tables with maybe 4-7 players at each one, and play for 30 minutes and the winner (top number of chips) at each table advances to the championship. So later in the night those 5 winners go head to head in the finals.

In May we’ll start talking seriously about the event, but I’m looking forward to it.

Oh and you can’t tell me that Idol has better performers than Rockstar (well, you can but I’d disagree with you.) Here is the Rockstar version of a Stones classic, and here is the wanna-be-diva Idol version. Seriously.

Justification: Why do we do these things in our library? (CeLIBration, PART 6 – the finale)

Why do we offer Speed Dating? Why do we let students run wild in our stacks? Why do we go through all the trouble of hosting these elaborate events? Academic Libraries are about academics, right?

It's larger than a welcoming event. It's more than food and games. It's really about who we are now. What is the modern library, or rather, what should the modern library be? It's about really transforming, both our space and identity. On blogs we all post about the need to get beyond just books and service points—so what else is there?

I've said before : “I am much more interested in what a person can do in a library than what we can put in one.” Function is the key. Action is the key. Verbs, not nouns. And I am very pleased that our Admin is on the same boat. In fact, this had a lot to do with why I wanted to work here. But no more commercials for Georgia Tech, let's get back to the question at hand.

What follows is summary of many conversations with Crit Stuart , our AUL for Public Services, who is very influenced by Scott Bennett . I've also been talking with Charlie Bennett (no relation), the coordinator of our social space, the Library East Commons . Their ideas are swirled with mine—a perfect example of the chaos that Mr. Gorman frowns upon .

Crit visited several locations around campus where students studied, outside the library. He watched, listened and asked: why here? What surfaced was the idea of the life cycle. Students sleep, attend class/labs, eat, socialize, study, and relax. All these things happen in various locations, yet sometimes they overlap. It's important for us to understand this complete cycle and not focus on just the ‘study' aspect, which most libraries do. There is more to students than just that, and there should be more to us too.

The major characteristics students liked about these other places include: refreshment, safety, aesthetics, friends, comfortableness, cleanliness, diversions, and unpredictability. They emphasized that they could only study in dorms (or anyplace) for so long before they needed a break; before they needed change.

This helped inform our renovation, both physically and philosophically. We wanted to offer these elements. After many focus groups, we aimed to create a heterogeneous mix of enterprises. An environment allowing students to be serious and focused, but also the opposite too: distractions, fun, self expression, and entertainment.

It's the process of domesticating libraries; returning space to the users. If they are going to be studying for a long time, they need refreshment of the mind and body… otherwise they cannot sustain the effort. They are talking about a mental recess. A little time to play and then return to work. That's what they told us and we listened.

They wanted physical things: tumbling mats, pool tables, outdoor sitting areas, legos, video games, Dance Dance Revolution. They wanted to escape the monotony of school work. (60% of our students study some type of engineering, so that's a LOT of math!) They want space to be bright, clean, and active. They want to feed off of the energy of others. They want space that is intellectually therapeutic; space that is regenerative. They want to see and be seen. They want to share a sense of common effort and togetherness with peers.

It's like recharging the batteries of the mind. They need to do something different to change or shift their perspective. They wanted visual stimulation: color, art, varied lighting, physical structures, 3D models, moveable furniture, adaptive space.

We also want to nurture academic socializing. Offer an inviting space for them to blend personal and academic discussions. I am actually there now writing this blog entry. The person beside me is reading notes on WebCT and a few of her friends are nearby at a table. Every 20 minutes or so they'll all stop, chat, share notes, and then get right back to work. There is also a Teaching Assistant providing help with MatLAB to several students. The TA addressed them collectively and then they disappeared to work through problems—and every so often they will check back in to receive more guidance.

This is what we encourage. We want to be flexible for different study styles. Some people want to sit quietly next to their friends why they work individually on assignments. Some people want to talk, draw, sketch, and bounce ideas off their peers. Some people need to use computers in groups to prepare presentations. And of course, some people want to hide away and not be bothered. We accommodate all and this is where I think many academic libraries fail. It takes more that just resources to support learning.

An interesting experiment is the use of temporary walls (see pics below) which Crit calls Nextwalls and French Curves, but I'm not buying into those terms just yet. The gist is that they allow us (or them) to reconfigure space in a matter of minutes. These walls are customizable for group or individual use. Students said they wanted open areas, but not just a grand wide open room, yet they also didn't want small closed areas either. Our compromise was open space with hints of separation, yet without isolation. We're noticing that people like to have their backs to a wall. Since wall space is limited in an open room, the moveable walls help provide this instinctual comfort, the sense that people are not lurking behind you.

We also have a lighting system that allows us to flood the walls with different colors. One wall can be green, another blue, another red, and so on. Since windows are limited, this helps add visual stimulation. Plus it just looks cool.

So getting back to the point: why do we do this stuff?

Let's be honest, school work is not fun. Studying, papers, formulas, coding, it's wears you down. Libraries get a bad rep because that's where students go to do all those things. They associate the Library with the negative aspects, the struggle, the boredom, the frustration. The place where fun goes to die . That's why we offer events and amusements. Maybe a student is struggling with calculus, and remembers, oh yeah, I did speed dating here, played tag in the dark, listened to music, played Mario Brothers, ate pizza, played Risk, met an actress, etc. It can't always be fun and games, but sometimes it could be.

We want to let students see that others are sharing in the same struggle. You look up and can appreciate what they are doing. You get a chance to see and hear them, see what they're working on, what they're talking about. Again, academic socializing. The library doesn't (and shouldn't) be all about resources and studying. College isn't all about blood, sweat, and tears—there are good times too; moments of fun and freedom. That's why we want to regularly offer interesting events. Give them something to look forward too. Use humor in our marketing. Let them associate the Library with good times too.

Another aspect is building a sense of community. I know that's a big buzzword these days, but we want to feel that the Library is becoming theirs (and less ours.) We are trying to give them a sense of ownership. This is your space, do what you want, and let us get out of the way. I imagine we'll continue with focus groups and other assessments to tweak the space and our efforts, but eventually I hope our presence will be minimized (or ubiquitous!) It's not locked down. It's not monolithic. It's arranged differently everyday. It can be whatever you need right now. Events, programs, entertainment, activities, speakers, art, displays, games… all that should come from within, with us lurking on the fringe.

So how far do we go and is it possible to take it too far? Our focus remains student productivity, but we need to blend other aspects to. We still offer four floors of quiet space. We let them choose where they want to be, and what they want to do. Some people (like me) can only concentrate in isolation, others prefer noise, music, or television. Sometimes you might want to be around lots of people, and other times escape from them completely. We let the student decide. We give them options. It's their Library.

So again, why do we do this stuff?

• It's about serendipity.
• It's about retreat.
• It's about refocusing.
• It's about re-imagining libraries.
• It's about chilling out.
• It's about teamwork.
• It's about academic socializing.
• It's about breaking away.
• It's about being inspired.
• It's about distractions.
• It's about discovery.
• It's about recess.
• It's about maximizing productivity.
• It's about laughing and not taking things too seriously ALL the time.
• It's about seeking and providing epiphanies.
• It's about caring for your patrons and not about circ stats, gate counts, or the number of articles accessed via Science Direct.
• It's about them.

I know this was a terribly long post, but if you want to read more, check this out: The Information Commons: Adapting to the Culture of Net Generation Students

PS: Crit tells this story so much better than I do. Tell your admin you need to come and see this for yourself; label it “strategic planning” or whatever. Actually, stop listening to me or those other bloggers. Talk with your patrons. Let them tell you what to consider in your Library.

PS2: I doubt he reads my blog, but thanks to Rich Meyer for the $upport and letting us try new and crazy things. And thanks to Crit for letting us use our imagination and making things happen.

Images:

Food, Movies, Music (CeLIBration, PART 5)

As I mentioned in the original post , our goal was to host an event for incoming freshmen with mass appeal. We pulled together a few specialized activities, such as speed dating and ninja tag , and surrounded them with games , food, and other amusements.

Food is a big deal. The common thought is that you can draw people into any event if you feed them. Two years ago we offered pizza, but it went too quickly. Last year we offered hot dogs and were stuck with tons of leftovers. This year we switched back over to pizza. Dominos offers mediums for $5 each, so we planned on ordering 100 pizzas, 25 each hour. We had to alter our plans because turnout was greater than expected. Dominos suggested we pay $2 more for larges—which seemed to work out much better and over all didn't cost us too much more. (Yeah, yeah, I know they just wanted to get paid!)

Students had to wait in a long line until our second delivery arrived. Next time we'll order 75 pizzas from the start and then go from there. We'll also consider two lines, two separate distribution points to help spread people around. We also tried to diversify our pizza toppings, but the old saying, ‘you can't please everyone' is so true. Next time, half with pizzas will be just cheese, since that's what people wanted the most. Sorry you veggie people.

We are very fortunate to have Coca Cola as neighbors; they are literally just across the street from us. Coke donated about 250 bottles of soda and water, which greatly helped keep our costs down, however we ended needing to purchase additional drinks. Diet and Zero didn't go so well, whereas water, Coke Classic, and Vault were gone quickly. We used the kiddie pools with ice distribution method.

We also rented two popcorn machines for around $200 and set them up in different zones. One was near movies, of course. There is just something cool about movie theater style popcorn that cannot be duplicated in a microwave.

This trifecta of soda, pizza, and popcorn worked well and we'll probably offer those again next year. Don't forget about plates and napkins.

Movies are nice, but attendance was pretty weak. We offered a handful of Dave Chappelle and Aqua Teen Hunger Force episodes, along with some short student films. Our aim was to capture the passerby with short funny videos, as opposed to a longer feature like Shaun of the Dead . I guess I wanted us to strive for the ‘sampling' model in which everyone spent a few minutes in each zone. Location might have been an issue here because the movies were tucked away from the heart of the activity. Maybe if these were viewable from the food line, people would enjoy them? Once students picked up their drink and pizza, they seemed focused on talking, hanging out, or playing games. They didn't want to sit around and watch TV shows.

Music draws people in… that's what we found out. The student radio station set up just outside the Library and played an eclectic mix. This entertained people who were waiting while we rushed with last minute prep. It also let the campus know that something was up!

As I mentioned in the original post , we had specific music for dating and tag. We wanted each zone to have a unique feel. I wanted to feature live bands doing short acoustical sets, hopefully next year. We were able to feature the GT improv comedy troupe, Let's Try This !. They did two shows, the first one (8pm) had about 100 people, while the later one (10pm) had about 15.

The Freshmen Orientation office gave away free t-shirts, but we wish we had something to offer too. Not typical library things like pens, candy, or bookmarks, but maybe 1 free itunes download, or temporary tattoos, I don't know, something… something inexpensive that we could give a lot of. We spoke about doing a raffle, but those are so random, I'd rather we have some type of mind game, puzzle, or challenge that they could complete in order to be eligible for a variety of prizes. Lots of room for improvement.

(Next up is the ‘justification' – why do we do these things? Academic Libraries are all about books, journals, computers and studying, right? Oh yeah, and information literacy!)

Games @ the GT Library (CeLIBration, PART 4)

As I mentioned in part one , we had tried the LAN approach with mild success. The students that were into it were REALLY into it, but with less than 100 attendees two years in a row, it didn't make sense to continue targeting that niche. Our goal was to appeal to the widest group possible, so we scrapped the LAN plans. Here is what we did instead:

The Arcade

Background & Setup

Retro Gaming is hot right now! What's that? Old school games. Stuff that us Gen X kids grew up on. Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Atari. While modern game systems are sleek and offer complex challenges , there is just something cool about playing Super Mario Brothers. Essentially we turned our Multimedia Center into an arcade. This is a small area filled with Macs. We also offered Dance Dance Revolution , which had been popular at last year's event.

We cranked up the volume and it was packed all night.

Lessons Learned/Recommendations

• The sounds and noise from the games creating an exciting atmosphere.
• The area was too small. We thought it would be cozy, but it was cramped. Some people just wanted to watch and we could not accommodate the crowd.
• We needed more USB game controllers in order to create a realistic gaming experience. Using keyboards just wasn't the same.
• We offered a handful of game options, including Donkey Kong Country, Street Fighter, Mega Man, and Super Mario Bros. I would like to expand this, but you can only do so much.
• I would have liked to offer an unofficial NCAA Football Tournament. The Madden Tournaments are very popular and it could have been fun to incorporate the Georgia Tech team, especially with Notre Dame as the home opener. Or even if we had several rounds in which students play the computer (GT vs. UGA) and the highest winning score each round wins a prize. I would have liked to enable them to play against each other, however the impression was that students just wanted to play and wanted to watch and be watched.
• We had considered bringing in a Dreamcast , but decided against it because of space limitations.
• You need someone with emulator skills .

Board Games

Talk about retro-gaming! I'm sure lots of libraries offer board games for patrons to play. Again, we were not trying to be ground breaking here, just appeal to a wide audience. We didn't think too many people would play board games, but this was another area that was packed all night. Library staff were gracious enough to let us borrow a handful of games, including Yahtzee, Monopoly, Twister, and Risk. We built the area into a living room / coffee shop zone with the very relaxed vibe. Bean Bags. Couches. Tables and Chairs. Blankets.

A student asked if we were going to keep Risk in the library so she and her friends could play throughout the semester. We're talking about this, with the theory that providing leisure activities supports our goal of being more than just a place to study or do research, but also a comfortable, inviting, relaxing, social environment. (More on that in PART 6)

Marketing

FaceBook should give me an endorsement deal. Once more we were able to target students with interest in gaming. Of all the activities we promoted, this one received the more buzz. Student posting several comments to each other and there was tremendous excitement before they arrived.

See also:

• Gaming in Libraries
• Gaming: The Next Hot Technology for Libraries?

Some of my favorite retro games:

• Faxanadu
• Final Fantasy
• Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

Photos:

Ninja Tag @ the GT Library (CeLIBration, PART 3)

I was not very involved in this activity, other than helping to unscrew (and than re-screw) about 100 fluorescent lights. This was the brainchild of the stealthy Bonnie Tijerina . Bonnie is very involved with the Electronic Resources and Libraries Conference . Hmmm, Meredith is offering her content for free . ERL offers their content for free . ACRL, get a clue!

One of the things I liked about our CeLIBration crew was that it was very open and nimble. We had a little over $1,000 to spend and tossed around a ton of ideas. One that stuck was idea of playing tag in the library. Bonnie (and Charlene) ran this activitiy and sexed it up with a “Ninja” theme. Very successful!

Here's what Bonnie shared with me, combined with my observations.

Background & Setup

Initially we wanted to create a huge game of tag throughout the library, but we narrowed it down to most of one floor. This helped regarding containment of activities to just two floors of the building. We investigated the price and logistics of laser tag, but that could not be done, so we stuck with a game that was a blend of tag and capture the flag. To change it up a bit, we added a teamwork component. Students would compete in groups, with the winning team receiving movie tickets. 52 students participated in three sessions, however many students were turned away. We easily could have had 100+ willing participants.

To make it more interesting and difficult, we turned off all the lights and installed several black lights and a strobe light. We did this in a space with lots of tables and cubicles so that we could rearrange the environment and create a maze with various obstacles. Knowing that ninjas are cool with kids these days, we decided to call it Ninja Tag, and emphasized the need to be ninja-like to tag out the opposing team.

Students were placed on one of two teams, and wore colored reflective tape to identify their side. The goal was to remove a white tag that was attached to the tape of the opposing team, while running throughout the maze with loud dance music blaring.

Supplies & Costs

• 12 Black Lights (new) $190
• 1 Strobe Light (used) $10
• Movie Tickets for 3 rounds: $150
• Sign-up Sheets
• Cubicles & Tables
• Colored Electrical Tape
• Music! Helps if you have a PA system.

Total: $350

Prep Time and Staffing

1 hour set-up and 1 hour take down with the help of 5-6 people. During tag matches, 3 - 4 people serving as referees, preferably dressed in white so as to be easily identified.

What students said

Students, especially male students, LOVED it! They had many suggestions including:

• Increase the number of players on each team (we tried to limit teams to 8 players)
• Having tag throughout the entire library.
• Having tag throughout the school year.
• Making it a tournament.
• Letting people wear two tags, essentially two lives, to prolong game play.

Some players bonded through teamwork and created names, such as “Team KILL” and “Team Sexy Beasts.”

Students also didn't seem to care about the prizes. They just wanted to play and wanted their friends to be on their team – that was more important than a prize. Bragging rights were very important.

Lessons Learned/Recommendations  

• It helps to actually know what young people are into. We gained invaluable knowledge from someone close to their age.
• The colors we used (pink & red) were a little too similar. Next time we plan to use a wider spectrum to include blue and yellow.
• Students wanted to keep playing. It's an adrenal rush for a few minutes and they wanted more.
• Many students went home and changed into dark clothes (ninja attire) once they discovered the game.
• We're considering running a tag tournament over the semester, or at least hosting another night organized into a tournament style game.
• Having tag on multiple floors would increase the challenge. We could create multiple mazes or black lit zones, however areas of total darkness (shadow zones) are intriguing too.
• Having multiple teams playing simultaneously would also increase the difficulty, as well as allow more people to play.
• Facebook! 16 students listed ‘tag' on their profile. 127 listed ninja. This allowed us to directly market the event. We're also forming a FB group to build anticipation for future events. This will allow us to create a community of interested ‘tag' students. We'll also probably advertise widely on campus, and try to get people signed up early.
• Maybe we could form an actual Campus Club called Ninja Tag, and host monthly events in various locations. Students seemed passionate about the game, so why not let them play? And why not let SGA pay for it?

  Photos

Speed Dating @ the GT Library (CeLIBration, PART 2)

[NOTE: I was a little off on my original budget for the night. We actually had $1,200 to work with (not $2,500) and ending up spending around $1,500. Not too bad for entertaining 600 people.]

We had eight staff members volunteer to serve as coordinators for the CeLIBration event ( see intro, part1 ). I was paired with the ever c ourteous, super stylish, ultra-disarming Julie Griffin to handle the Speed Dating activity. One of the most common complaints about GT is that there are not enough single girls. So we did our part to help address this need on campus. Speed Dating is VERY popular and some club, group, or organization has already done it at your school. And I'm sure that someone from some library in New York will probably post a message saying they've been doing speed dating for years now. Yeah, yeah and those people in Belgium . The point was not about trying to be fresh, but rather to test it out and to gauge student interest. Results: they're definitely interested!

Background & Setup

We knew CeLIBration would be noisy and our goal was to create separate zones around the library. We decided to offer speed dating on our second floor, away from everything else. We liked this space because it gave us a private cozy defined area to work with.

We pushed several long tables out of the way and setup 10 smaller tables in a circle, with two chairs at each. The plan was to have the females sit in the middle and let the guys rotate around them. The premise is that they'd spend 2-4 minutes with each person and write down the number (each person had a number rather than name) of people they were interested in. Afterwards, we'd look for matches and notify the females via email. (Although theoretically, they could just use Facebook to track down a person.)

We killed the lights because they didn't fit our mood. We taped pink paper over a security/emergency light to create a softer tone. (Thanks Katie!) Additionally, we purchased floating candles to add a touch of class. We also considered tablecloths and small flowers, but decided against both. Musically, we talked about playing romantic jazz, but wisely opted for a more contemporary pop and rock mix (Thanks Charlene!)

Another item we questioned was attire. Originally we talked about dressing up, but then I got on a Brooke Burke & Dave Navarro kick. We settled somewhere in the middle. Ultimately it didn't matter. They could care less about us. It was all about them, as it should be.

Doors opened at 7 and we had planned to do two sessions, starting at eight and another at nine. 8pm rolls around and we had 3 girls. Hmmm, looked like the whole thing was busted. We made an announcement over the intercom (Thanks Charlene!) and told the eagerly waiting guys to ‘go get us some ladies' and by 8:20 we had 11 willing female participants. Once things got started, it ran smoothly, although the music wasn't loud enough and we needed a bell or whistle to indicate that it was time to change partners. A BIG thanks to Mr. Terrence Hines who turned out to be ideal for crowd management and a “rotation” director. Once things got going, other students dropped by and signed up for the later session. We had 16 girls interested and scrambled to find chairs and tables to accommodate the extra students.

A total of 54 students participated in two sessions. We thought about doing a third, but needed to help out with other activities. However, Julie and I both felt that there was sincere interest and we hope to offer another speed dating event sometime in the Fall semester.

Supplies and Cost

• 10 tables, 20 chairs (but ended up needing more)
• Candles and holders - $13
• Name Tags
• Match Sheets (see pic)
• Pencils

Lessons Learned / Recommendations

• Don't try and make it too romantic, that's cheesy. The darkened room with candles seemed about right.
• Don't play ‘romantic' music. These people are looking for dates. That type of music is better suited for when you have someone and you're trying to set the mood. Play something fun and upbeat.
• It gets loud! Once 20 or more people start talking, it's hard to speak over them. Use a bell, horn, or whistle to indicate their time is up. We'd talked about this, but didn't follow through.
• Host it somewhere visual, but with a little privacy. If we had been on the main floor, we easily could have doubled our numbers. However, you don't want it to be too open. You don't want too many gawkers, which could make participants uncomfortable. We put up a table barrier so others could see, but not listen. We also ran into a timing problem because people were waiting in line for food or checking out other activities. If you do a big event, space it out or have a sign-up sheet near the door with someone pulling people in.
• Plan for it to take longer than you expect.
• Use FaceBook to directly market to your audience. We created a FB event (Thanks Bonnie!) and invited all single freshmen who were interested in dating. We only had a few people express interest online, however it helps to get the word out there. My goal is to build the impression that the library is dynamic, whether we're offering a class on LaTeX or hooking people up, we're doing something to enhance their experience at Tech.
• Figure out what to do when you have more people than you expected. We probably should have capped each session at 20 (10 girls, 10 guys), but I wanted to be accommodating. Have a backup plan. There were no solo single females; they all came together in pairs or small groups. Keep that in mind.
• Print tons of extra match sheets! And have tons of pencils.
• Make sure you push out info to the RAs. They interact with your students more than you do.
• Offer prizes/gifts. We wanted to give them a ‘your first date' type experience. Tickets to movies, sporting events, Atlanta attractions, or local restaurants. We ran out of time to pull this together, but whether or not they actually used them for the date, as opposed to just going with friends, it's the thought that counts. It would add a little class or incentive.
• Regarding ‘name' tags—make sure they write their number! This seemed to be a confusing concept for them.
• While people are signing up, the area can get crowded. I thought about separating the genders. This would also allow for a better way to explain the speed dating process, rather than continuously repeating instructions. Additionally, a small handout, with maybe three bullet points explaining the process would have been helpful. Next time, I'll probably seat the women right away and make the guys wait around the corner. Julie could talk with the females, explaining everything, while I did the same for the fellas. Then we bring them together and get out of the way.
• Host it regularly. I like that we had a successful welcome event, and hope we maintain our momentum. It would be ideal if once a month we did a small scale version of this. Brand the event. Build our reputation.

Photos:

Welcoming Freshmen: CeLIBration @ the GT Library PART 1 (intro/concept)

This is how we kick off the semester in the ATL!

Today is the start of the semester and I forget just how crazy the first week of Fall is! It's such an adrenaline rush on desk though.

On Saturday we held a welcome event for incoming freshmen. We called it CeLIBration and it was a huge success! About 600 students dropped by and it seemed like everyone had a good time.

So, what'd we do exactly? Too much for one blog entry, so this is going to be multipart throughout the week:

• Part 1 – Info & Concept
• Part 2 – Speed Dating
• Part 3 – Ninja Tag
• Part 4 – Games (video and board)
• Part 5 - Music, Movies, Food, Etc
• Part 6 - Justification

So let's get into it. The last two years we've hosted a welcome event with the main draw being a LAN based video game Unreal Tournament . Essentially students would use our Info Commons computers to hunt and shoot each other. We had two big screens which kept score. Cool concept, but attendance was weak. It was a ton of work to configure and re-imagine the PCs. And granted, although Tech has a rep as a nerd school, it just wasn't as big of a draw as we wanted. So this time around we scrapped the LAN idea.

We built upon the idea of community space, which is the big library buzzword these days. We wanted to showcase the library as a space to hangout, socialize, eat, chill. So we gave them free pizza, popcorn, soda, and a variety of things to do. Essentially we strived to create several zones, each with different lighting, music, mood and ambiance. Each zone was designed to entertain 20-30 students at a time. This was very important to me personally, because I wanted to be like a night club with different vibes in different locations.

Another big change we made was timing. The past two years we held our event the first Saturday after school started. There is a lot of competition because you have the Greek stuff in full force, clubs and organizations doing their thing, homework, and of course we're in the heart of midtown so lots of potential distractions. This time around we teamed up with the Freshmen Experience folks and became the primary destination for their Saturday Rats Week Festivities . We had to compete with Day 1 of sorority rush, but there's never a perfect time. Students moved in Thursday and Friday, and we opened our doors to them Saturday from 7 till 11pm . We easily had 100 people waiting at the door at 6:45 and it was jammed with nearly 600 people until close to 10pm .

Marketing played a key role. Again, teaming up with the Freshman Group enabled us to allow them to market the event during orientations, move in days, and other opportunities which we don't traditionally have access to. We also pushed out info to the RAs to encourage their students to attend. And then of course posters and handouts.

But perhaps probably the most interesting strategy was our use of FaceBook. I'll get into this more with the specific events, but we could target students by interest and class, and direct market to them. For example, we invited all single freshmen with an interest in dating to our speed dating event. We also invited students who had an interest in Retro Gaming (old school stuff from the original Nintendo). And additionally placed a $5 per day ad on FaceBook three days leading up to the event. The students who responded were enthusiastic. I have a ton of new FaceBook ideas.

One thing I wanted, but could not pull it together was to get the The Futurists to do a live acoustic set. Two of the guys go to Tech and it would have been nice to give them exposure and chance to sell merch, while giving us a little rock star vibe. I also wish we could have marketed to student clubs, selling the idea of this as a chance to meet freshmen and pitch your organization in a social environment. And finally, would have been cool to create a VIP section, a little something special for people who could advance our agenda, mingled with student athletes and student entertainers (artists, actresses, musicians, etc). I wonder sometimes if I'm in the wrong profession.

I'll leave it at that for now… but come back, or better yet subscribe, and get the full details later. I don't know the exact cost, but I think we budgeted around $2,500. And our Director was very pleased, so hopefully we can do this type of thing several more times throughout the year.