by Carina Gonzalez
I was an Academic Librarian for approximately a month when I learned about Snapshot Day. Despite having been a Library Media Specialist for years at the K12 level, I had never heard of this event. And as a newly minted Outreach Librarian, it was clearly something that would be vital to my work.
Armed with a pile of records from last year’s Snapshot Day, and a fancy camera reserved for the affair, I started to learn all about what it could do for our library. I decided to start small, since I didn’t fully understand to what I was actually committing.
In previous years I’m told that a table was set up outside our front door - booth style - to educate students as they went in and out of the library about Snapshot Day. They would fill out tiny questionnaires about why they were in the library and/or what improvements they could recommend. Snapshot Day had also coincided with the launch of our instagram account @rvcclibrary in 2015. This provided us with the opportunity to encourage lots of students to get their pictures not only taken, but tagged with their instagram names.
As I said though, that was last year. Our instagram account was already established this year, and I had classes to teach that day, so setting up a table in front of the door wasn’t an option either. I had to try something else.
I began with the fancy camera. Yes I could have used my phone, which arguably may have taken even better pictures, but I was told that walking around the library with an enormous camera hanging from my neck lent me a certain officiality. People expected to have their pictures taken. I spent a few hours taking pictures of students all around the library in poses both candid and framed. Some holding “My Library <3’s Me” signs or pretending like I wasn’t even there.
The best part was the natural conversations that grew from those encounters. The students were happy to help the library and didn’t mind knowing they were going to have their fifteen minutes of digital fame either. It connected me to the students beyond the role of instructor or resource.
In order to officially gather the reasons why students were in our library that day, I left the stack of questionnaires on the reference desk with the request that the librarian(s) on duty distribute them when approached by students. This method did not work at all. Perhaps the reference librarian on duty was so busy, polling students wasn’t a realistic possibility. Or maybe students didn’t want to participate. Either way, I left with precious little data on that front by the end of the day.
What I learned is that Snapshot Day needs to be a group effort and a dedicated event with no conflicts, if possible. Next year I need to clear my schedule so I can give Snapshot Day my full attention. I need the time to ask students for feedback directly, catch them in candid work and play, and foster pride in our community college library. I also need to involve my colleagues as much as I can, so that we are recording the day from multiple angles and perspectives. If used properly, Snapshot Day can be a powerful tool for marketing research.
If you have any suggestions on what our library can do for Snapshot Day again next year, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
Carina Gonzalez is the Outreach Librarian at Raritan Valley Community College’s Evelyn S. Field Library in Branchburg, NJ. She can be reached at carina.gonzalez@raritanval.edu.