Great Library Events

Libraries and library staff are constantly in the process of expanding and adapting services in order to remain responsive to their varied user communities. As part of this trend, there is an increasing emphasis on providing a wide variety of programs and events; this service expansion has been met with broad enthusiasm by library users everywhere.
Great Library Events: From Planning to Promotion to Evaluation, with its holistic approach to program provision, serves as an indispensable companion for anyone responsible for event or program planning in their organization. The guide moves through a program’s lifecycle, beginning with the initial steps of defining an event’s scope, ensuring inclusivity, and constructing measurable objectives. It follows with practical considerations such as finding funding, publicizing, assessing outcomes, reporting, and using data to keep the program cycle going. To support each of these steps, and to help ensure successful initiatives, practical examples, templates, and tools are provided throughout.
While this book is aimed at library managers and programming staff, it will be helpful for anyone responsible for event or program planning in their organization, whether they are new to the task or seasoned professionals.

Mary Grace Flaherty is assistant professor at the School of Information & Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her PhD in information science & technology from Syracuse University where she was an IMLS fellow. She earned her MLS from the University of Maryland and MS in behavioral science from Johns Hopkins University and is a Fulbright scholar. Flaherty has over 25 years’ experience working in a variety of library settings, including academic, medical research, special and public. She has published in the academic literature in journals such as Library & Information Research (LISR); Library Quarterly; Public Library Quarterly; Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet (JCHI); Journal of Community Health; Reference Services Review; and the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science.
Her books include Promoting Individual and Community Health at the Library (American Library Association, 2018) and The Library Staff Development Handbook: How to Maximize Your Library’s Most Important Resource (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), which received a starred review in Library Journal and was "Book of the Week," in Against the Grain