How to do a program
Or more than you ever wanted to
know about program planning
CHOOSING A TOPIC
This is determining the WHAT
• FORMAL
Conducting patron surveys for program ideas
Using suggestions from previous program
evaluations
• INFORMAL
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Use “Suggestion Box”
Brainstorm with staff; sharing ideas; ‘word of mouth’
Circulation – what’s “hot”
Community activities – who’s speaking, special events, etc.
Reference and library resources (Chase's, for example)
Experience – what has worked well before
Speaker’s bureau – what’s in demand; popular
Seasonal – beach party in February, Women’s History Month,
Children’s Book Week, etc.
Of course, it is difficult to CHOOSE
A TOPIC without also considering
The AUDIENCE !
• Deciding the WHOM
– AGE LEVEL(s) This is the most critical aspect
because it influences choices of time, location
and activities that will comprise the program
– CONTENT Does the topic chosen require
specific cognitive skills for participants? What
does a participant need to know in order to
benefit?
WHOOOOOOO
• EXPERIENCE Has a similar program
been done successfully using this topic?
Who was its audience? Is that experience
relative to what you want to do?
Think You’re Done ? ? ?
Actually there are 2 other components that
are often overlooked or forgotten in
program planning as people get caught up
in an idea, materials, publicity – all the
GOOD stuff! It’s a bit like putting the
before the
what about the W H Y
Before selecting a topic or deciding on an
audience, you need to ask,
WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS??
which translates into
What is it that you hope to achieve
in doing this program?
In other words . . .
W
H
Y
?
Determine where you’re going
Goals should be part of a long-range plan
for the library. Even so, you should set
program goals, such as,
To inform patrons about “x” or
To increase awareness of the library and its
resources or
To provide an enjoyable experience in the
library for young and old
Or whatever you come up with!
But having goals is not enough. How will you
know if you’ve reached them?
If you’ve achieved
what you set out to do?
OBJECTIVES
By establishing objectives, you are able to
measure the extent or degree to
which you achieved the GOALS
REMEMBER...
OBJECTIVES
must always be
MEASURABLE ! ! !
ACTIVITIES
STAY on target as you now have a topic,
identified an audience, set goals,
determined how you will measure the
program’s success, so what’s left?
The real FUN
HOW
you are going to do all of this!!!
So let’s try an example….
JANU“BEAR”Y 2005
PLANNING PROCESS
• Your topic is Teddy Bears
• Your audience is family (families)
• Your goals are to inform about the history of
teddy bears; to promote library resources; to
offer a new program to help chase the winter
“blahs” and to provide an enjoyable library
experience for a variety of age groups.
• You will measure Janu”bear”y’s success
by
– Attendance; it will exceed normal story time
attendance by 20%
– Evaluation; at least 70% of the evaluations for
this program will be favorable
– Counting the number of “History of Teddy
Bears” information that are handed out
Because this is a family program, you are
going to have it in the early evening.
Your Friends group is going to have Teddy
Bear graham cookies, Teddy Bear cut-out
cookies, etc.
You have arranged for a local antiques
dealer to come and give a presentation
about teddy bears and collecting them
• You have asked “local personalities” to
come and read BEAR books to the
children (Little Bear, Paddington, etc.)
• A high school drama group is going to
enact portion of a Winnie-the-Pooh story
• Your YA person is going to read from Philip
Pullman’s THE SUBTLE KNIFE
• You will have coloring sheets, handouts of
the history of Teddy Bears, bookmarks to
give to each participant.
• You will have a display of teddy bears and
ask each participant to bring a “Teddy
Bear” if they like
• You will have computer sites designated,
including a teddy bear game site
And when everyone is very tired and very
pleased with the whole event, you will give
out an evaluation form and collect them
before all the satisfied patrons leave.
Tomorrow, you and your staff will have a
great time going over how successful it all
was and how well everything went.
How To Do A Program
Isn’t so hard or bad after all
LIGHTS !
CAMERA !
ACTION !
THE END
(or maybe a new beginning?)
Please visit our website:
www.pamunkeylibrary.org/VLAPF.htm
Or contact us:
sbrown@pamunkeylibrary.org
pfranz@pamunkeylibrary.org
lgosnell@pamunkeylibrary.org
October 1, 2004