Here at Susquehanna University, we have a club known as the Student Library Advisory Committee, commonly abbreviated to SLAC, to tie the branches of the Blough-Weis Library’s various resources and the student body together to create a more accessible and diverse experience for all the members of the community.
SLAC goes all the way back to 2007 but with the help of the Library’s Assistant Director, Ryan Ake, became an official Student Government Association (SGA) recognized club in 2015. It took a hiatus during the Coronavirus Lockdown of 2020. This past Fall of 2023, we welcomed our new SGA Library Liaison, Jaidyn Steinbrecher, who also became the stand-in President for SLAC. Our first elections were then held and introduced an era of rebuilding for SLAC.
In September, Lexie Kauffman, Class of ‘26, became the President with her Vice President, Kathryn Douglas, Class of ’26. Jaidyn Steinbrecher, Class of ’26, became the standing Secretary; Brooke Nelson, Class of ’25, became the Treasurer; Liann Melendez Quinones, Class of ’25, became the Event Coordinator; and Lisa Yarnell, Class of ’25, became the Engagement Officer.
The new SLAC executive board and members quickly began rebuilding SLAC’s presence on campus by the end of September with Banned Books Week. The week was filled with fun events like Banned Book BINGO, the first of many popular BINGO events, and even hosted Ashley Hope Pérez to talk about her own banned book, Out of Darkness.
We also held events all throughout October to get into the festivities of fall, such as our craft night where we painted ceramic pumpkins. We also took some passionate readers down to the Harrisburg Book Festival, a tradition we intend to continue as we take students on field trips to other libraries and events.
One of the other clubs we worked with during October was the GSA and Center for Diversity and Inclusion in our new LGBTQ+ Resource Center on campus. We pulled together a couple of books and held a book drive for students to donate diverse books for other members of the community to access.
Arguably our most successful event took place as the Fall Semester came to an end. Chill Out was not only a wintery play on words but also a day filled with all kinds of fun events for students to relax as finals week approached. We hosted stress-relieving events like yoga and meditation guides as well as tarot card readings and Tae Kwon Doe.
Even more exciting were the Therapy Dogs and the Reindeer Meet and Greet where students got to pet and take pictures with some festive buddies. There were hundreds of people in and out of the library that day and had massive crowds of people playing our second BINGO of the year, where we gave out books and tickets for the raffle later that night.
The Spring Semester began blind with a Blind Date with A Book where students could find books with golden wrapping paper on and dive into new topics. We had our last and Luckiest BINGO in March as a fundraiser where we sold root beer floats and snacks and made over $100. We also had our March Madness Book Bracket, with our winner being Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (read our review of the book here).
April for Susquehanna means Pride, and of course, we had to take part in the festivities on Kurtz Lane’s Pride Festival with our exclusive, and adorable, animal buttons. In April we also had our Easter Egg Hunt and gave out five books with our five golden eggs hidden throughout the library.
One of the most exciting times of the year is National Library Week, this year we celebrated with events throughout the week. We had our book fair and gave out books and ice cream as the end of the week neared.
SLAC also donated $2,000 to our Archivist, Meg Garnett, to expand our Native American Collection in the library and promote diverse education for people of all backgrounds.
The year came to an end as we prepared Self-Care Kits for students to grab as they came into the library to study for their finals.
Overall, it was an extremely successful first year being active again around campus. We have already begun planning some even more exciting events in the coming Fall, so make sure to keep up with all things SLAC on our Instagram @susqulib.
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