Moderator: Hillary Richardson
April is a month that brings most of us out of a winter funk, with signs of spring showing, warmer weather teasing us, and the end of the school year approaching. April is a month of fools, jokes, and fun, so this month’s New Member Round Table online discussion was an homage to creating occasions for “disruptive fun” in the library. We asked: what sorts of activities aren’t necessarily “traditional” to places of study and orderly community are being introduced in libraries?
San Jose State University hosts “De-Stress and Destroy” the day before finals start. Teresa Slobuski at SJSU wrote, “At these events students are provided boxes to build up a city before getting the opportunity to destroy it as if they were Godzilla. We usually do three rounds of building and destroying our city.”
There was a very lively discussion about bringing animals into the library as well. SUNY Delhi hosts “animal hour” every Wednesday afternoon because of “the success we had with our finals week animal visits,” writes Carrie Fishner. Peggy Langgle at UT Dallas wrote of the library’s success with “Paws for Finals” every semester, saying that the “registration list is always full,” and noted that they also provide a waiver for this activity. Like other participants, Brian Gray at Case Western Reserve University noted the success of their therapy dogs program, which happens 3 times a semester during orientation, Midterm week, and finals week. Brian wrote, “We use dogs from our university hospital as the dogs are trained and insured. The dogs have their own training card too!”
Students in Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve enjoy “doggy therapy,” from Kelvin Smith Library’s Facebook Page.
Patricia Delara told about a similar event with dogs, where students are paired with animals and read to them. “Paw Stars” is an event at her current library allows “children [to] practice their reading skills,” with the added bonus that “it’s also just adorable looking at the kids and the dogs getting along.”
Most of the discussion revolved around the fun and stress relief that active programs can provide, but challenges of these programs must also be considered, such as building or campus policies, liability, compliance issues, and in some cases, dealing with insurance. Other passive (but still “disruptive”!) activities can include coloring pages that are posted throughout the building and containers with pencils, markers, crayons, etc. Ray Pun suggested that libraries “have people color and have them “hang up” their work in a small bulletin board display.” These activities aren’t relegated to academic libraries during exam time. DeForest Library in North Carolina, for example, hosts “Coloring for Adults” as a way to invite people to unwind in the library.
Associated Press’ news story on DeForest Library’s Coloring for Adults