2022-11-21 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 13, Issue 1

Featured Story

Passive Programming

Passive programming is an amazing way to get the community to engage with the library without having direct contact with staff. Usually, passive programming is relatively cheap and easy to put together and doesn’t involve a lot of staff time after the initial set up. It can be anything that engages your audience so experiment with what your library community is excited about.

The Library at Bown Crossing has really good luck with “elections.” We’ve done favorite pets, favorite type of cookie, and favorite color (excluding red and blue), and we have patrons coming back to ask us for the results. We also make use of our front windows by having questions patrons can answer such as: before I die I want to ________, favorite book, or what did you do over the summer? Currently, we have cut out shapes of ghosts and pumpkins and patrons can draw funny faces on them. After we gather these up, they are put up in our front window for display. You can also experiment with guessing jars, scavenger hunts, question of the week, paint swatch poetry, or coloring pages.

Passive programming is also a really good way to celebrate diversity in your community. We have a smaller collection here at Bown Crossing, so we don’t always have enough items to do proper displays on things like Chinese New Year, Native American Heritage Month, or Hanukkah etc. Passive Programming allows us to still celebrate these things without a large collection.

If you get stuck, Google is full of passive programming ideas! So, give it a try and see your patrons engaging with the library in a fun new way!

By Maggie Dumont

Fail Forward

We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.

MANUAL FORTHCOMING

I spent over a year working on a step-by-step instruction manual for the circulation department. I wanted to have a resource that walked employees through every aspect of their expected duties. In my mind, it would be a way for clerks to have quick access to information, along with broken-down explanations for different processes. However, I could never seem to “finish” the project. Every time I thought I was finished, I would realize something was unclear or out of date or missing entirely. I eventually realized that a step-by-step manual wasn’t realistic for my department. Policies change too often, especially when it comes to ALMA, our library system. Even if the general idea remained the same, buttons would move and wording would change, and suddenly, my image instructions would be obsolete.

As one of my main goals with this manual was to have it available for supervisors who came after me, I knew I had made a poor decision. If my manual wasn’t up-to-date as I was writing it, it certainly wouldn’t be by the time I moved out of the role.

I took some time to reflect on this obvious oversight, and I realized the solution was far simpler than I had been making it. Rather than focusing on the step-by-step process for each task, I focused on the policies and procedures. I was able to create a new manual in about a week. It included different processes for a multitude of situations, and it was concise and organized enough that clerks could easily flip to the section they needed. So while it didn’t show visual instructions on how to waive a fine, it explained when a fine could be waived, when it could not, and when a supervisor should be consulted.

From the feedback I have received on my new manual, this version is both helpful and easy to use. And, biggest perk of all, it’s ready to distribute! I can finally provide clear instructions to my clerks without having to promise a manual was “coming soon.”

By Brooke Horton

Crush Corner

Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!

East Bonner Library District Tutoring Program

One of the inspiring programs I ran across recently was the Tutoring program from the East Bonner County Library District.  The library has a form on their website that allows students to request tutoring in a wide variety of subjects and skill levels!  The library also recruits volunteers from the community to become tutors and connects the students with the tutor.  What a great service for their community!

By Mike Sloan

SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org

SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-246156-OLS-20). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.