C&RL News December 2015 586 At the beginning of each year, the Lafayette College Library runs a first year library ori- entation, which is not mandatory and therefore has consistently struggled with turnout. In the fall of 2013, I decided to choose a theme that tied into a popular new movie, which was being released at the same time. Our first year orien- tation was to be “The Research Games,” which tied into The Hunger Games movie. In ad- dition to the popular theme there were a f e w p r o m o - tional successes, which created a larger than usual turnout. With some minor changes for improvement implement- ed, the same theme was used again in the fall of 2014 as the second Hunger Games movie was released. Feedback from students who participated in both “Research Games” was collected and analyzed in order to determine student satisfaction with the orientation. This feedback helped reinforce my think- ing about the need to reinvent the orientation activity and perhaps change it drastically and run library tours instead. Game development Lafayette College is a small liberal arts resi- dential campus, where most of the students would already be familiar with the main library building. However, what is mainly left off their mandatory orientation activities or campus tours are the details of what resources and services the li- brary has to of- fer both physi- cally and on- line. The main outcome of this game was to show students what we have and where to find it. Specifi- cally students upon complet- ing this game should: • become familiar with the physical layout of the main library space; • know what library and IT services are offered at different locations; • become aware of online material such as library databases, ebooks, and streaming music and film resources; Kylie Bailin is director of outreach and access services at Lafayette College, email: bailink@lafayette.edu © 2015 Kylie Bailin Kylie Bailin From “The Research Games” to tours The evolution of first year orientation activities Participants in the “The Research Games” at Lafayette College. Photo credit Vicky Walters December 2015 587 C&RL News • become aware of physical resources such as books, journals, reference books, DVDs, circulating technology, the browsing collection, and Special Collections; and • get to know some of our friendly library and IT staff. Promotion In order to try and boost turnout, various promotional strategies were employed. The main prize that was offered to students was the promise of a free t-shirt to the first 50 students who registered to attend. This hope- fully was a great enticement to the students, but it also allowed us to see in advance how many wanted to attend. I created an online registration page us- ing the survey software Qualtrics, which was advertised on Facebook and Twitter, in an email to first year students, and on the library website. Unfortunately, using Facebook ads to target first year students was impossible, as most new students had not identified with Lafayette. The email that was sent to all first year students was probably the best way to promote this event, and we saw a huge spike in registrations after it went out. In 2013, the total number of online registrations was 77, with a total of 41 who actually showed up on the day. In 2014, we had 66 registrants, and 47 attended the event. There was a reminder email sent out, but I suspect that more signed up to get a t-shirt and then had conflicts later. Game play Students were asked to meet outside the library at the registration table, where they received their t-shirt and were given a number assigning them to a “district” as a team. The orientation began with an active component in which a member of each team or “district” competed in a brief race for a bag of library resources in front of the library. This simu- lated the race for resources that each tribute competed for in the movies. The bags of resources contained a vari- ety of materials, including books, journals, DVDs, circulating technology, and an SD card (which had a movie that IT created showing its services) that each team had to return to one of six stations (circulation, reference, browsing, Special Collections, IT, and media) in the library. Each team had a map that in- dicated the station where they should start, and then directed them where to go next. Once the teams were at each station, they learned about what resources and services were available to them both physically and online. After about five minutes at each sta- tion, the teams rotated to a different station on the map. Successes One of the major successes of this orienta- tion included having a popular and exciting theme. The students loved that this orienta- tion was based on The Hunger Games, as it was immediately relevant to something they already were interested in. The t-shirts were especially popular because they used a simi- lar font to the one used in the movie. We used a clever tag line, “All research begins with a search” instead of the quote from the movie that “Every revolution begins with a spark.” Also making the orientation team-based, rather than in the past having students going through a self-guided scavenger hunt on their own, made it more social and interactive with other new students. And finally there was a huge buzz that was created outside the library as all the pre-registered participants signed in and collected their t-shirt. An improvement I made in 2014, after receiving a few com- plaints that there was not a finale or winner, was to have free pizza and brownies in the library café at the end of the games, which also gave the students a chance to socialize. Opportunities Some of our successes actually created oppor- tunities for improvements. However, due to the nature of the games we were not able to implement all of them for the 2014 event. One issue that was hard to address was calling the orientation a game, which implied that there would be competition. The logistics of the orientation required that all the teams finish around the same time as they each rotated C&RL News December 2015 588 to a different station. Therefore there was no real winning team. However in 2013, one team that felt they finished first wanted to be declared the winner. In ad- dition to wanting more competition, even though the students already re- ceived their t-shirt at the start, that same team thought there w o u l d b e m o r e prizes at the end. This brought out the need for a finale or after party with food. There was kind of a let down when that team that finished first asked what hap- pened next and I said their prize was the t-shirt, knowl- edge, and playing the game. In 2014, at the end of the games we served free pizza and brownies in the library café, which did create a finale atmosphere and time for socializing. Initially I was planning to work in some more competition with small prizes as they journeyed around the library, but this proved difficult to implement. The other challenge of the orientation is that it is not infinitely scalable in terms of numbers. Since there are only six stations and each team begins at one of those, the number of participants is limited by how many students can comfortable fit into one of six teams. I think that the maximum number of students per team would be about 15 for a total of 90 students. Any more than that I would make learning and participating at each station difficult. The total first year class is more than 600 students, so as promotion and awareness increases, it is possible this will become un- wieldy. The other promotional aspect that I would like to increase in the future is getting more residential advisors (RAs) to bring their residents and make this a floor activity. However, the RAs were asked to contact me to secure a spot in addition to having their students regis- ter, so I would know how many teams would be taken up by them. We had one participate in 2013, but the RA did not contact me in advance. Again this is not easily expandable since there are only six teams, and we do not want them all to be taken up by certain floors. The other area where this orientation was limited was in terms of lifespan. By ty- ing the games to a popular movie, this orientation will not always be relevant to incoming classes as this movie fades from the spotlight. Student feedback and future directions After running the orientation again in the spring semester of 2015, I solicited feedback from the participants from both 2013 and 2014. Out of a total of 88, I received 24 responses: 83% said they enjoyed participat- ing in “The Research Games,” while 92% said that their participation helped them to understand what services and resources the library had. This means that two people who did not admit to enjoying the orientation said it helped them. The orientation made 75% more comfortable in, and likely to use, the library, and 79% said it made them more likely to ask a librarian for help with an assignment. While it is satisfying that a majority of stu- dents surveyed had positive feedback about the orientation, I still am facing the issues Students meet with a librarian during “The Research Games.” Photo credit Alena Principato December 2015 589 C&RL News mentioned above concerning competition and scalability, which I could not fully ad- dress. The issues about wanting more com- petition came out in the feedback as one said that having the word “game” in the “title was completely misleading” when in fact the orientation felt more like a tour. The other issue that came out in the feed- back was that some felt the orientation was too juvenile. Designing fun library games that also educate is really challenging and often does not accomplishes both goals. This led me to consider other options, such as running library tours during the first couple weeks of classes, which could address these issues, be far easier to implement, and would reach more students. Library tours not tied to a popular theme might lose some of the draw for certain students but at least they do not have a limited lifespan. I also asked the students if they thought that a library tour from a librarian would be just as useful, and 71% said yes. For this last question, I asked them to explain their answer. Of the people who said that tours would not be as useful, I think most of them were not clear that this tour from a librar- ian would be much more in depth than the general campus tours, which do not cover all that the library offers. Some made comments that they would not have paid as much attention to a librar- ian giving a tour. However, the orientation actually involved several librarians giving them information at each station, which was essentially a tour. A few others said that the orientation was fun and interactive and made them feel more comfortable to ask questions. I believe that by incorporating some of these fun aspects such as food, prizes, and socializing into tours, we can achieve better results. In fact, one student commented that they “enjoyed the experience because it was laid back and I could ask questions. Just pro- vide that atmosphere by giving students what they want: food and conversation!” By having multiple tours, we can deliver the experience to more students, and, as one student said, “be more flexible to peoples’ schedules.” To bring more competition into the tours, I plan to have an Instagram photo contest, which will serve a dual purpose of promoting our social media platforms and, as one student said, having a “real prize” with gift vouchers will add a competitive element. We will also have a quiz at the end in which teams will compete against each other to win Lafayette Library brain stress balls. Every student will also get a branded pen and sticky notes. An- other improvement mentioned by a student is to give a handout outlining the key services of the library that they will learn on the tour. This was actually something that I was already planning to incorporate because we needed a more concise update to our library student handbook, and this brochure will be one of our key promotional materials. Conclusion Overall, this first year orientation theme was a success both in terms of execution and promotion. Even with the challenges men- tioned above, the majority of students enjoyed themselves and learned about the library at the same time. However, even by incorporat- ing many of the improvements mentioned above, some of the inherent issues around competition and scalability remained. These issues can be addressed by offering a series of generic, yet informative, library tours instead. Providing multiple tour times will accommo- date more students’ schedules. The tours will also provide a social aspect with freebies, food and competition with quiz- zes, and an Instagram contest. While we can be proud of creating “The Research Games” orientation, the experience and the feedback from students confirmed the need for a new direction for our first year orientation.1 Note 1. You can see more photos from “The Research Games” at www.flickr.com /photos/laflibref/sets/72157635567914725 /a n d https://www.flickr.com/photos /laflibref/sets/72157647473117671/.