The Innovative Library Classroom is a small and much-loved conference by any librarian who finds themself in the classroom! This was my first time attending in several years, and it did not disappoint! Shoutout to the co-chairs: Candice Benjes-Small (William & Mary), Mary Oberlies (William & Mary), Jennifer Resor-Whicker (Radford University), and Lucinda Wittkower (Old Dominion University) for another great conference!
The conference begins with a social hour and poster sessions on Thursday evening, then a full day of sessions on Friday, concluding with a series of lightning talks! The conference social hour and poster session were hosted at William and Mary’s Swem Library in Williamsburg (with the conference in the Education building on Friday). This year, before the social and poster session, the Swem library hosted a tour where the crew from ZSR got some great ideas! We took some photos from the tour to share in this post! Below are some highlights!
Signage
The construction entrance was well-marked with this temporary brick overlay!
Swem had some creative directional signage wrapped around pillars…
…and some great editable signage that could readily be added to or removed!
Displays
Both ZSR and Swem have “Welcome” in numerous languages at their entrance!
(maybe we could wrap some of our pillars with even more “Welcome” signage!)
Swem also used pillar wraps for exhibits!
(another great use for some of our pillars in ZSR!)
Services
Several services captured my notice, including an exciting one coming soon to ZSR “Short Edition,” the quick short story generator that Veronica Escamilla-Brady has championed! It will allow users to print short story and allow ZSR to publish works by our students to the service!
The other service that caught my eye was the Chromebook self-checkout station!
Art
Swem also had an impressive collection of art posters on display in and around their media spaces! (Art is never easy in large, public spaces!)
Swem’s Special Collections also displays the William and Mary University Mace when not in use!
(The WFU Mace dates back to 1968. I’m not thrilled to learn I’m one year older than WFU’s mace!)
It’s so good to see what other libraries are doing (and to be reminded what ZSR is already doing well!) It’s also nice to see other libraries struggling with similar issues! I hope to steal some of Swem’s ideas that apply to ZSR, like creating additional “Welcome” signage in many languages! Tell me which ideas above you liked the best in the comments!
6 Comments on ‘A Tour of the Swem Library – The Innovative Library Classroom (TILC 2023)’
I loved the idea of using stable structures (corners, walls, pillars, etc.) in the library to market events as well as act as informational spots/spaces. I don’t know about anyone else, but I do read while I walk and will stop if the information catches my eye.
I’ll be back TILC! My first one was last year and it is definitely a conference I don’t mind going back to continually.
I love how they made a mural to mark the construction entrance! Thanks for sharing these interesting details.
My favorite is the cool signage wrapped around and sticking out from the pillar! Thanks for sharing all of this, Hu.
A picture paints a thousand words, so I thank you for including so many! I wanted to “like” all of them. Thanks for the great info on creative solutions that others are utilizing!
Thanks, Hu; I am energized by this post! I like the temporary and easily changeable signage options. I love that the mace resides in the library; what a wonderful way to connect their long hours of study in the library to the mace that will lead them in the procession to recognize and celebrate the conferring of their hard-earned degrees.
Always love seeing what others are doing!