By Marvin Villanueva, Nov. 8, 2022
On Halloween, staff at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library hosted their yearly Trick or Treat event to pass out sweets to students.
For one hour across five floors and eight different locations, students were encouraged to search for the different booths where library staff were stationed with bowls of treats. Each booth had their own Halloween decorations and aimed to put students into the holiday spirit.
The Assistant to the Dean for Communication, Public Relations and Outreach Kris Zoleta says the event is a fun way for students to have a fun Halloween adventure and help them learn about different resources at the library. The event committee chose to highlight specific spaces students can use in the future by letting them trick or treat across the library and meet the library staff.
“A library can be very intimidating for people,” Zoleta said. “By showing the library as this open, welcoming space, we ease people so that they don’t have library anxiety and so that they feel comfortable with the library and feel comfortable with our services.”
Zoleta hoped the event taught students about spaces that would enhance their experience at CPP and showed them about the services that can help them succeed in their studies.
Two of the spaces highlighted at the event were the Reflection Room, a fairly new space on the fifth floor where students can have a quiet area to reflect and meditate and the Bronco Family Space, a space on the third floor where students with younger family members can have a family-friendly location to study while taking care of their children.
Another space that was highlighted was the Learning Resource Center, a space located on the second floor of the library that aims to promote student success by providing services such as subject tutoring and academic skills coaching. Clerical Assistant at the LRC, Bradley Yamashita, hopes the event engages students to take part in programs offered by the library.
“Anything that gets people into the library is in and of itself very valuable,” Yamashita said. “There’s obviously so many resources here but outside of just the obvious databases and books, there are things like RAMP and the LRC that a lot of students are actually pretty unaware of.”
By advertising spaces of the library like the LRC through the Trick or Treat event, students were able to learn about resources that they may not have even considered before the event.
This year, the event was finally back inside the library after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed last year’s booths to be outside due to social distancing regulations. Serials Unit Coordinator Victoria Vega believes that this year’s event being inside the library will improve student morale.
“The event is special because it’s fun,” Vega said. “It gets students out of finals and studying and provides them stress relief.”
The event also aimed to connect students with the library community. Since the library staff were once students themselves, Zoleta hoped the event showed students that the people behind the library’s main desks are just like them.
“I graduated from CPP with both my master’s and bachelor’s degree,” Zoleta said. “Since we’ve been through it, we can give you experience so that when you go through your college journey it will definitely be a lot easier on your end because we had to learn a lot of this stuff ourselves.”
According to Zoleta, despite the event only being for one hour, almost 500 students visited the booths which shows that students love the idea and are not only eager for this event but are eager for different events at the library.
Details about future events such Focus on Finals are posted on the library’s website and social media accounts. Recordings of past events are also posted on the library’s YouTube channel for students to still listen in to programs they may have missed.
Different resources offered at the library can also be found on the library’s website.
Feature image courtesy of Marvin Villanueva