Building Great Programs for Patrons in their 20s and 30s (May 2019)

1. BUILDING GREAT PROGRAMS FOR
PATRONS IN THEIR
20S AND 30S
Presented by
Katie LaMantia & Emily Vinci
May 20, 2019

3. Established October 2013

4. Let’s start with a question...
Does your library currently offer programs
that cater to the 20s-30s demographic?

5. Getting Started
❖Defining the Demographic
❖Learning Your Community
❖Defining Your Mission and Goals
❖Strategic Timing
❖Reaching All Genders & Programming Themes

6. Who are Millennials/New Adults?
• Wide range of life experiences and current situations: graduations,
establishing careers, marriages, births, relocations, etc.
• Comfortable with technology
• An established social scene
• Developed means of exploring their interests
• Want a social element to their activities
• Born after Gen X
• Broadly defined as reaching young adulthood around the
year 2000

7. Learning Your Community
• What is the demographic breakdown?
• How many of your library’s current cardholders
are in their 20s and 30s?
• Where do people in their 20s and 30s socialize?

8. Mission and Goals
We want…
• patrons of all ages to see the library as a place for them in the
community.
• all patrons to view the library as relevant to their lifestyle.
• to provide social opportunities as well as opportunities for
personal growth and fulfillment.

9. Strategic Timing
• Work, family, friends take precedence
• Experiment with days/times- gauge your community, ask for
feedback from your patrons
• Try after-hours programming, like a Saturday night

10. Traditional Library Programming &
Priorities
Kids
Teens
Adults/Seniors

11. Reaching All Genders
Include a variety of programming to appeal to many interests:
• Crafting
• Gaming
• Movie Night
• Home Brewing
• DIY Home Repairs
• Financial Planning

12. NextGen Programs
❖The Nostalgia Factor
❖DIY & Crafting
❖Education & Personal Development
❖Getting Out of the Library
❖Series

13. The Nostalgia Factor
Don’t discount the power of nostalgia.
Basing programs on the pop culture of this demographic’s
childhood is a great way to appeal to and involve a wide
variety of people.

14. Nostalgia/Pop Culture Resources
What’s trending?
• Buzzfeed
• Huffington Post
• Reddit
• Jezebel
• Tumblr
• Pinterest
• Entertainment Weekly
*Patron and staff interest*

15. 90s Halloween Throwback
• Pumpkin painting
• DIY dirt cups
• Goosebumps
• Fruit Roll-Ups, Gushers,
Fruit-by-the-Foot
• Trick-or-Treating candy
assortment

17. 80s Halloween Throwback to the Future
• Watching Back to the Future II
• 80s board games
• Making scrunchies
• Trick-or-Treating candy game

18. Preschool for Adults
• Fingerpainting
• Shrinkydinks
• Playdoh
• Legos
• Coloring books
• Spirographs
• Juice boxes, animal
crackers, pudding
cups

20. Stranger Things
• Eggo waffle bar
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Button maker
• Viewing S1E1

21. B(ring) Y(our) O(wn) G(ame or system)
• After-school snack
assortment
• Participants brought a
variety of board games as
well as game systems and
video games

23. DIY and Crafting

24. UnValentine’s Day
• Combined crafting -
making unValentines and
worry dolls
• And activities - a piñata
and smashing candy
hearts

26. DIY Terrarium Workshop
• Educational, but messy,
crafty and fun
• Incorporate into
DIY/Crafting or office
decor
• Participants were able
to leave with a finished
product at no cost to
them

27. Education & Personal Development

28. Kombucha
• Instructor-led information
session about the health
benefits of kombucha and
how to brew it at home
• Demonstration of the
process while allowing for
tons of questions and
participant interaction
• Due to interest, we opened
this program to anyone
18+

29. Money Smart Week
• First time renter
• First time homebuyer
• Deciphering financial
information
Adult Milestones

30. Fitness Fair & Self-Defense Class
• Partner with local
fitness centers
• New Year’s resolution
for healthy living and
exercise
• Community event

31. QUESTION…
What is the most successful off-site
program held by your library?

32. Getting Out of the Library
If the members of this demographic are not spending a lot of their
time at the library, we can’t necessarily expect them to come to us
for programming.
Instead, we take the programs to them.

33. Community Partnerships
Another plus to holding your programs outside of the library
is the strengthened community partnerships that can come
as a result of doing so. Whether you’re holding Trivia Night at
a local pub or teaming up with a local winery to hold a tour a
tasting, opportunities abound to create programming that
benefits your patrons, your program, and local businesses.

34. Discover Your Community
• Census information
• Community attractions
• New businesses

35. Winery Tour and Tasting

36. Junk Food and Wine Pairing

37. Beer Market: Tour and Tasting

38. Are You Afraid of the Dark?
• Fall Night
• Bonfire
• Storyteller
• Creepy walk in the woods
• Crafts
• S’mores and hot cider

40. Camp NextGen
• Summer afternoon
• Storyteller
• Board Games
• Crafts
• Scavenger Hunt
• Outdoor Games
• Snacks!

41. Trivia
• Partner with a local
restaurant or bar
• Create trivia answer
sheets
• Write trivia questions-
use a trivia board
game, online generator,
etc.

42. Young(ish) Adult Book Club
• Bi-monthly
• Books available 1 month prior to
program
• Alternate genres
• Incorporate other events- viewing
film adaptations

44. Advocating for the 20s and 30s Crowd
• Make sure your adult patrons interests are
heard and incorporated into library wide
programs (not just for families and children)

45. Examples: Comic Con, Maker Day,
International Games Day, Movie-oke, M-
rated gaming tournaments or gaming,
Free Comic Books Day, Doctor Who
Comics Day

46. Questions?

47. QUESTION…
What interests and hobbies do you have that
would make a good 20s/30s program?

48. Marketing, Results, and
Outcomes
Marketing & Promotion
Budget
Measuring Outcomes

49. Marketing
How will you reach this demographic?
Promoting your programs through your standard library newsletter
and website is a start, but consider also where your
demographic spends a good deal of their time…online.

50. Branding
Not entirely necessary,
but can be helpful in
distinguishing your
programs as unique
and helps to set them
apart from the rest of
the library’s programs

51. Social Media
Facebook Group vs. Page
• Group allows all members to
contribute
• Posts show up as notifications vs.
not all page posts showing up in a
person’s newsfeed
Other social media to
consider: Goodreads,
Instagram, Pinterest

52. ➔ contact information
➔ links to social media
➔ feed from library
calendar with
upcoming programs
➔ link to sign up for
constant contact
newsletter
➔ information about
community partners
Website & Direct Email Newsletter

54. Working With Your Budget
• Pulling from multiple budgets
• Pooling resources
• Cultivating staff talent
• In our case, success of NextGen programming, shown
through statistics and monetary tracking led to creation of
new budget line for next Fiscal Year

55. Measuring Outcomes
How will you measure the success of your programs?
What outcomes are you hoping to see as a result of your 20s and
30s programming?

56. Statistics & Breakdowns
• Sign in sheet
– Name
– Age
– How did you hear about this program?
– Email
• Post-program surveys

57. Post-Program Sample Survey

59. Program Breakdowns & Results
• Keep track of time and money spent
• Communicate to management
• Qualitative comments

60. Lessons Learned
and
Positive Outcomes

61. Out of the demographic
“Because the goal of this programming group is to provide unique
programming for people in the 20-39 age group, we prefer not to have
anyone outside of this age range, including young children, attend our
events. If you feel you have special circumstances and would like us to
reconsider, please let us know.”
• With support from management, this was the policy we initially enforced
• Not dissimilar from YS and Teen having strict age restrictions on their
programs
• As the programs have grown, however, we continue to target 20s and 30s
demographic, but do not enforce an age policy.
• Collaboration with other programmers in the library

62. Adults Facing Social Challenges
From our very first program, we have had participation from
patrons on the Autism spectrum and others who face social
challenges.
After receiving feedback from parents of adults on the spectrum,
we researched the needs of these adults in our community and
reached out to organizations in the communtiy to see what
needs we could fill.

63. NextGen AFSC
• Casual, low-stress
• Emphasis on social interaction in
a space that feels safe
• Programs have included crafts,
board/video games, a genre
discussion, drawing class, green
screen workshop and a dating
rules/etiquette information
session
• Programs held once a month and
attended by at least one
professional from one of our
community partners

64. Staff Involvement

66. Transition from Teens to Adults
Teens aging out of teen services want to continue
attending programs with members of their peer group.

67. Final Thoughts
• Numbers don’t always matter
• Failure will happen!
• Patron feedback is critical

68. Questions?

69. A Year of Programming for Millennials
and More
Click here to buy from ALA Editions
50 + Fandom Programs: Planning Festivals and
Events for Tweens, Teens and Adults
Click here to buy from ALA Editions
Pop Culture-Inspired Programs for Tweens,
Teens, and Adults
Click here to pre-order from ALA Editions
by Amy J. Alessio, Katie LaMantia, and Emily Vinci:

70. Additional Resources
Facebook Groups
• Millennial Programming Ideas
• ALA Think Tank
• Programming Library Interest Group
Anything Libraries, Colorado
• https://www.anythinklibraries.org/
Sacramento’s Public Library’s alt+library
• http://altlibrary.com/

71. Contact Information
Katie LaMantia
lamantiak@gmail.com
Emily Vinci
evinci@stdl.org

72. Thank you for attending!