Submitted by Morgan Shaffer, Tracy MacNaughton, Brianna Schantz, Melissa Gunter, & Sarah Brubaker
The Spout Springs Library welcomed as many Georgia librarians as fire code allowed for the Adult Programming Palooza on Friday, March 21! Adult programming librarians from all over Georgia came to network, exchange ideas, brainstorm together, and listen to speakers. Eight FCPL staff members were able to attend: Sarah Brubaker, Melissa Gunter, Cynthia Julian-Simmons, Tracy MacNaughton, Brooke Richards, Brianna Schantz, Morgan Shaffer, and Brooke West.
Our first keynote speaker was Ronda Sanders for "Genealogy Made Simple." She walked us through how to plan a genealogy program for people who are just getting started with exploring their family trees. Her ideas included:
- Basic Building Blocks of Genealogy. For one, don’t start with Ancestry - invite patrons to research their families and home information first, such as birth certificates and tax records.
- Locating the Hidden Half of Your Family. To find more information regarding one’s maternal family, invite patrons to check newspapers for engagement announcements, dead letters, unclaimed letters, and even psychiatric hospital records.
- Keeping Our Cemeteries Clean. Patrons learn about cleaning gravestones.
- Sitting Up With the Dead. Patrons stay late and chat with each other about family members they are researching.
Our next speaker was former FCPL staff member Cleo Joyce, who presented "Boosting Beanstack for Adults." She spoke about how using the gamification and social connection elements of Beanstack make adults more likely to log their reading. In Maryland, a library system customized an adult challenge bingo-style and saw participation go up… drumroll, please… 125%! She also discussed different types of incentives that libraries can offer to their adult patrons, including collectibles or partnering with a community organization. Did you know that by adding three or more incentives for adults, participation can boost by over 26%? We’re adults and we love prizes too, so we’d say this checks out. One library partnered with an organization that plants a tree per number of pages read. Other systems have also tried creating all age challenges so that parents can participate with their children.
Next up, we moved into our Speed Dating presentations. Presenters included Morgan Shaffer with the Murder Mystery Event, Brooke West with the Bat Walk, and Brianna Schantz with Writers’ Night of Fright. Some programming is based on the expertise that individual librarians have. For example, a Hall County branch is able to offer 1-on-1 Sewing sessions with their very knowledgeable staff, who also can do sewing classes for groups. Other creative program ideas included Adult Bingo, a Dungeons & Dragons Club, Music Appreciation Club, Bad Art Night, and a Hand Lettering program that produced some beautiful calligraphy style lettering using only Crayola markers. The handouts for each of the speed dating programs can be found here.
Gwen Hawn closed us out with her presentation "Expanding Your Programming with Extension." The UGA Extension has three agents: the Agriculture and Natural Resources agent, the 4-H Youth agent, and the Family and Consumer Science agent. Gwen highlighted potential programs that the Ag agents can present, including Pollinators, Container or Vegetable Gardening, Composting, Vermicomposting, Edible Gardening, and Haybale Gardening. FACS agents can do programs or provide information on topics such as Preventing Peanut Allergies, Canning and Food Preservation, and Nutrition. They even have a relationship education program called Elevate for couples in a committed relationship. You can visit the county directory at extension.uga.edu. Contact information for Forsyth County's UGA Extension office can be found here.
Our hosts recommended other ways to stay connected and share programming ideas, including joining the Georgia Adult Library Services Facebook Group here, and the Georgia Library Services Adult Services Listserv here.
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