The library has been doing many exciting events this spring! February featured the Blind Date with a Book Valentine’s Day based event. March through April students could participate in March Madness, with the theme of mythical creatures in literature, as well as Bird Bingo. In April, the library hosted four exciting events: Earth Day Swap on the 22 of April, a visit from therapy dogs on the 30, blackout poetry the 1-24 and, of course, the ducklings hatching the week of April 12.
Some of the events were fairly low-key. Blind Date with a Book featured books wrapped in brown paper with cryptic descriptions written on the paper, that students could check out blind before finding out the book within the wrapping. In Bird Bingo, students could participate in bird watching, including downloading the Merlin bird watching app, in order to fill out a bingo card of local birds. For blackout poetry, students ripped out pages from a display of books, and colored in all the words on the page except a carefully selected few, to create an artistic poem.
March Madness is the longest running event happening during the spring. This long-standing event has the highest amount of participation according to Systems Librarian Chelsea Post. In March Madness, Post sets up a display of the contestants (this year, mythological creatures like the unicorn and the kraken) along with books featuring the contestants. Students can then vote weekly. Post said, “I’m always surprised” about the results of March Madness: “Most of the time the number one seat is not who wins.” The “unexpected upsets” of March Madness, as well as “the debate amongst the voters,” according to Director of the library, Anne Schwelm, make the event a “fun annual that we look forward to and students look forward to.”
Other events, like Bird Bingo and the Earth Day Swap, are happening for the first time this year. Eastern’s Access Services Librarian, Kathy Hecht, said “The ducks happened for the first time last year, and were such a big hit that the library decided to bring the event back.” Schwelm described the ducks as “such a hit last year” and explained that President Matthews even wrote a limerick about the duckling hatching!
The library has collaborated with other Eastern departments to put on these events. For example, the Earth Day Swap is in collaboration with the Eastern Earthkeepers Club and club advisor Brian Alfaro, while the duckling hatching event is in collaboration with the biology, elementary education and psychology departments. According to Schwelm, students in all three departments “are given credit for helping volunteer to rotate the eggs, care for the ducklings once they’re hatched, and volunteer to look at the embryos through candler.”
The ducks were certainly a massive hit again this year! They got so much attention from students that they had to have scheduled breaks every hour. Seven fluffy ducks successfully began their lives in the outside world at Warner library. The ducks then spent several days cuddly with students, including duckling pool parties on April 15 and 16, before finally departing on April 17. However, students got another chance to hang out with cuddly animals on April 30, Eastern’s study day, when therapy dogs visited the walkway outside of the library! This is another recurring library event that happens annually on the study day in spring.
The various librarians at the library all pitch in to give Eastern students a variety of ways to engage with the library. According to Post, the librarians have “many different expertises… so we take our expertise and our thoughts and we are each in charge of different events and we help each other.” Post organizes March Madness, Reference Librarian, Robyn Cunningham, organizes black out poetry, Hecht, Access Services Librarian, is in charge of the duckling hatching, and so forth.
Hecht explained the reasoning behind the events at the library, saying, “A lot of our activities either fall into the education side of things or into the relaxation/study break/refocus.” For example, the ducklings help the students both to have a cute and fluffy mental health reset, but also potentially provide an educational lesson in duck development.
Hecht went on, “Research has shown that students who spend time in the library — even if they’re not studying — their GPA is higher.” The librarians want to encourage students just to spend more time in the library, studying or having fun.
Schwelm added that the librarians are “always trying to build community for the students. We look at Eastern’s core values: the ‘R’ in Eastern stands for relationships. Our librarians are not only knowledgeable; they are also creative in all of our outreach.” Post echoed this sentiment, explaining that “libraries nowadays have become more of a community center to interact, to learn. We’re trying to open that door a little.”
“The thing I love about libraries,” said Cunningham, “is that they are a third space.” Cunningham said she wanted the library to be, of course, a place where you can “come to do what you need to do study, read – a quiet place.” But at the same time, Cunningham wants the library to be “more and more a welcoming place. It is not all academia, but also a place that’s fun and a safe place.”
Eastern’s library is not just a place to study, to research or even to check out books. Warner’s library has become a community center, dedicated to providing a space where students can build relationships and find community. It is a place where you can meet with friends, take a break, participate in community activities and just spend time in a safe and comfortable third space designed in particular to students at Eastern.
