1. Making Noise in the Library Nick Dinka, Communications Officer
Hi everyone! My name’s Nick, and I’m the communications officer for the Wilfrid Laurier University Library system.

2. Pecha Kucha
I thought I’d do my presentation today as a Pecha Kucha, which as some of you may know is a type of lightning talk consisting of 20 slides each shown for 20 seconds, for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. So including this little preamble that should take me to seven minutes.

3. MY BACKGROUND: EDITING, WRITING, MEDIA RELATIONS
Just to tell you a tiny bit about myself, my background’s in journalism, and I worked for Toronto Life and other publications before going over to the dark side of PR in I started at Laurier in 2010, on a contract for the central communications department – where I edited the alumni magazine and staff newspaper and did some media relations and general writing.
MY BACKGROUND: EDITING, WRITING, MEDIA RELATIONS

4. “I WANT THE LIBRARY TO BE A PLACE OF EVENTS, ACTIVITY AND ACTION – A CULTURAL HUB FOR THE UNIVERSITY”
–GOHAR ASHOUGHIAN
I do a lot of the same stuff at the Library, but our university librarian, who started at the same time as me, had the idea of making our Library a centre of culture and events at the university, and so despite my having literally zero event management experience this quickly became a big part of my job.

5. A FEW RECENT EVENTS
Seasonal celebration event, grand opening of a new study space, literary reading, music in the library series, space planning event, aboriginal human library.

6. The one I wanted to use as both our win and loss for today is our Music in the Library series of concerts – in part because the photos are more fun than for some of the more “serious” events, but also because they’re a decent example of what we’ve been trying to accomplish.

7. Format Performances by Faculty of Music students 2-3 times per term
Take place on Fridays at noon in main lobby and run for 45 minutes
Casual – drop in or stay for the whole thing
Light refreshments

8. Here’s the basic layout we’ve been using
Here’s the basic layout we’ve been using. The main doors are visible at the back on the right and the services and help desk is to the immediate right of the audience seating. It’s definitely not Carnegie Hall but we make it work.

9. There’s a little table of refreshments, and we also put out some nicely printed programs, so that the student performers in particular can have a little keepsake

10. Performances Woodwinds, March 2013 Guitarists, October 2013
Chamber music, December 2013
Singer-Songwriters, January 2014
Strings (all-Bach), March 2014
Our first performance was in March of 2013 Including that performance we’ve now done a total of five concerts, with more scheduled for the coming academic year.

11. This is from our first performance, by a group called the Whirlwind Quintet. One of the few really nice things about the space is that there is a display on Maureen Forrester, one of our great musical alumni, adjacent to the “stage,” so that Forrester herself, in portrait, is one of the spectators.

12. Guitarists from the studio of Terry McKenna, one of Canada’s best classical guitarists and a Laurier faculty member. The volume of the classical guitar is just about right for the Library setting, and we had two of these guys back to perform at a seasonal celebration event this past Christmas.

13. An onslaught of cellos. This was pushing what we could accommodate – our desk staff was pretty much ready to shoot me.

14. Deborah Wills (Library) Beth Ann De Sousa (Music)
The germ of the program comes from Deborah Wills, who’s our liaison librarian for music and had wanted to do concerts for a long time. She’s handled contacts with our partners at the Faculty of Music, who put us in touch with the student performers and help with promotion. I organize the actual events and coordinate promotion.
Deborah Wills (Library)
Beth Ann De Sousa (Music)
Mieke Barette (Music)

15. Our little joke is that we’re violating the first rule of libraries – ie silence – and I guess partly the project is about doing something a little different and violating some of the old stereotypes. But we also think that musical performance is in fact a natural fit for the Library.

16. “The Library is the intellectual and cultural heart of Laurier
“The Library is the intellectual and cultural heart of Laurier. It is the place where the university community comes together to access and interact with information and people, generate new ideas and engage with the great questions of our time.”
Our vision of the library is of a place where people can interact with information regardless of medium, and performed music is of course an incredibly potent medium of communication. We also think that we can add a lot of value to the university through partnerships with other groups on campus, and this is an advertisement of sorts for that.
-FROM LIBRARY VISION

17. Promotion: Facebook and Twitter Web calendars
Closed-circuit video screens
Direct (key)
We’ve been getting the word out through Facebook, Twitter, web calendars, our closed-circuit video screen, and . Direct is probably our most powerful promotion tool – we send blasts out to students, faculty and library staff with a call to action to support the performers.

18. Afterwards we post photos on social media to further promote the collaboration and get the message out about how the library is moving forward. Some of the student groups are active on social media so we’ll engage with them by posting a thank you or a couple of photos on, say, their Facebook page.

19. Challenges: A couple of noise complaints (only two)
Significant location problems
Constant battle to get bums in seats
Being a PR guy I’ve left the negative stuff to a brief aside at the end of my talk, but it’s worth noting that this hasn’t been a complete home run. We’ve had noise complaints, frustration from staff working at the desk adjacent to the performance area, and so-so attendance at some of the events.

20. Lessons: Direct promotion is key Don’t do too early or late in term
Ensembles work well
Need listings in official Faculty of Music calendar
Here are a few of the things we’ve learned from our mistakes One interesting one is that we found larger groups of performers worked well. The kids would each bring a friend or two, and it really added to the liveliness of the event.

21. Overall, though, the results have been positive
Overall, though, the results have been positive. We had over 150 attendees, not including walk-throughs, and numerous requests from campus partners to use our spaces for their events after seeing these demonstrations. We’re also proud to have given over 30 students the chance to perform for the campus community. Based on these numbers, we’ll be continuing and expanding the program next year.

22. For me, though, the biggest sign of success is when I see a student walking into the building, looking stressed and distracted, and then they hear the music and stop. And you can see them visibly relax as they listen, tuning back into the world around them, before heading off on their way.

23. Thank you for listening!