Events Made Easy: A Deep Dive on Developing and Executing Outreach Programs
July 13 and 14th (Two-part workshop held ONLINE VIA ZOOM), 3-5pm ET
Co-instructors: Tess Colwell and Alex O'Keefe
Limited to 40 participants; $50 registration fee
Workshop Description:
Hosting events for libraries and special collections is a key part of patron outreach but can be overwhelming and challenging depending on resources such as staff time, funding, and partnerships. In this workshop, participants will learn step-by-step how to use a simple framework to maximize limited resources, serve their community through events, and generate positive attention from stakeholders. This process includes developing a holistic strategy tailored to their specific community, creating a standardized outreach plan based on their institution’s procedures, and ultimately streamlining their programming efforts. During the workshop, the instructors will share scholarship around event planning best practices then walk participants through a series of hands-on, solo and collaborative activities to plan an event using a customizable toolkit (designed using freely available tools such as Google Sheets and Google Documents). The workflow includes audience identification, creative practitioner consideration, budget application, promotional material creation, action item generation, day-of-event execution, post-event evaluation, and thorough documentation to share with administration. Participants will leave the workshop with one complete event plan for their library or collection, a community of event-planning peers for future support, and a variety of resources to enact a sustainable events program at their institutions beyond this event.
About the Instructors:
Tess Colwell (She/Her) is the Arts Librarian for Research Services at Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library where she serves as the library liaison to the schools of art and architecture, and History of Art department. Prior to coming to Yale, Tess worked in a variety of libraries and museums in NYC and was formerly a professional photographer and worked as a photojournalist for the Gazette newspapers, a small community paper affiliated with the Washington Post. Tess holds a BS in Visual Communication from Ohio University, MA in Humanities with a focus in art history from Hood College (MD), and an MLIS degree from St. John’s University. She has contributed to a range of journals and scholarly publications including Art Documentation, Journal of Outreach and Engagement, and ACRL. Her research interests include digital humanities, library outreach, design research methodologies, and visual literacy instruction. Alex O’Keefe (She/Her) is the Research & Instruction Librarian at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s John M. Flaxman Library. As part of this role, she focuses on outreach and programming, specifically collaborating with other staff members and student groups to plan events for SAIC’s diverse creative community. She previously worked at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library as the 2018-2019 Kress Fellow in Art Librarianship and later the Arts Digital Projects Librarian, where she designed events focused on community engagement for the Ensemble@Yale project. Alex holds a BFA in Studio Arts, BA in Humanities, and an MSLS. She is an active participant in the professional community, and her full list of professional work can be viewed here. Her work focuses on fostering community in the library through collaborations, weaving critical librarianship into initiatives, fighting mis/disinformation, and all things library outreach.