Library Programs

In recent years, young adult (YA) fiction has, like its Generation Z audience, turned to social justice issues and activism. At the same time, the discussion of social responsibility in librarianship has begun to include human rights and social justice, especially since public libraries provide education and information about issues of rights and justice. 

For Jennifer's thesis research, she conducted a participatory case study with a co-designed virtual program through the Camrose Public Library. The case study investigated how teen readers engage with the social justice themes in YA fiction, how and if they find these themes useful for understanding and engaging in activism on their own, and the influence of public library programming on these actions. 

This presentation provides an overview of what worked and what didn’t when it came to collaborative program design with teens and provides practical recommendations for young adult librarians who want to implement social justice programming.

Thirty-seven students in a 4th year Sales Management course had the opportunity to earn two digital badges in a pilot project tied to information literacy mastery. One badge was for Critical Thinking, the other for Content Analysis. The pilot was to assess student interest and engagement in digital badging at the college level. Students completed several activities (e.g. online videos and tutorials) and assignments (e.g. annotated bibliography) before submitting a final research report. As it is critical that digital badges have an assessment component, students had to achieve 80% or higher in three individual assessments to be awarded the badges.

It’s not as boring as it sounds! 
 
This presentation is about developing a strategic plan for library programming that aligns with your community’s social development goals. It features some fun interviews with community stakeholders, along with thoughts and insights on the power of connection, partnership, and community engagement in creating meaningful programming.

Want to build a fun escape room program that appeals to families with children, teens, and adults, but feel like you don’t have the space to make it work? Have you seen pictures from amazing escape room programs in other libraries, but don’t have a dedicated space to commit to a lengthy program? I’ll share tips, tricks, and plans for three different escape rooms we have successfully run that fit (almost) entirely on a book cart and are easy to set-up and take-down. We’ll talk about rooms with doors that don’t lock, different types of puzzles that are easy to use, how to build multiple rooms using the same materials, and ways that participants can adapt these programs for their own library spaces.
 
Presented at the CATS Conference, Kelowna BC, Oct 7th, 2019.