Finals Week Pet Grams

While brainstorming Fall 2020 finals week programming ideas, the Outreach & Evening Librarian at McDaniel College’s Hoover Library came across a Facebook post from Unleashed Pet Rescue and Adoption advertising their Howl-O-Ween Puppy Grams fundraiser. She immediately thought she could adapt this program as a virtual, asynchronous alternative to the library’s usual therapy dog event.

In early November, she reached out to Keystone Pet Enhanced Therapy Services (KPETS), a local organization that typically visits campus for therapy dog events, and to library staff to solicit pet photo submissions using a shared Google Folder. Six Pet Gram templates were created in Canva, and, with the help of a student employee, these photos were added to the design. A form was created to collect Pet Gram requests from students, staff and faculty, and an email template in which the Pet Grams would be sent was drafted. While this planning process took about two weeks initially, preparations in future semesters (Spring 2021 and Spring 2022) took less time because the email template, graphics, and form easily could be edited and reused.

When the Student Outreach Librarian at UNF’s Carpenter Library learned of Hoover Library’s idea for Pet Grams, she quickly wrote a proposal and submitted it to library administration to host their own effort in Fall 2020. In November 2020, the outreach team asked for pet photo submissions from library staff and quickly designed the Pet Gram graphics in Canva.

Each Pet Gram from Hoover Library and the Carpenter Library includes a photograph of a library pet, a colorful and seasonal or thematic background, library logo, and a motivational saying, such as “You Can Do It!” or “Keep Going!”