Coloring: So Hot Right Now

Coloring has been the go-to stress reliever in libraries for a while now, so it was only a matter of time before we jumped on that bandwagon. And, honestly, I’m so glad we did. Students were very receptive (especially our student workers). One student worker kept taping blank sheets to the Desk to encourage collaborative coloring.

I bought two adult coloring books, tore out the pages, and made copies so I can keep the originals and put out copied sheets each semester (total cost $10). I then purchased 5 boxes of standard Crayola colored pencils.  They were on SUPER sale at our local Pat Catan’s – only $2 per box!

I put the coloring pages in one of those office paper trays along with the container of sharpened pencils and this sign:

To promote the month-long event, I shared this on Facebook (made with Piktochart, as usual):

In sum, this was a very low cost/low labor activity that my students really loved. From now on, every November and April will be coloring month in my library!

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Facebook Rolled Out Reactions and I Won Wednesday

Yesterday Facebook rolled out its newest feature…reactions. In addition to liking posts, users now have the option to love, laugh, hate, and more. As I scrolled through my news feed, I saw a post from Radiolab that added headphones to the reaction faces and morphed them into an advertisement for their show. I was instantly inspired and made my own advertisement promoting librarian services as a way to ameliorate the emotions that users experience while going through the research process.

I’m pretty proud of this one. Not only is it super timely, but it also hearkens back to Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process. I shared the ad in an ACRL library marketing Facebook group and it’s already been adapted by a number of other libraries. And the post has nearly 200 likes!

 

Infographic: Evaluating News Sources

A faculty member from OWU’s Education Department asked me to design an infographic to help her students evaluate news sources. We worked closely together on the content (she had specific websites in mind that she did NOT want her students to use). It was a surprisingly easy design experience and I think that had a lot to do with the open and honest input I got from my faculty member.

Live @ The Library 2016

We are a few weeks away from Live @ The Library and I am so proud of my poster design for this year’s event:

I was inspired by Vanity Fair covers from the 1920s and did the character drawings myself.  I used ink pen and Prismacolor markers on mixed media paper, then cut the figures out and laid them on layered pieces of very old construction paper (which gave me the faded effect that I really adore). I uploaded my image into Piktochart and used the event logo I designed last year.

 

 

 

High School Outreach Is Important…AND FUN!

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of meeting with AP Composition classes at a nearby high school. Interacting with high school students is an integral part of my work. Not only do I help the students themselves, but I also benefit from interacting with an age group that is so very similar to my own first year students.

I was asked to speak about the differences between high school and college research under the assumption that, as AP students, many of them would test out of first year composition. I wanted to tailor my presentation as much as possible to this particular group, so I asked them to answer a few questions using a Google form.

Google forms are gloriously easy to set up. Be sure to select Paragraph Text as the Question Type so responses can be as long as necessary.

I didn’t want to use my session for search strategies or resources instruction (students would get that later from their own librarian). And rather than focus solely on library resources and college-level research, I wanted to address anxieties students might be feeling about college life in general. I saw patterns in their responses to my questions that made it easy to come up with content for my presentation.

My presentation consists of five slides. The first four address the questions I asked via the Google form and the last contains words of wisdom from OWU seniors and recent graduates.

To see it in presentation mode, click here:
https://magic.piktochart.com/output/5087713-olentangylibertyhs

This was my first time using Piktochart‘s presentation mode and, of course, I found it incredibly easy to work with. I started from a template, but did a lot of customization. I kept consistent design elements throughout (like font and color) which made the process much easier as I could focus on wording and layout.

If you’d like to know more about my presentation, please comment and I’ll happily elaborate.

Piktochart + MS Paint = My Marketing Toolkit

My library is hosting a very special event later this month that has me creating a bunch of teaser ads (a post about the event will be along shortly, I promise). My latest ad was made possible by good ole MS Paint and, of course, Piktochart.

Using Google, I found these paper doll clothing images:

 

 

The yellow dress and blue suit were just the aesthetic I was looking for, so I pasted each picture into MS Paint and used the Free Form Selection tool to cut the individual items out. I used that same tool to copy the yellow tabs from the blue suit and affix them to the dress (in design, I prefer matchy matchy).

Here’s the finished product:

Teaser ad for Live @ The Library

Since this ad is just a teaser for the event, I only included the date. The official event poster including time and event logo will be released closer to the event. College kids have very short attention spans and very busy schedules. The slow reveal of event details will hopefully keep them interested.

 

Design School On A Budget (Which Is To Say…Free)

I’m always looking for design inspiration these days. I’m using my phone to snap pictures of everything from postcards to book covers, concert posters to clothing tags, food labels to directional signage, and more. The other day I was noodling about in our art stacks when I happened across this graphic design book:

Graphic Design Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design

At this very moment, it’s sitting next to my keyboard full of those tiny post-it notes used to bookmark pages. It covers design and typography with a wealth of examples from famous designers, brands, and design companies dating as far back as 1876.

So far I’ve made two objects based on things I’ve seen in this book. The first is a poster for an upcoming library event designed in the style of the cover of a 1950 issue of the British publication Typographica:

The second is an image for use on Facebook and in our Screenly playlist that runs on a flat screen tv next to the help desk (more on Screenly in a future post):

This isn’t based on a specific image from the book. I like to think I’m learning something about drawing the eye and effective fonts.

The images were, of course, created using Piktochart. I plan to continue to use this book to help me design learning objects for the classroom, marketing materials, library signage, and more.

On a side note, the authors of Graphic Design Referenced include this note in their introduction:

I can’t say I disagree with their decision.

An Easy Way To Collaborate With Your Campus Writing Center

It’s no secret that collaborating and supporting campus services strengthens the library’s relationships and increases its value and visibility. Thanks to a suggestion from OWU’s Writing Resource Center faculty, my library was able to provide space and marketing for a much-needed “after-hours” student service.

Our campus Writing Resource Center serves students by helping them become more confident, effective writers. Students can drop by or schedule an appointment during regular business hours to get help from experienced faculty on any type of writing assignment. However, on a small, residential campus like OWU, student schedules are often packed to the gills between 9 am and 5 pm (class, sports, lunch, naps, etc.).

Enter the library.

We’ve begun hosting a Writing Center Drop-in Table a few nights each month from 7 – 9 pm. The table is staffed by student peer-tutors and a librarian (when a librarian is available). Our first two tables were a great success with 6 students stopping by each night (a strong turn out for a campus this size). The writing center faculty advertised directly to our freshmen composition faculty and I did marketing through Facebook and the library website.

Now that we’ve got our advertising and LibGuide established, there is little I need to do each time new dates are announced. It’s another great way to get students into the library and promote the use of our space by other campus organizations.

If you can’t already tell, I once again used Piktochart to create this (in my humble opinion) most excellent web advertisement.

And this is the image I created for our website’s rotating carousel. Again, the glory that is Piktochart!

Flipping Out

With all the talk about flipped classrooms it was inevitable that I’d eventually have to start paying attention. Over the summer, my colleagues and I have had various meetings related to library curriculum revision and, let me tell you, flipped classrooms have really come to the fore.

I’m quite excited about it and many of the faculty I’ve mentioned it to are on board.

The biggest flip push will take place in our freshmen composition course, English 105. We’ve been fortunate in that our 105 faculty often grant us the luxury of two or even three library sessions per semester and I think our move towards flipped lessons will be a great way to say “thank you” since they can ultimately result in us taking up less of their class time.

I’ve been creating learning objects that I plan to get to the students via class email, a LibGuide, or by asking faculty to add them to their teaching slides (if they use them).

Here’s one of my favorite learning object babies:

I used the Onion’s Statshots as inspiration for this learning object. I think humor in our type of instruction is absolutely essential in order to keep students’ attention. In this Library Statshot, I introduce website evaluation, author credentials, and relevancy.