From Wednesday 2nd to Tuesday 8th of October, Bill Bryson Library hosted our ‘Welcome Fair’. Coming to into a Library the size and scale of the Billy B or the first time can be a bit of a daunting experience for many, so we wanted to offer a friendly and approachable hello! We also looked to make our students (both new and existing!) feel welcome in our spaces by promoting awareness and encouraging engagement with everything we have to offer across all of Library and Collections. Plus, we wanted our users to know that we are here to support them all throughout their time at Durham.
To make things fun, this year we introduced ‘spin the wheel’! All visitors were invited to give the wheel a spin, and wherever it stopped decided what free gift they had won! The freebies included pencils (it was a very nice pencil, to be clear), erasers (shaped like little books!), chocolate bars, notepads, card wallets and water bottles. The ‘star prizes’ were vouchers for the retail outlets at the Oriental Museum and Palace Green Library. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun spinning the wheel – particularly some of the library staff who could well go on to forge careers as game-show hosts…
Other things on offer included:
- A self-guided tour
- Our ‘big screen’, set to show the map of which part of the world our collections come from
- Postcards and bookmarks with useful links to lots of information about Library and Collections
- A selection of items from our museums
Alongside all of this, friendly and knowledgeable staff from across Library and Collections were on hand to talk about the support we offer and answer any and all (library and collections-related) questions!
But now that Welcome Week has come and gone, we’re not just leaving our students to simply ‘get on with it’ themselves! As part of our ongoing welcome support, we’ve developed various sessions that will be running throughout Michaelmas and Epiphany terms to help our users familiarise themselves with the Library, find out more about our services and develop their academic skills.
The sessions include:
- Meet and Greet
Providing the opportunity to meet up with some of our team in Bill Bryson Library and be shown different parts of the building and how to use various services. - Online Essentials
A virtual guided tour of how to find our various websites, how to log in (where needed) and where to find information. - Chat With Us
As last year, users will be invited to join us for a free hot drink and a snack and ask us anything about the Library. - Academic Skills Sessions
Sessions run by our Faculty Librarian team around specific topics and skills that will help our students with their studies.
More information can be found on our new Ongoing support guide.
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