What We Did During the Pandemic: Transforming Our Student Welcome Fest to Virtual

Abstract

On March 16, 2020, the majority of the Santa Clara University community moved to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All in-person work and activity were suspended and moved to an online format. During this time, open positions were frozen, budgets were cut, and the future seemed to change every other day. Marked with uncertainty, the University Library’s Marketing and Events Committee embarked on a journey to transition its annual in-person Welcome Fest to an online event. This article describes the Marketing and Events Committee’s marketing campaign, implementation, and outcomes of the University Library’s first Virtual Welcome Fest. Future considerations include strategic collaboration with instructional librarians, feedback as an option for participants, and a hybrid format for orientation.

Keywords

• library orientation
• marketing
• outreach
• social media
• virtual event