Gen X and Y? Because We Like Them:

Creative programming for 20- to 40-something adults

AzLA 2014 presentation by Mesa Librarians Laura Royal, Sara Lipich, and Maren Hunt

What does your library offer people in their 20s/30s/40s? Would you like to be doing more to reach this demographic? Come learn what programs and outreach libraries are doing for

this adult group. We’ll discuss partnering, marketing and other considerations.Gen X and Y? Because we like them! will be presented by three librarians who work for the

Mesa Public Library system. This program is targeted toward librarians, specifically those who deal with programming, outreach and marketing.

Nice to meet you!

Maren Hunt: As a member of Mesa Public Library’s programming team, I’m responsible for developing and implementing programs for all age groups, including adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. My fellow presenters and I are committed to finding creative ways to engage this age group.

Sara Lipich: I’ve been a Virtual Community Librarian at Mesa Public Library since October 2013. While I’m new to public libraries, after 15 years working with this age group in academic libraries, I’m interested in what we can be doing to engage with them.

Laura Royal: I am on the Mesa Public Library programming team. I am committed to providing quality and engaging programs for all ages, including Millennials and Gen Xers. We feel this is an often overlooked demographic that deserves engaging and relevant library programs.

Who Is Gen X?

Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980)• Age in 2014: 34 to 49• Share of adult population: 27%• 25% of Gen Xers have a bachelor’s degree or higher

• “The traditional model of obtaining one’s education first and then entering into an extended period of work that ultimately leads to retirement is disappearing, and the young adults in Generation X are the first generation of Americans to fully experience the new reality. Today’s young adults have spent more time in formal education than their parents and have completed more baccalaureates and graduate degrees than preceding generations, but all of these achievements are a foundation for continuing cycles of work, continuing education, work, and more education. We have entered the era of Lifelong Learning. Continuing or episodic education and learning is the new norm.” (The Generation X Report)

• 11% are currently enrolled in formal courses or schooling Two percent are enrolled in courses that they expect will lead to a baccalaureate and three percent are working toward a graduate or professional degree. And about two percent are enrolled in post-secondary courses for personal or occupational improvement and do not plan to obtain an additional degree from these courses.

Sources:The Generation X Report (Longitudinal Study of American Youth)-- http://www.lsay.org/GenX_Vol2Iss3.pdfhttp://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college/

Image source: morguefile

Who Is Gen Y?

Millennials (born after 1980)• Age in 2014: 18 to 33• Share of adult population: 27%• 34% of 25- to 32-year-old Millennials have a bachelor’s degree or higher

Millennials are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry— and optimistic about the future. They are also America’s most racially diverse generation. Millennials have been keeping their distance from another core institution of society—marriage. Just 26% of this generation is married. Most unmarried Millennials (69%) say they would like to marry, but many, especially those with lower levels of income and education, lack what they deem to be a necessary prerequisite—a solid economic foundation.

Sources: Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 14-23, 2014, among 1,821 adults nationwide, including 617 Millennial adults, and analysis of other Pew Research Center surveys conducted between 1990 and 2014

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college/

Image source: morguefile

X + Y = 54%

More than half of the adult population is in generations X and Y.

Image source: morguefile

A Look at Mesa

Of all adults:

• Total 18-49 yr olds in our system – 67116/107495 =62.4%

• Dobson Ranch – 12374/17528 = 70.6%

• Main – 32250/44929 = 71.8%

• Mesa Express Library – 1513/3375 = 44.8%

• Red Mountain – 20952/41592 = 50.4%

Data from Polaris ILS.

Library Use

Millennials are quite similar to their elders when it comes to the amount of book reading they do, but young adults are more likely to have read a book in the past 12 months. Some 43% report reading a book—in any format—on a daily basis, a rate similar to older adults. Overall, 88% of Americans under 30 read a book in the past year, compared with 79% of those age 30 and older. Young adults have caught up to those in their thirties and forties in e-reading, with 37% of adults ages 18-29 reporting that they have read an e-book in the past year.

As a group, Millennials are as likely as older adults to have used a library in the past 12 months, and more likely to have used a library website. Among those ages 16-29, 50% reported having used a library or bookmobile in the course of the past year in a September 2013 survey. Some 47% of those 30 and older had done so. Some 36% of younger Americans used a library website in that time frame, compared with 28% of those 30 and older. Despite their relatively high use of libraries, younger Americans are among the least likely to say that libraries are important. Some 19% of those under 30 say their library’s closing would have a major impact on them and their family, compared with 32% of older adults, and 51% of younger Americans say it would have a major impact on their community, compared with 67% of those 30 and older.

As with the general population, most younger Americans know where their local library is, but many say they are unfamiliar with all the services it may offer: 36% of Millennials say they know little or nothing about the local library’s services, compared with 29% of those 30 and older. At the same time, most younger Americans feel they can easily navigate their local library, and the vast majority would describe libraries as warm, welcoming places, though younger patrons are less likely to rate libraries’ physical conditions highly.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/09/10/younger-americans-and-public-libraries

Image source: morguefile

Money

Millennials are also the first in the modern era to have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income than their two immediate predecessor generations (Gen Xers and Boomers) had at the same stage of their life cycles.9

Their difficult economic circumstances in part reflect the impact of the Great Recession (2007-2009) and in part the longer-term effects of globalization and rapid technological change on the American workforce. Median household income in the U.S. today remains below its 1999 peak, the longest stretch of stagnation in the modern era, and during that time income and wealth gaps have widened.

The timing of these macro-economic trends has been especially hard on older Millennials, many of whom were just entering the workforce in 2007 when the economy sank into a deep recession from which it has yet to fully recover.

• 57% of Gen Xers feel they are falling behind economically• 45% of Millennials feel they are falling behind economically

http://www.people-press.org/2014/09/04/views-of-job-market-tick-up-no-rise-in-economic-optimism/http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/millennials-in-adulthood/

Keep Them Coming!

• Some 61% of Americans under age 30 have a library card, similar to the rate for the general population. Younger Americans’ rates of library usage are generally similar to that of older adults, and in the aggregate they are slightly more likely to have used a library in some form in the past year (57% vs 53%). However, it is important to note that there is frequently much variation between older age groups, with adults ages 30-49 reporting significantly higher library usage rates than most other groups, and those 65 and older reporting the lowest rates of use.3

• Among younger Americans ages 16-29, the proportion who visited a public library in person in the previous year dropped from 58% in November 2012 to 50% in September 2013; among older adults, the percentage dropped from 52% to 47%. Among younger age groups, the largest drop was among college-aged adults, as the percentage of 18-24 year-olds who visited a library fell from 56% in 2012 to 46% in 2013.

Importance of library services

• Among those with library experience—that is, those who have ever used a public library, or who have a household member who uses a public library—patrons ages 16-29 are significantly less likely than those ages 30 and older to say that several services are “very important” to them and their family, including books and media (48% vs 55%), librarian assistance (34% vs 47%), programs for youth (38% vs 47%), internet and computers (30 vs 34%), and programs for adults (20% vs 30%).

• Even among younger patrons, we found statistically significant differences in response to almost all of the services we asked about, with the exception of library assistance in finding or applying for jobs. Young adults in their late twenties are more likely than younger age groups, particularly 16-17 year olds, to strongly value most of the services we asked about. Some of the biggest gaps among patrons under 30 were using the library for books and media (37% of those ages 16-17 ranked this as “very important,” compared with 57% of those ages 25-29), programs for youth (25% vs 49%), using the library’s internet, computers, or printers (18% vs 39%), programs for adults (13% vs 27%), and help applying for government services (22% vs 35%).

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/09/10/younger-americans-relationships-with-public-libraries/

Image source: morguefile

Inspiration

Sometimes the toughest thing about programming is coming up with an exciting program idea. There are many different brainstorming tools you can use:

• Statistics:• You can begin by looking at your programming statistics. What programs seem to have a high

turnout? What programs do you have a waiting list for? Are there programs in your line up that have low turnout? If there is a high demand for certain programs, consider adding more sessions or replicating it at other branch locations. Do you have programs that you believe in, but have low attendance? You many want to reconsider your partnerships and marketing strategy. You may also want to consider offering the program on a different day or time.

• Also be sure to take a look at circulation statistics. You can use a tool such as Polaris or Collection HQ to see what authors, genres, and call numbers are in demand. What movies and tv shows have a long waiting list? If diet and fitness books circulate well, you may want to consider adding a yoga class, meditation workshop, or juicing demonstration. For example, you could contact a local health food restaurant and ask if the owner or chef would be willing to bring free samples and lead a discussion on healthy eating.

• Popular Culture• Be sure to take a look at what is currently trending. What is dominating public discussion? Popular

culture? What are the top tv shows and movies? The Walking Dead is one of the most popular shows on television and broke cable records with the season five premier this year. The Big Bang Theory, American Idol, Dr. Who and Game of Thrones are also incredibly popular. Whether it is a craft, competition, or discussion, you can use one of these shows as the foundation of a program.

Survey Says

Do a survey. Our survey results: survey earlier this year

Surveys can be a helpful tool in determining what your community would like to see in the library. We created a survey to help us determine who are users are, what they use the library for and what programs they would like to see. Millenials and Gen Xers said they would like to see writing workshops, book clubs, computer and tech classes, as well as programming related to green/natural living, yoga, exericse and language learning. As a result, we have decided to add one more book club, an off-site book club that meets in the evening at bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Most working adults can’t attend a book club meeting on a Tuesday morning. If you want to attract Millenials and Gen Xers, then you need to be sure to offer writing workshops and book clubs need in the evening and on weekends.

• Writing workshops: 17.95%• Book clubs: 12.82%• Computer/tech: 10.26%• Green/natural living: 7.69%• Yoga/exercise: 5.13%• Language: 5.13%• Book Sales: 5.13%

Elsewhere

What others have done:What are other library systems doing? Can you replicate or model at your own location? What are bookstores doing? Community Centers? Libraries in other countries? Look at meetup.com and search for events and groups in your city. This will give you a good idea of what is popular with your local demographics. You can either extend an invite to an existing meetup group, or use the existing groups as inspiration for your own programs. Here are a few examples of programs that have been done in other systems: • Cooking• Concert series• Bad Art Night• Game of Thrones Night• Retro gaming

What About You?

What are you interested in? Programming can be incredibly personally rewarding. Take some time to think about the type of programs you would like to attend. What classes have you thought of taking? What hobbies do you devote your free time to? Do you think others may be interested? Are you a film buff? Maybe you could host a film series, film making workshop, or a film screening followed by a Skype interview with the director. We couldn’t come up with the money for a film license, so we partnered with Nextcare and they cover the cost of a film license for one of our branches.

Talk Talk Talk

Talk about your job. A lot. Several programs and partnerships can come out of random conversations. If you have a table at an outreach event, be sure to get out behind your table and visit the other exhibitors. By virtue of the fact that you are at the same outreach event, you already have a common goal or purpose. The exhibitor might make a great speaker, partner or donor for a program. It is also important to get out in the community. Visit art fairs and farmers markets. Often times the vendors are paying for a chance to be seen and heard and we can give them with the space and audience free of charge. It is also a great way to support local businesses and artists. If a writer is selling copies of her book, she might be willing to come to your library to do a signing, participate in a panel, or teach a writing workshop.

Partnerships

Partnerships are crucial. They can often reduce your workload and increase your resources and visibility. Some of our most successful programs were created through partnerships, which we will touch on later. Encourage your partners and sponsors to cross promote. If an organization is sponsoring your event or providing resources, be sure to provide them with your promotional materials. Your partners have their own employees, coworkers, friends, family, followers and stakeholders and can bring people to your event. It is important to acknowledge your partnerships and sponsors. When using social media, tag their names or business. If you are taking photos at your event, be sure to follow up afterward with a thank you and send them photos. They may want to post them or print them. Photos can also help your partners illustrate their experience to employers and stakeholders.

Planning

• TimelineThere are often several steps involved with programming. We highly recommend you consider creating a planning system. If you aren’t sure where to start, you can find several programming checklists online. Brett W. Lear has released an updated edition of his book, Adult Programs in the Library. In it he includes a very thorough and comprehensive planning timeline. Generally, the further out you can plan a program, the better. Some programs can be planned two months in advance, while others may take a year. Be sure to include the time you will need for finding partners, speakers, supplies, donors and staffing. Schedule time for marketing. Monthly magazines sometimes plan a few months out and need plenty of notice.

• SchedulingWho are you targeting? If you are holding a program for working adults, you may want to consider holding the program in the evening or on the weekend.

How big is your event? Will you need help setting up or managing the event? Ask a coworker for assistance. Will you need a lot of help? Consider asking for volunteer help. Find out their interests, what they are going to school for, and what they did in a previous life. You may be planning a program that a volunteer already has experience with and will be excited to assist on. Or maybe they have no experience with it, but are eager to learn and willing to dive right in.

Are there time constraints? When does your speaker work? They have jobs, working hours and other commitments.

Is your speaker or performer able and willing to appear at another location? Can you get a discount if you book programs at multiple branches?

Considerations

• Budget: How much money are you willing/able to spend? Can you partner or ask for donations? Be sure to include programmer’s fees, supplies for crafts, foods, drinks, etc.

• Security: Is the programming controversial? After hours? Is alcohol involved? You may want to consider scheduling a security guard for the event.

• Time: Who is the program for? When are they free? What day of the week works best for them?

• Registration: Do you have limited space or resources for the program? You may want to consider asking people to pre-register

• Staffing: Are you opening the doors and setting up a few chairs? Moderating? Are you expecting 10 people or 300? Consider asking other librarians and staff for help. If you have volunteers, see if you can schedule volunteers for the event.

• Weather: Is your event indoors or outdoors? Morning or evening? Do you need sun or stars? Summer or winter?

Road Closed

Problems we’ve encountered (and you might too)• Not enough money (some programs are simply out of our price

range)• People believe that adults in their 20s/30s don’t use the library

• Buy-in from higher ups• Have to get approval, sometimes from the city manager. Need to

convince them, especially if the program is costly or controversial. Tips for getting buy in: have a reason for the program. Identify potential issues/obstacles as well as solutions before approaching higher ups. Cite other libraries or organizations who have done something similar (do your homework.). Keep trying – PIO was concerned about potential legal issues with Speed Dating at first and wouldn’t promote, but press release for the 3rd event.

Marketing

We don’t have an actual marketing department; The City’s Public Information Office (PIO) will do press releases sometimes. But for the most part it falls to all of the librarians, none of whom are marketers by trade. The Virtual Community team does a lot because of our team’s function/position as the library’s online “voice.” We have minimal funds to spend, so sometimes have to find creative marketing solutions. Who handles your marketing? You? A marketing librarian? PIO? Make sure you clearly communicate what your program is about.

Target

What do you know about your audience? Who are they? Where can you find them? Do some research. Get out into the community (real and virtual) and find them. Pay attention to if things are working or not – look at analytics on social media, ask how people heard. Research will help you target your marketing efforts. However sometimes it feels like marketing is just throwing darts and seeing what sticks!

Get Graphic

Wherever you market, it’s important to create GOOD graphics. We’re very visually oriented society (think about social media like Pinterest, Instagram…even if you don’t share all your photos, you probably have thousands on your phone – we love visuals).

The City has a graphics department and we’ll occasionally ask them (they’re very busy). There are lots of tools that make creating good graphics possible, even if you’re not an artist. PicMonkey, free/royalty free image sites like Pixabay, Morguefile, free software like Gimp. If you can’t make a good graphic, at least make a simple one. Sara’s #1 rule of design – is it legible?

Think about your medium. What are you creating it for, a flyer? A FB post? A slideshow? (don’t write a novel on a TV slide that displays for 20 seconds)

Good vs. Evil

This is a graphic that appeared on our TV monitors inside the library (which are on a 15-20 second loop). You have a split-second to grab someone’s attention as they are walking by. There is way too much text on this for anyone to be able to absorb all this. Keep it simple. Think about your medium.

Post No Bills

A few months ago, our library leadership decided to stop allowing flyers and posters inside the library. There were a lot of them, there was no unified branding or look, and they decided it was taking up too much time to make them.

How’d You Hear?

…we perceive the no posters/flyers rule as a challenge because 46% of respondents to our recent survey aged 25-40 said they find out about programs and events via “Flyers/posters in the Library.”

Library Website

Flyers in the Library

Social Media

Word of Mouth

Email Newsletter

Newspaper

Library Staff

What’s Happening?

We moved from posters/flyers about individual events to an all-in-one print newsletter/calendar. It’s a full list of all events system-wide, produced by the Virtual Community team. Four pages is not much space to highlight items or do news stories, but we try. Program descriptions are pared down to one or two sentences. We put these out around our branches, take to outreach and into community, give out with new library cards.

Get Out There

We still produce flyers for some individual programs, but take them out into the community to distribute them – book stores, coffee shops, comic book stores, etc. Have found it’s helpful to have a few different formats because the place might have a bulletin board, table, etc. I carry around a manila envelope filled with flyers in different formats (tear sheet, quarter-page flyer, bookmarks) plus tape, pushpins, a stapler, etc. Not a practical solution for every program, but works well if there’s something you’re really trying to get good attendance at.

Get Social

Marketing in the virtual world. 36% of this age group said (on our survey) said they hear about library programs/events/services through social media. Use analytics to understand your audience. Our library is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+. We just started usingMeetup – post events selectively, response has been pretty good so far and seems like a good place to reach this age group. Have had some success posting in the local events section of Reddit. Our social media efforts have been focused mostly on Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook

Facebook has great analytics to help you understand your audience. About half our FB fans are women 18-44. Previously we did not advertise programs much because of negative feedback (unliking our page, hiding us from news stream), but now we do more (have built a rapport with our audience so we don’t get as much negative feedback; we have a bigger audience so if we get negative feedback it’s not as big of a deal). Photos of programs do well (which is unfortunate because the program is already over, unless it’s a series). Behind the scenes (staff) photos do well (try photos of staff setting up program/gearing up to do it to build buzz?). We are just starting to use Facebook ads. Don’t forget to share things on other organization’s pages (ex. Bicycle program on bike shop page), especially if you already have a partnership – if you don’t already have a partnership with that organization, you might get one out of it.

#Twitter

Plugging events seems to work pretty well on Twitter (more interaction on event tweets than others). I periodically go through our events calendar and schedule several tweets about programs using Hootsuite. Twitter analytics don’t offer much breakdown of audience demographics –whether they are M/F, their interests; can see how individual tweets did. Our followers also follow a lot of news channels, so we follow those same channels. We also follow a lot of individual news reporters for those channels; sometimes tweeting directly to them is effective.

#Tweet!

One place this worked well was a tweet to the ABC15 Smart Shopper. We were getting ready for a literary speed dating event and I was looking at how much other speed dating events cost out of curiosity ($25-30). Our free event is a great deal! Tweeted to her about our free event, she picked up story, two days later it was featured on the news. A couple days after that, NPR picked up the story.

It might have helped that she met a certain star-struck fan in June when she was at the library to cover our Big Book Sale?

Smore

Smore.com ($69/yr for educators = $5.75/mo; recently on sale for $39/yr; they also have a free plan, but I think it’s limited to 5 flyers). It’s for creating online flyers that can easily be shared online. We use it primarily for our monthly eNewsletter – We write a few blurbs about goings-on, library services, etc. and feature one event per branch, then link to the full online calendar of events. It’s sent out via email blast (which our IT dept handles; email list is harvested from Polaris, so it goes out to all patron groups), averages 3600 views/month. Provides analytics like how many link clicks, how many times flyer was shared via social media channels.

Have also used Smore to create online flyers for individual events (Lit Speed Dating flyer has been viewed by people all over the world, shared 414 times on FB, viewed 1147 times as of 11/5/14, still gets views every day even though our last speed dating event was in Sept)

Websites

69% of survey respondents in this age group said they get info from our website. We have a slideshow on our home page and an online events calendar (Evanced). We’ve also posted events on newspaper websites (event calendars on New Times, AzCentral) – takes them forever to approve these, so plan ahead.

Word of Mouth

Don’t underestimate the power of word of mouth! We know it works!

Recent example: a patron was returning an Anne Rice book; we had a Skype interview with Becket (her assistant and an author himself) coming up; I told her about the program and she came and brought 3 other people.

Literary Speed Dating

We have held three literary speed dating events at the library. Two of the events were geared toward Millennials and the other one was geared toward Generation X.

What is literary speed dating? It’s incredibly similar to speed dating, just with a literary twist.

We held our first event a week before Valentine’s Day on a Saturday night. Our library closes at 5pm and this is considered an after hours event. Because it is after hours, we can hold the event in the library without disrupting patrons. We begin promoting the event about three months in advance. People can register online. We ask them to choose a literary pseudonym. Character names serve as great ice breakers and also help protect customers privacy and safety. We have found that there is a disproportionate number of men and women registering. We have had to the put women on a waiting list for all three events. Once we have the logistics for the next event planned, we email everyone who was on the waiting list for the previous event and give them a chance to register first.

A few days before the event, we email everyone to explain the format. We tell people DO NOT ASK for real names or contact information. We also request that they don’t ask anyone out. We want our customers to feel safe and have fun.

We start checking people in 15 minutes before the event. Everyone gets a pen, “match” card, a list of literary icebreakers, a bookmark and a name tag. We serve light refreshments and play music from Freegal. The bookmark has the playlist on it, which also serves as a great tool for promoting Freegal.

When we are ready to begin, we ask that the straight men sit on one side of the tables and the straight women sit on the other. At our last event, we only had two M4M show up, and they ended up talking to each other the entire evening. Depending on the number of people who show up, the dates are anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes. Once we run out of time, we ding a bell and ask the men to move down one seat. During each date, the participants write down the name of the person they are speaking with and check “yes” or “no” next to the name. At the end of the evening, we collect all of the forms. We follow up Monday only if a mutual match is made: two people have to both say yes to each other. We contact the people without matches first and invite them to come back to a future event. Those with matches receive an email informing them of the match along with the characters name and email addresses.

People really seem to enjoy the event. We have had a few repeaters, as well as some new people who were told about the event from former participants. We do pass out evaluations at the end of the night and EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has filled out an evaluation said they would do it again. The evaluations have also included great suggestions that have helped us make improvements. Many of the people who have come said that it isn’t easy for them to meet people and love that the library is the setting. They said it makes them feel safer and prefer it to a bar. They also like knowing that this event attracts people who enjoy reading and they will be meeting others who share an important interest.

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.

• In 2013, 310,095 people participated in NaNoWriMo. These people wrote in coffee shops, bars, and from the comfort of their own homes. They also wrote in libraries. Libraries can participate in the Come Write In program. There is no charge and your events are listed on the NaNoWriMo website. If you decide to participate, I encourage you to contact your region’s municipal liaison. Liaisons are volunteers who coordinate kick off parties, write ins, and encourage writers to keep writing. This is our second year planning and hosting events. We work closely with the liaisons to plan events that will work for seasoned “Wrimos” as well as curious newbies from the library. During write ins, people bring in their own writing supplies and engage in “word wars” and other challenges to help motivate each other to increase their word counts. We partnered with Wilkes University M.F.A. Creative Writing program to bring customers a free writing workshop and lunch, as well as professional proofreading and coaching.

• Last year, 650 libraries participated in the Come Write in Program.

Source: National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org)

Community Cinema

Earlier this year we were interested in obtaining a film license. We quickly learned that a film license was three times the cost of our system’s annual programming budget. We decided to explore other options. We learned that the City of Mesa Neighborhood Outreach and Diversity department was involved in a program called Community Cinema. Community Cinema presents free screenings and discussions around the Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary series Independent Lens. By igniting conversations around issues that affect us all, Community Cinema creates real and lasting change —both at home and around the world.

We partnered with their department to bring screenings to Mesa Public Library. We show six documentaries a year. After each film, we engage the audience in a discussion with a panel of people who are directly involved with the issues discussed in the film. We try to include at least one engagement activity and a minimum of three panelists.

Sources: Community Cinema (communitycinema.org)

Bicycle Commuting 101

Don’t forget to program to your passions! My favorite form of transportation is my bicycle, so I’ve wanted to have a bicycle commuting program ever since I started here. Our library didn’t have the kind of resources I wanted for a good program, so I asked the city’s transportation department if they had any suggestions. They suggested … themselves! They put together an informative program on what Mesa is doing to become a more bike-friendly city, and they gave some great tips on how to stay safe on city streets. They also gave each registered participant a bike helmet, bike lock, lights, and bike maps. Even if you go for the cheap stuff, each kit was at least a $50 value. That was money the library didn’t have to spend, but our users got a great value.

Was It Good for You?

There are several ways you can evaluate the success of a program. The most immediate way is have paper evaluations available. Paper evaluations can help you determine several things:

• Did people enjoy it? If they did, you may want to consider turning it into a recurring program or replicating it at other locations. If people didn’t enjoy it, you need to know why. Evaluations are a great way of determining what people REALLY think.

• How did people find out about your event? If a significant number of attendees heard about your program from the same source, then it would be wise to continue to utilize that resource.

• Remember when we talked about thinking about what you like? Now it your chance to ask what you customers like. These are the people who are able and willing to come to library programs? What else would they like to see? Ask them about their interests or for event suggestions.

• What can be improved upon? As programmers, we can try to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes, but that will only get us so far. Every participant brings a unique perspective and will have a unique experience. There will be things we have overlooked or can improve upon.

• Be sure to provide a question or space for them to give open feedback. While yes or no questions can be helpful, it is important to give them the space to speak up.

• If you have email addresses, you can also use electronic surveys. Poll Daddy and Survey Monkey both offer free services. Another way to evaluate a recurring adult program is to track programming numbers. If numbers are dropping, there may be an expectation we aren’t meeting or a time conflict. Explore other options. Can you move the day of the week? The time of the event? Have you made any significant changes to the program that could account for the drop in attendance?

On the Horizon

• DIY series (starting Jan 2015)

• Hipster display inspiration (knitting, craft beer, etc)

• Off-site book group (starting Jan 2015)

Recommended Resources

• Adult Programs in the Library, 2nd Ed. Brett W. Lear

• Facebook group: ALA Think Tank

• ALA Connect: Programming Librarian Interest Group

Images via Morguefile and Pixabay

• Adult Programs in the Library, 2nd Ed. Brett W. Lear

• Facebook group: ALA Think Tank

• ALA Connect: Programming Librarian Interest Group

Images via Morguefile and Pixabay

Thank You!

• Maren Hunt, Programming Librarian –maren.hunt@mesaaz.gov

• Sara Lipich, Virtual Community Librarian –sara.lipich@mesaaz.gov

• Laura Royal, Programming Librarian –laura.royal@mesaaz.gov

Maren HuntProgramming Librarian

maren.hunt@mesaaz.gov

Sara LipichVirtual Community Librarian

sara.lipich@mesaaz.gov

Laura RoyalProgramming Librarian

laura.royal@mesaaz.gov