Kia ora koutou!
As we rapidly approach Rā Tōmene | Open Day on Friday 30th August, I wanted to give a detailed debrief of our efforts for Herea tō waka | Welcome Day which was in February (and the orientation period in general, including Summer Starter).
Firstly (and of significance!), was Central comms’ subtle change in name from ‘Orientation Day’ to the new and improved ‘Welcome Day’ (of which sits within the ‘Orientation period’). Gone are the days where we refer to both significant days as the generic “O’Day!” (a relief to most of us, I am sure!).
Principles
Herea tō waka in 2024 was about connecting and reengaging with our students on campus and in our libraries. This is one of our core events which we use to support our goal of connecting people to knowledge. We aimed to show manaaki to our new and returning students in our libraries, and at the Ori market, to show the services we have available (in brief!).
Connection
Greeters at PJH
In preparation for the market day on Friday, we had greeters from across our library teams welcoming guests into PJH. We made use of the bespoke t-shirts with our UC library images designed by Ryan Dooley so that our team was recognisable by students. The meet and greet ran for the week leading up to orientation.
Engagement
Library101 sessions
This year the library tried to build on a successful model from the earlier Rā Tōmene in 2023 where we ran very tightly focussed brief Library 101 sessions across the week of Herea tō waka. The purpose of offering the sessions was to create opportunities for our ākonga to engage with our services and our staff early, so when they need our services they’ve already met us before! The idea for the sessions was to focus on “library survival skills”: the three or four key ideas that would help students be successful in their study and library use. People from both the ELS and LTR teams participated but uptake was not what we hoped. In review, we think that the orientation period of the year is the wrong time for this sort of introductory material and that in future, we would attempt to move it closer to the point of demand – when the first assessments start to be handed out.
UC Library stall
The library stall on Welcome Day (previously ‘Orientation Day’) was a fantastic opportunity for connecting with students (whanaungatanga). The stall held 2024 postcards, library guides, subject librarian guides, and Te Rua guides. We also promoted our Library101 sessions which are being held the first two weeks of semester. We chose TikTok as our primary social media to promote at the stall, as a way to grow our following with our brand-new account! In total, we saw 387 people engage with us at our Welcome Day stall!
Summer Starter
Following Herea tō waka, we continued to engage with our student body through our stall at the Summer Starter Expo in late February! This expo is run through the UCSA at Haere-roa and is a great opportunity for us to get out and engage and connect with students in their space, so when they venture into the library they are welcomed by familiar and friendly faces! For summer starter, we focussed on promoting our subject specialists and the services they offer (including promoting upcoming workshops and classes). A huge thanks to all the subject specialists who were able to come down and help out at the stall! We managed to connect with 130 people!
Thank you to everyone for helping with this very busy time of year!
Ngā mihi nui,
2024 library Ori crew
Isabella, Sara, Dale, Roman, Simon, Kathryn, Lani, Hine, and Jacqui.