At its third annual open house, the Fresno State Library showcased its resources and connected with students through free food.
The event was held on Tuesday Oct. 8 and featured informational booths, crafts and giveaways.
Informational booths included the research services unit where students can learn who their subject librarian is, the Teacher Resource Center, Geospatial Information Services and more.
To participate in the raffle, students had to visit each booth and receive a stamp on a card from each booth representative. Raffle prizes included succulents in Halloween themed pots, Italian style notebooks and bookmarks from China provided by librarians.
Ginny Barnes, librarian for first year student success, helped put together the event as a way to let students know the library is more than just books and has a lot more to offer.
“This is our opportunity to kind of showcase that for students, to get them to learn about everything they have access to and all the cool people that work in a library that are very eager to help,” she said.
Taylor Peterson, librarian for the TRC volunteered to participate in the open house for that exact reason. At her table, Peterson was showcasing a Makey Makey, a kind of educational toy to teach younger students about STEM.
The Makey Makey circuit board was connected to a laptop and PlayDough and when someone touched the playdough, noise would play through the computer as shown on the monitor.
This was one of the interactive toys Peterson had out for attendees to play with, in addition to a marble run and huge Connect Four, all of which are available for students to check out.
Peterson believes the open house serves everyone well as students can learn more about library resources while faculty can come out to interact with the campus community.
“I love it. Last year, I did keep track but I don’t have the numbers off the top of my head. I had a big number of people come to the center after we did this because they heard about it,” she said. “So it really seems to be working, and that’s positive. So I like to keep doing it and keep that momentum right.”
Izabella Lopez, animal science major and frequent library goer, heard about the open house after seeing a poster about it earlier in the day.
In between classes, Lopez said she came mainly for the free pizza and to look around for a bit, but did enjoy what she saw.
Given Lopez just joined the Uchida research lab on campus, she was particularly interested in the booth to meet her subject librarian and took a picture of that for future reference.
In addition, Lopez left a book recommendation based on her zodiac sign, which was a little interactive activity near the exit of the open house. Being a cancer and fan of fantasy novels, Lopez recommended Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
As a recent transfer from Modesto Junior College, Lopez really stressed the importance of taking opportunities on campus and attending events like these when possible.
“From my perspective, I come from a community college, and in community college, there’s very, very little opportunities,” she said. “Since I’m interested in going to graduate school in the future, I need to be involved in campus and get a lot of experience for my major.”
Dean of the library, Janet Crum, was very much pleased with the open house turnout as it gave her the chance to interact with students and faculty, as opposed to being in her office skimming through emails or being in meetings.
Though she just started at Fresno State in August, Crum said she can feel the love campus has for the library.
“People love this library which is very heartwarming to me. I was a library user as a kid, and the library was my safe place and my happy place, and I see that in the folks here, but yeah, people always have a good word to say about the library, and they’re just kind,” she said.
Though the open house is only held once in the fall semester, the library staff hopes to put on more events to attract students. Barnes has bounced around ideas such as a scavenger hunt inside the library and of course giveaways.
Students and faculty can follow the library’s Instagram page for more.
