Planning
Lots of work was put into planning the event to ensure it went smoothly and could have the most impact. This involved discussing ideas with students and staff, creating a working group of librarians planning the event in their schools, sharing ideas and getting feedback from the working group, speaking to other librarians who had run events to this scale, planning the event speakers and timings, working with school leaders and IT staff about specific school requirements (what year groups and staff would be involved, when is it happening, what do we need), sharing responsibilities and ensuring everyone knew what they had been asked to do, communicating regularly to keep everyone up to date.
Promotion
Creating library displays with the speaker’s books; sharing flyers and posters; running lunchtime activities to build excitement and prepare questions for the speakers; visiting classrooms to speak to students; sharing details in staff briefings and parent newsletters.
On the Day
A timetable had been given to staff so they knew what was happening when. Links to the sessions had been provided and IT support was on hand. All the planning and prep work meant the event ran smoothly.
Evaluation
We created a questionnaire to gather feedback about the event. A draft was put together after seeking advice from other librarians. The working group were invited to comment on this and it was edited accordingly. Copies were sent to all schools involved and we had a high response rate. The results were digitalised for easier analysis.
Following the event, many of the staff involved met again and set up a cross-school book group for shadowing the Excelsior Award.