Librarians at Hud University held pop-up outreach stands in the library with interactive activities to engage students, such as challenges to search quickly using Summon and correctly reference sources. Over the course of the 2018-19 academic year, these stands saw over 300 student participants and received positive feedback. The activities helped break down barriers between students and librarians while stealthily teaching search and referencing skills. As a result, librarians saw more students approaching them with research questions.

1. ‘How fast can you search?’
Using pop-up competitions
and activities in the Library
to break the ice between
students and librarians
Laura Palmer
Subject Librarian (Business)
l.palmer2@hud.ac.uk @laurascupoftea

2. Background
• Library helpdesk review - Summer 2018
• Librarians sought new ways to be visible/engage
students
• Roving/pop-up stands across campus – could these
work in Library itself?

3. What we did
• Regular pop-up outreach
stands’ in Library entrance
• Themed (e.g. search skills)
• Activity related to theme
– to ‘break the ice’
• Staffed by Librarians – at
lunchtimes for one week
approx. each month

4. Library outreach stands 2018-19
Month Theme Activity
November (early) Search skills ‘How fast can you search?’
Summon challenge
November (late) Referencing ‘How fast can you put a
reference together?’
January New Years study
resolutions
Share your new year goals
February Love your Library Love & break-up letters to
the Library (UX research)
March Search skills ‘How fast can you search?’
April Referencing ‘How fast can you put a
reference together?’
May Coping with
assessments
Sharing stress-busting tips,
jigsaw, loom weaving

5. Referencing challenge
• Placing parts of
APA reference in
correct order
• Participants
given time to
read referencing
guide!

6. Summon challenge
How fast can you search?
Go to library.hud.ac.uk
Your challenge card:
SEARCH SUMMON for author
Joanne Harris
How many books written by her can you find?

7. After the challenge
Basic search for Joanne Harris returns
40,821 results including 2,894 books
However…
Advanced author search plus book filter returns
16 results
So…
Which is the fastest way to search?

8. How many students took part in
activities?
*more students left goals on our poster whilst the stall was unstaffed Data: Laura Woods
28
45
102
18
41
51
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Coping with exams
(May)
Referencing (Apr)
Summon (Mar)
Letters (Feb)
Goals (Jan)*
Referencing (Nov)
Summon (Nov)
No data

9. Who took part in the challenges?
• 145 unique students
over 4 challenge
weeks
• 13 students played
multiple times – one
played all 4
challenges!
UG1
38%
UG2
21%
UG3&4
16%
PGT
20%
PGR
2%
Other
3%
STUDENT LEVEL
Data: Laura Woods

10. Benefits
• Activities ‘broke the ice’ - gave
students a reason to come & talk
to us!
• Fun & active, ‘stealth’
teaching
• Further library enquiries
from participants
• Visibility – non-participants
saw us at the stand & asked
unrelated questions

11. What will we
change?
• Focus staffing on most
popular times/activities
• Changed some activities
to unstaffed displays
(e.g. goals)
• More consistent
participant debrief after
‘how fast can you…?’
challenges

12. Conclusion
@laurascupoftea
• An effective way to
maximise librarian
time on the ‘Library
floor’
• Positive feedback from
students & increased
awareness of support
librarians offer