Kia ora All,

Apologies for the delay! Below is a summary of the Summer Starter Event held Thursday March 2nd.

Brian McElwaine provided his reflections in the connection section.

Principles
The Summer Starter Event put on by the UCSA is one of our core events in which we seek to connect with new users, and engage with those who are ready to use our services more. Summer Starter was strategically set aside to promote our subject librarians and their services.

Connection

It was a lot of fun, there was a good buzz in Haere-roa: students wandering around clutching snacks and tote bags full of freebies, dodging wandering pups and each other, while we stall-holders competed for their attention. We spent our time chatting to students as they passed, giving out fruit burst and postcards, and the odd subject librarian business card when a student expressed an interest. We mostly had general chats with them, or tried to get them to participate in our unscientific poll about the best and worst fruit burst. There was the occasional opportunity to talk up the subject librarian service, especially when we discovered that a student was with one of our departments. We hope it went some way towards demystifying us in the eyes of some of our ākonga, and making our subject librarian services seem a little more approachable. We had 206 people engage with us at the stall over the 4 hours we were there. Huge thanks to all of the other librarians who stepped up to occupy the stall and help make it a success for our team!