The Willoughby City Library is holding a Pop-Up Library at the Thursday Street Markets and Victoria Ave Mall in Chatswood. Representatives from various library teams will staff the Pop-Up Library to promote the library's collection, resources, and events. The goals are to reach new patrons, sign up members, and increase awareness of e-resources and in-person activities. Success will be measured by visitors, circulation, sign-ups, and exposure. At their first Pop-Up Library, they had over 95 interactions including new members, items borrowed and returned, and inquiries about services and events. Lessons learned include having bilingual staff, weather-dependent success, eye-catching displays, and promotion of specific

1. Willoughby City Library
Pop-Up Library

2. Who
• Representatives from all library teams.
• Sarah – Home Library Services
• Weili – Community Languages
• Cecilia- Online Services
• Liz P/ Meg – Promotions
• Margo/Liz G Service Delivery
• Cheryl/ Angelis – Collection Development
• Peter B – Courier and Maintainance Man

3. Where & When
• Thursday Street Markets
• Victoria Ave Mall, Chatswood

4. Aims
Why a Pop Up Library?
• Pop up libraries have been gaining a lot of
popularity among public libraries as both a
marketing and outreach exercise
• They are a fun and exciting way of reaching
out to our current members, but also allow us
to sign up new people who do not visit our
branches
• They also provide a great chance to promote
our collection – both physical and electronic.

5. Content
• Adult Fiction & Non- Fiction
• AV – DVDs, CDs & Audio
Books
• Community Language Books
• Children’s books & DVDs
• Promotional materials such
as:
What’s on at the Library,
Book Marks,
Online services promotions.

6. Desired outcomes
• Increased awareness of:
• E-resources
• Event at the library such as:
Talks @Willoughby
Learn@the Library classes
Children’s activities
Multicultural activities
• A convenient location to sign up and borrow
• Promote the modern and extensive collection

7. How do we measure success?
• Number of visitors to the Pop-up Library
• Circulation Activity
• Handouts given to visitors
• E-news letter sign-up
• PR exposure

8. Statistics
• Over 95 interactions during the 5 hours, which
included:
6 new members
34 items borrowed
19 items returned
28 general inquiries (location/branches/joining
requirements)
35 collection inquiries/people borrowing
16 event inquiries Eg: Talks @Willoughby/Children’s
activities/Music on Mondays/Book clubs
13 Learn @ the Library inquires Eg: Tech Savvy Seniors/E-
Skills bar/tutorials.

9. What we have learnt
• It is best to have 2 library staff working at the pop-up library
• If possible, one staff member should be a Mandarin or Cantonese speaker
• Weather will determine the pop-up library success
• Have the most eye-catching books and DVDs on display (e.g. new big cookbooks,
science books, latest releases etc.) to portray the modernity of the collection –
helps catch the attention of people passing by
• Promote what’s on at the time, not all the time (not just “we have author talks”,
but “we have a talk on….this Thursday”) helps keep it relevant
• Give visitors the chance to sign up on the day
• Be prepared for the technology not to work (e.g. manually record data for
circulation)
• Test public wi-fi
• Have somewhere to sit with visitors to demonstrate e-books and e-magazines
• Start collecting items weeks prior to the pop up
• Record the number of members and non-members who visit

10. Welcome to the Pop-Up Library