PROGRAMMING CORNER

Picture it:  you learn about this great program that another library did or perhaps you create a program that you heard could be successful if tailored to your community. You book the program and do the necessary listing in the newsletter and provide flyers and a poster. You reach out to the custodians to tell them how to set up the room. The day of the program you or your colleague make sure that everything is ready for the crowd to attend. When the time of the program happens only one or two people show up. At the sight of the sparse crowd, you are left dumfounded wondering what happened. Year after year, libraries offer programs to serve their community and beyond. Highlighting topics that include cultural education, entertainment and hands-on activities, arts-related events bring people together. The notion of bringing people together online and in person is important especially during an epidemic of loneliness. While many libraries like to talk about their successful programs, there are many unsuccessful programs that take place. Libraries go above and beyond to serve populations of all sizes. But there is a longing for all programs to become popular and well attended to impress the attendees enough to return and for administrative approval.

     Oftentimes, libraries would try two methods to safeguard their event from low attendance. First, they would require registration to see if people are interested so they have a “concrete” list of attendees. Some program contracts stipulate that if the registration is too low then the program is cancelled. The next option is to relax registration requirements and cross fingers to see if people will show up whether they register or not. While there is no surefire way to know how many people will show up, there are many ways to learn why people don’t attend programs. Once you know why people don’t attend you can create avenues that could take action to prevent low attendance.

Lack of Interest

In the advent of busy personal lives, streaming and social media, easy access to outside programming creates   competition for library programs. Your library patrons have many distractions and hobbies, and you must create programs that connect them through continued education, themes, current events and personal interests. However, sometimes programs are not worth revisiting if you tried the program more than once and the attendance is still low. You must know when to persist and when to fold.

TRY: Offer the option to learn something new in a series of programming that gives patrons ownership when deciding if the library should bring it back. You can create this type of program to occur at the same time every month for continuity. It can be a “program test” segment where   participants can vote on whether it’s worth revisiting.

Lack of Awareness

While newsletters reach residents, they may not be enough to grab someone’s attention. Library users must see the program advertisement multiple times before deciding to attend it. The newsletter coupled with email blasts, social media, flyers and other video content creates a content machine that communicates what the program will offer along with its benefits. Keep in mind, timing is everything when promoting an event. Diligently study how, where and when people respond to advertising so you can create the right time to promote an upcoming event.

TRY: Promoting the event as early as possible can acquire interest. Marketing the program during the event on social media can show followers what they are missing. A recap of videos or images after the program took place can also show patrons what they missed and could encourage them to attend next time.

Wrong Timing or They Forgot

As mentioned earlier in the article, there are many competitive forces that grab the attention of your attendees that compete with a library program. Life can get busy so multiple reminders can really help to remind the patron about their registration.

TRY: Try to be aware of outside programs in the area and popular events or holidays so you do not book an event at the same time. You can also collaborate with your Publicity Department to set up multiple reminders via text, email and social media.



Bad Weather

In the years before the pandemic, I’ve had many experiences with good programming happening during unpredictable weather conditions. There’s nothing worse than hard work curtailed by a storm that prevents patrons from coming to the library. A blessing from the pandemic is the ability to offer hybrid or virtual programs. Technology awareness helps libraries to meet their patrons exactly where they are anytime. Nowadays, when there’s a storm and if it’s safe for a program to function in the library, I would offer virtual or hybrid programming as an option. I can attest that one instance I had twenty people attend a concert in person during a rainstorm while fifty people attended online.

TRY: Library workers including librarians have to stay active in creating multiple ways for users to access programs by practicing many ways to set up hybrid equipment and software that can simultaneously be streamed on platforms like Zoom or YouTube