Implementing a Film Series for Community Engagement
Kelly Blessinger, Stephanie Braunstein, Jennifer Abraham Cramer, 
Linda Smith Griffin, Paul Hrycaj
Louisiana State University
Abstract
	In its efforts to engage more fully with the general campus and create a stronger bond with students and faculty, the LSU Libraries decided to initiate a film series.  The committee that formed to create this series conceived of it as a way to raise the profile of the library on the LSU campus, particularly with students, to provide the opportunity for greater collaboration with discipline faculty, and to enhance the library’s educational role, as well as to highlight the quality of some excellent and overlooked documentaries.  This paper will review the experiences of the LSU Libraries with its film series, which has been running to this point for two years.  The authors will investigate the “nuts and bolts” of an academic library initiating a film series, some of the pitfalls and opportunities such a series entails, and how those pitfalls can be managed and opportunities capitalized upon, as well as touching on some theoretical issues related to these matters, such as collaboration between libraries and faculty, the academic library as place, and “engagement” vs. “outreach.” 	
Keywords: Documentary Films; Film Series; Community Engagement; Library 
       Outreach; Workplace Collaborations

Introduction
	While academic libraries play a pivotal role in the lives of institutions of higher education, within the current environment of declining reference statistics, shrinking budgets, and expanding online resources, often there is a sense that these physical libraries are underutilized and underappreciated.  As a response to these factors, academic libraries generally wish to raise their profiles on their respective campuses.
In 2012, the LSU (Louisiana State University) Libraries’ specific response to these challenges was to initiate a new film series.  A committee was formed to implement this series, which viewed the series as a way to raise the campus profile of the Libraries, enhance the educational role of the Libraries, and to provide the opportunity for greater collaboration with discipline-specific faculty.  The committee also believed that a film series was a way to further some of the goals of the Libraries’ recently revised strategic plan, to spotlight the documentary film format, and to inject additional interest in cinema on campus.  
This discussion will review the LSU Libraries’ film series, which recently completed its second year.  The goals of this article are to determine the fundamental aspects of initiating a film series, review the pitfalls and opportunities of such a series, and to consider how to manage the pitfalls and capitalize on the opportunities. Aside from discussing the practical matters of hosting a film series, the authors will touch on some theoretical issues related to these matters, such as collaboration between librarians and faculty, the academic library as place, and engagement vs. outreach. 

Background
In the summer of 2012, each department at the LSU Libraries was asked to create goals that aligned with the Libraries’ new strategic plan.  For one of these goals, “Increase the visibility, use, quantity, and quality of library resources and services in support of teaching, research, and creative activities,” two members of the Reference Department suggested that the Libraries implement a film series that would showcase the Libraries’ collections on the various topics of the films.  After approval from the Dean, a film committee was formed.  The committee consisted of the two previously mentioned faculty as well as another member from a different library department.  
The committee met and planned the first film series for the spring of 2013.  That year, the committee showed four films--three documentaries and one feature film based on a historical event that was recounted in archived letters. The four films were The September Issue, Glory, Stolen, and If a Tree Falls…: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. The films were shown monthly on Wednesday afternoons from January to April of 2013.  The films, excluding The September Issue, were shown in the month most appropriate to related holidays and historical months: Glory, a feature film about the Civil War’s first all-black regiment, was shown during Black History Month; Stolen, a documentary on one woman’s story of modern day slavery in Algeria, was shown during Women’s History Month; and If a Tree Falls…, a documentary on the radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front, was shown close to Earth Day.  
Each of the films was preceded by a brief scholarly introduction from someone with relevant experience with the topic.  The speakers included a graduate student, a professional in residence, a professor, and a librarian with experience in political protests. Advertisements were posted in a variety of ways, including the university’s newspaper, the campus radio station, and the campus calendar on the university’s home page.  In addition, a display created by a graduate assistant was placed in the lobby of the main library, and the display changed with each film, showcasing resources from the Libraries’ collections on the film’s topic.   For a full list of places where the film was advertised, see Appendix A.  A commercial popcorn popper was purchased, and light refreshments were provided during the films.  Participants were asked to fill out a brief survey, which entered them in a prize drawing for a “movie pack” of assorted snacks typically found at movie theatres.  The survey gauged what the best times were for the events, how attendees heard about the series, and if they felt they learned anything from the event.   The total cost, including displays, advertising, refreshments and related equipment, and prizes, for the first film series was $1,860.
The second year of the LSU Libraries’ film series was, in many ways, a very different experience from that of the prior year.  This time, the Film Committee applied for, and received, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Gilder Lehrman Institute grant-funded “Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle” film series.  This series included four films that were selected by the granting agencies to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which showcased the civil rights struggle from the days of slavery to the landmark Loving vs. Virginia Supreme Court case that legalized mixed race marriage. The films included The Abolitionists, Slavery by Another Name, Freedom Riders and the Loving Story.  Two other Libraries faculty members were asked to join the committee and agreed to do so. The committee also decided to include a fifth film on local civil rights history, Signpost to Freedom: The 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott. Since this was a grant-funded endeavor, the Libraries did not need to pay for the licensing for the films, and also received $1,200 for hosting and promoting the events.  In addition, the Libraries were able to add these films to the circulating collections after the events were complete.  The film committee viewed this program as contributing to a second goal of the Libraries’ Strategic Plan: Diversity: Foster diversity among our faculty and staff. In addition, we will foster diversity in the information resources we collect and to which we provide access, as well as in the services we provide, the better to serve our varied constituencies.
The granting agencies created a guide that recommended that the recipients show clips of each film to be followed with a discussion led by a scholar in the humanities. In light of this, the committee decided to hold two events for the majority of the films: a daytime clip-viewing plus discussion, and a nighttime viewing that showed the complete film without discussion.   The group also partnered with various community entities, including the Baton Rouge Community College, the Baton Rouge Parish Library (Carver Branch), Southern University, the West Baton Rouge Museum, and Shiloh Baptist Missionary Church, on additional events. These partnerships allowed us new venues at which to show the films and thereby to reach out to varying constituencies. Some members of the committee felt that these partnerships were the most valuable part of the grant program.  Not only did the library partner with organizations it rarely works with (if ever), but departments within the library that usually work separately got the opportunity to collaborate, in particular, Research & Instruction Services (previously known as the Reference Department), Government Documents, Cataloging, the Oral History Center, and Special Collections.  There were two in-person meetings of the film committee with the outside collaborators, which created connections that didn’t previously exist as well as the possibility for future collaboration. 
The same advertising outlets were used as in the first film series, but, in addition, outdoor banners were designed for the main library and the special collections library.  Also, professors and relevant campus groups were contacted to let them know about the series and to invite them to inform their classes and/or other constituencies.  The whole series took place in a condensed time period that began with the week of January 20th, 2013, which coincided with the week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  The series ended at the end of February with a panel discussion on the films and their topics located at a historically black church known for its outreach and collaboration with the university community. 
Literature Review
Community programming has long been a tradition for public libraries.  Considering the broad mission of the public library, with its inherent emphasis on “public,” that tradition seems natural.  The academic library, in contrast, has been seen as having a different mission, its inherent emphasis being on serving a more discrete population, the academic community.  General challenges to this division of populations and the stereotypical idea that each library type has a pre-ordained and fixed constituency have been made for some time.  This literature review emphasizes initiatives coming from academic libraries interested in new ways of enhancing their roles as community partners and breaking out of the stereotype that they serve only the academic community.  To that end, the notion of community can have a broader scope.  In academic libraries, it would be more helpful to the expanded mission of (and advocacy for) the institution to include both the formally affiliated academic population and the informally affiliated geographic population in the scope of “community.”  The goal of that inclusion is to promote the library and enhance its relationships with both the on-campus world and the off-campus world that surrounds it.

Is it Outreach; is it Engagement—or both?
By way of further clarification of terminology, it seems appropriate to make a differentiation between two types of programming initiatives: Outreach v. Engagement.  This differentiation is described by Walter (2010) when paraphrasing from an article by Byrne (1998):
Unlike earlier notions of “outreach” that focused on the simple provision of campus resources to community members, “engagement” is defined by the application of campus-based expertise to issues of public concern, and by the notion of a “partnership” between the university and members of the community that allows mutual benefit to accrue to each side.  (p. 6)

In addition to making that distinction more clear, Walter’s “Advocacy through Engagement: Public Engagement and the Academic Library” proves to be a valuable source of suggestions about public engagement (also called “’civic engagement’” or “’community engagement’” [p. 5]).  For example, Walter writes, “In making a commitment to public engagement . . . the library might give the same priority to collaboration with campus public engagement programs as it does to collaboration with traditional academic programs” (p. 7).  This theory is, of course, pertinent only at institutions that have active “campus public engagement programs,” and it supports Walter’s basic thesis that academic libraries “are rarely discussed as part of the public engagement agenda. . . . [and] have not been as strategic as they might be in identifying those activities as central to the academic library mission” (p. 8; 17).  
While Walter’s tone is polemical, other recent publications stressing community engagement take a more case-based approach.  Leong (2013) takes a case-based approach and gives it an international context, using examples of engagement by academic libraries in Canada, the United States, and China.  In Leong’s article, he tends to use the terms “outreach” and “engagement” interchangeably—in contrast to Walter (and Byrne) above.  His reasoning is that “the changing focus of outreach programs corresponds tightly with how academic libraries define outreach,” and he notes that the “concept of outreach has been gradually broadened to encompass Information Literacy within and beyond the campus, exchange and partnership, visiting programs, exhibitions and library events” (223).
Leong provides lists of exhibitions and other scholarly events that took place at locations in the three nations he highlights.  A particularly impressive number is reported by the University of Hong Kong Libraries: from 2005 to 2010, they offered 42 exhibitions that were described as “serv[ing] as an open platform for community participation in the enhancement of public cultural life in Hong Kong” (Leong, 2013, p. 225).  
The phrase “cultural life” from the quote above can take on a more focused meaning by simply adding the prefix “multi” to the word “cultural.”  In that context, an article by Love (2007) addresses the idea of engagement between the academic library and student organizations and services meant specifically for minority students and/or students from diverse cultural backgrounds (a “concentrated” version of that international context—where many nationalities come together in one location).  At the time the article was published, Love (2007) noted that “multicultural library outreach is a chronically under-explored area” and that the professional literature “frequently addresses common themes such as the present lack of multicultural outreach initiatives across academic communities” (p. 13-14).  She also makes the observation that academic libraries and student services in general share a “set of fundamental values” as both entities “serve to foster learning outside of the classroom and to instill life-long critical thinking skills in students” (p. 14).
As Love’s article unfolds, it provides practical suggestions for strengthening outreach efforts from libraries to minority student/multicultural services on campus; she provides a step-by-step guide and acknowledges both the benefits and the obstacles to promoting this type of outreach activity.  As noted previously, the LSU Libraries made a specific effort to include minority student/multicultural services when it reached out to on-campus groups in order to promote the civil rights film series.  This motivation seems obvious considering that the topic of the film series was the American Civil Rights Struggle.  Nevertheless, a topic does not have to be form-fitted to a particular audience in order to justify reaching out to that audience as a matter of inclusivity; it is dangerous to make assumptions about what is and is not interesting or important to any particular person, let alone a whole group of people.  
Outreach/Engagement with Faculty
On-campus outreach and/or engagement activities can be unilateral, bilateral, or multilateral.  The first option implies that there is just an active/passive relationship between the library and the rest of the institution: the library promotes and the campus acknowledges that promotion.  In a bi-lateral or multi-lateral option, the library promotes and specific campus entities collaborate with the library.  
An example of these latter options is collaboration between the library and discipline-specific faculty.  This level of collaboration can take the form of enlisting the help of faculty members in a film series as speakers or panel participants.  Requesting the attendance of faculty members’ classes—perhaps even working together on devising related assignments—provides yet another avenue for collaboration with faculty that eventually has an impact on students.  Thus, these options can bring benefits to the library, e.g., increased campus profile among faculty and students, increased library use by students, and more good will between the library and the discipline faculty.

Library as Place
Reinforcing the earlier discussion of public engagement is the notion of the “library as place.”  Particularly with regard to academic libraries, Montgomery and Miller (2011) note that the academic library is a good candidate for a “third place” for students, i.e., a place where people choose to go that is outside of their work or home: “When considering the role of the library building and the needs of the users, the library can become the ‘third place’ giving them a place to meet and create a sense of community” (p. 232). Similar ideas are expressed in such works as the Council on Library and Information Resources’ Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space (2005) and The Library as Place: History, Community, and Culture, by Buschman and Leckie (2007).  The notion of “library as place” was also focused on at the recent ALA Summit on the Future of Libraries, as noted in the “Report to ALA membership”: “A similar discussion returned to the concept of the library as physical and virtual space – a place for people to meet face-to-face and a place for people to discover the community virtually” (Bolt, 2014, p. 11). This report’s future visions for changing institutional roles calls for libraries to be ‘embedded’ in the community, actively participating in community organizations to achieve community goals, and bringing in new voices and different people.” (Bolt, 2014, p 4).  
Bringing students, faculty, and even the community beyond the campus gates together at a film program hosted by the campus library and held in a library setting can foster the sense of community already engendered by the inherent nature of the library and can further solidify its central role in the life of the academy and its community.
Issues, Controversies, Problems
	The first issue with the movie series was the selection of the movies.  In the first year of the film series, the committee chose mainly documentaries on varied topics because they were educational and highly-acclaimed but also entertaining.  The committee felt that documentaries were more in line with the educational mission of the library and the university than feature films.  Films based on real events also gave the library more of an opportunity to display related materials from the Libraries’ collections.  
The first year, the film committee was unsure whether the films would need licensing clearance since they were to be shown in an educational setting; however, after investigation, the group found the following information from copyright.gov:
Can a school show a movie without obtaining permission from the copyright owner?
If the movie is for entertainment purposes, you need to get a clearance or license for its performance. 
It is not necessary to obtain permission if you show the movie in the course of “face-to-face teaching activities” in a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, if the copy of the movie being performed is a lawful copy. 17 U.S.C. § 110(1). This exemption encompasses instructional activities relating to a wide variety of subjects, but it does not include performances for recreation or entertainment purposes, even if there is cultural value or intellectual appeal.
Questions regarding this provision of the copyright law should be made to the legal counsel of the school or school system. (U.S. Copyright Office, 2014)
Since, given these rules, the library would need to get licenses to publicly show the films, the committee then needed to ascertain if the university already had licenses with certain agencies.  A committee member contacted the Student Union’s Event Management group, which had previously held film events, to see if the university had an established relationship with any licensing agencies.  The university had used SWANK Motion Pictures, Inc., in the past, so the committee worked with this group.  Licenses were purchased through Swank Motion Pictures, Inc., for an average of $350 per film.  This licensing allowed one public viewing of the film.  The licensing agency requested the dates that each film would be shown, and a DVD was sent prior to the date of the screening.  After the viewing, the licensing agency required that the films be sent back to them.  Licensing costs may be overly burdensome to some institutions. 
While the second year of the film series was grant-funded and the films did not require licenses to be shown, this brought its own unique set of circumstances due to the necessity of collaborating with the campus Office of Sponsored Programs on the budget for the program.  Although the committee received $1,200 for the series, every expenditure needed to be approved by this office, and some requests were denied due to their rules and regulations.  For example, while “honoraria” were written in the budget, when the committee wanted to give each of the guest speakers a gift card of modest value, it was discovered that the university’s rules for grants did not allow gift cards as honoraria.  The committee was surprised because the previous year the group had given all the film series speakers’ gift cards, but because these had been donated by the campus Barnes and Noble Bookstore, this did not result in any problems.  
The film committee also had to contend with the numerous details of advertising and promoting the film series.  The Libraries advertised the film programs in a number of ways, and some of the advertising materials took more time to create than others.  The graduate assistants in Research & Instruction Services and a Computer Analyst in Special Collections helped out tremendously in this area.  They assisted in designing the ads for the lobby, bookmarks, banner ads for the Libraries’ web page, banners, programs, handbills, and with advertisements for the flat screen televisions in the main library and in the Student Union.  The graduate assistants’ experience with Adobe Photoshop and InDesign was especially helpful for these tasks.  
While pairing movies with historic months or holidays seems like a logical thing to do, it should be noted that if many similar programs are scheduled in a month, such as Black History Month, your series will be in competition for speakers and/or scholars.  The Black History Month scholars and speakers on the LSU campus were in very high demand during February.  Another issue with timing is that when all the program events are scheduled for a brief, concentrated period of time, film committee members may begin to feel inundated with the project and not able to complete as much as they would like in their normal day-to-day activities.  This was a particular issue for the second year of the film series, as four of the five members of the committee were department heads and already had a full schedule.  
Other considerations include the location of the events and parking surrounding that area.   LSU is a very busy campus, and parking is not always easy to find during normal business hours.  While visitor parking is available for a nominal fee, this may still be a deterrent if activities are held during the day, when most of the staff are working.  Holding the events outside of working hours means that the committee members need to work outside of their normal work schedules.  During the first year of the film program, all of the events were held on campus at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays. During the second year, the events were held at more varied locations and times due to community partnerships.  Also, the main library at LSU, Middleton, does not have an auditorium or a suitable space for public performances.  As a result, the entirety of the first film series was shown at LSU’s Special Collections Library, which does have an adequate performance space.  Unfortunately, this facility has very limited foot traffic, which does not lend itself well to spur-of-the-moment attendees, whereas brisk foot traffic in Middleton Library has contributed to the success some previous events, such as the Libraries Open House.
In regard to the timing and viability of events, another issue to consider is whether your university is largely a commuter campus, or has a large number of campus residents in the dorms or affiliates who live close to campus.  Weather can be an issue as well.  For instance, if you live in the Gulf Coast region, it may be best not to schedule the events during hurricane season.  The second film series experienced one such cancellation due to a very rare occurrence of an ice storm in the area that led to the cancellation of classes.  
The main issue in common with both years of the LSU Libraries’ film series was unpredictable attendance.  Despite the large amount of advertising for both film series, both series had dates when attendance was much lower than expected, though occasionally attendance was higher than expected as well.  It is difficult to motivate students to attend a campus program that adds to their already busy schedules, regardless of the quality of that program.  Solutions for the attendance issue are considered in the next section.
Solutions and Recommendations
	A key logistical recommendation for any college or university library wanting to host a film series is first to identify your local assets.  As mentioned earlier, in the first year of the series the film committee contacted the bookstore on campus for the donation of gift cards for the speakers that introduced the films.  Another option is to request to meet with any event planners that may be on your campus.  The majority of larger universities will have annual events put on by the Student Union or some other campus entity.  It is a good idea to identify successful programs within your school and then to set up a meeting with those responsible to share ideas in order to determine whether a film series may be a good fit for your institution.  This will also provide the opportunity to make connections and possibly partner with them on any successful existing programs that the library could assist with or co-sponsor.  
The film committee also tried to take advantage of and highlight resources of local interest for the second year of the film series, which focused on the civil rights movement.  “Old Ways No More,” an audio visual presentation on South Louisiana Civil Rights featuring LSU Libraries’ oral history collections, played in the main library entrance on a flat-screen television throughout the duration of the film series, serving as a way to promote the series as well as to showcase a library resource.  Also, the events of the film series’ second year held at LSU Libraries in Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall were set against the backdrop of a Special Collections gallery exhibit, “Relentless Pursuit of Equal,” featuring primary sources documenting the Civil Rights efforts in South Louisiana.
The next step, to help insure a more robust and consistent audience, is to identify frequent library users amongst faculty and to partner with them. There are a variety of ways this could be done.  For example, the film committee could request that teaching faculty add at least one film series event to their syllabus for potential extra credit or as part of an assignment.  Another option is to align the films with subject matter being taught in courses, which could motivate professors to bring their students to the film.   A professor could provide an introduction to the film to make it more appropriate for his or her class.  Librarians could also partner on a follow-up assignment. Another idea, if the films have already been selected, is to look at the course offerings for the semester to determine all the classes that are on similar subject matter; the relevant professors can then be contacted and asked to provide film series information to their students.  One of the partners on the second year of the film series, Baton Rouge Community College, collaborated with professors to provide extra credit, resulting in a turnout of over one hundred participants in the case of some of the film showings.  Another idea is to partner with community organizations for wider promotion and the possibility of providing a variety of venues for the events. A logistics checklist has been created as Appendix B to assist with the details necessary to conduct a film and/or discussion series.  It is also a good idea to collaborate with and seek consultation from experts who specialize in the creation of community dialogues.  Continuing collaborations with diverse community groups and organizations outside the gates of the campus can help to foster a spirit of acceptance and trust.
Future Research Directions
The LSU Libraries Film Committee tried to get an idea of the most effective methods used for advertising the film series, particularly to attract significant student participation, but more research needs to be done in this area.  As with information literacy instruction, one of the surest ways to a student’s heart is through his or her instructor (as noted above with the example of Baton Rouge Community College).  It is worth further research to explore some innovative ways to engage and collaborate with faculty so their students will be motivated to participate in film programs.  
A webpage and blog dedicated to announcing and discussing film events were set up for the “Created Equal” program, though the blog posts didn’t receive comments.  It would be useful to see further research on best practices and innovative ideas for using social media for library-sponsored special events; this would be a special case academic libraries’ general use of social media.  
Two areas related to the notion of the “library as place” should be considered for further research.  The first is the idea of the academic library as a natural location for interdisciplinary and discipline-neutral educational events, and the second is the idea of academic libraries being a natural component of a higher education institution for creating a stronger connection between the institution and the wider local community.  
While brief surveys have been used for the LSU Libraries film series, another issue for further research is determining the most effective assessment tools to use for film series and other special events that might be hosted by academic libraries.  This would include a consideration of the different kinds of data that can be gathered from assessment tools and how that data could be used.   
Conclusion
	Many obstacles await any academic library that attempts to start a film series on its campus.  These primarily include working out a budget and securing funds for the licensing, promotion, and execution of the series events (even if, and perhaps especially, if a grant is involved), creating promotional materials and determining proper venues for advertising, and planning and executing the details of the series itself (locating appropriate event venue(s) and event times, securing proper equipment, etc.).  The complexity of such a program increases with the addition participating scholars and collaboration with faculty and community partners beyond the bounds of the campus, though the value and rewards of the program increase as well.
	Probably the most important and challenging aspect of a film program is ensuring that an appropriately-sized audience attends program events. In this regard, advertising is essential, but even better would be guaranteed participation by certain groups, such as an entire class or members of an organization, prompted by an instructor’s or organization leader’s commitment to attend.  (As with job hunting, a focused, targeted approach tends to be more effective than a scattershot approach.)  This could involve offering extra credit, using class time, specially-designed quiz questions, organization recognition, etc., all of which require time to plan and coordinate.  The highest quality films, the most enlightening commentary by the most engaged scholars, and the most delightful venue and refreshments all mean very little if event attendance falls significantly short of what was anticipated.  The considerable time and effort necessary for insuring optimal attendance are well worth it.  
It is hoped that this essay has clarified what is involved in planning and executing a successful film series program on a college campus.  The experience of the LSU Libraries has been that the benefits of creating a film program, in terms of increased campus profile, creation of stronger and new ties to faculty, students, campus organizations, and the community outside the campus, enhancing the educational life of the students, and enhancing the value of the Libraries to the rest of the campus, justified the time and effort of the staff involved in creating the program.1     

NOTES

1.	Special thanks to graduate assistants Randa Lopez and Jessica Hornbuckle and Computer Analyst Kyle Tanglao.

References

Bolt, N. (2014). Libraries from Now On: Imagining the Future of Libraries, ALA Summit on the Future of Libraries – Report to ALA Membership. Retrieved from http://connect.ala.org/files/Libraries%20From%20Now%20On%20ALA%20Summit%20On%20The%20Future%20of%20Libraries%20Final%20Report.pdf

Buschman, J., & Leckie, G. J. (Eds.).  (2007). The Library as Place: History, Community, and Culture.  Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. 

Byrne, J. V. (1998). Outreach, engagement, and the changing culture of the university. Journal of Public Service and Outreach 3(2), 3-8.

Leong, J. H. (2013). Community engagement – building bridges between university and community by academic libraries in the 21st century. Libri: International Journal of Libraries & Information Services 63(3), 220-231.

Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space.  (2005). Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources.  Retrieved from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub129/pub129.pdf

Love, E. (2007). Building bridges: cultivating partnerships between libraries and minority student services. Education Libraries 30(1), 13-19.

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967).

Montgomery, S. E., & Miller, J.  (2011). The third place: the library as collaborative and community space in a time of fiscal restraint.  College & Undergraduate Libraries 18(2/3), 228-238.

U.S. Copyright Office (2014). Can I use someone else’s work? Can someone else use mine? Retrieved from http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html 

Walter, S. (2010). Advocacy through engagement: public engagement and the academic library. In W. C. Wellburn, J. Wellburn, & B. McNeil (Eds.), Advocacy, Outreach, and the Nation’s Academic Libraries: A Call for Action (pp. 3-42). Chicago, IL: Association of College and Research Libraries.

Appendix A: Publicity

On the library level, the film committee did the following:

•	Designed and purchased two 72x30 banners advertising the series to hang in front of Middleton and Hill Memorial Libraries
•	Created a webpage for the grant: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/sp/subjects/createdequal**
•	Created a banner for the Library website and for the Axis TV’s in the Student Union
•	Wrote blog entries for the LSU Libraries blog for each event*
•	Announced the series/program in the LSU Libraries electronic newsletter**

On the university level, the film committee did the following:

•	Advertised on KLSU, the student run radio station*
•	An NEH grant committee member co-curated--along with LSU Libraries staff -- an exhibition on LSU Integration.  It included a listening station featuring oral history clips about East Baton Rouge and LSU Integration and the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott**
•	Created a display for the lobby of Middleton library that included available resources from our collections, which were appropriately changed for each film
•	Created electronic lists of additional reading materials pertaining to the topics of the films that were linked to LSU Libraries blog announcements of the each of the films
•	Were interviewed in the student newspaper the Reveille about the film and discussion series
•	Contacted all LSU fraternities and sororities to let them know about the series**
•	Informed the Black Student Union and the Black Student Caucus about the events**
•	Had the films mentioned on Libraries Facebook and Twitter accounts
•	Created bookmarks detailing all the events and distributed them around campus
•	Purchased ads in the student newspaper the day before and day of each film event 
•	Created posters for each event and posted them throughout campus bulletin boards**
•	Sent e-mails to all student groups and professors who taught in affiliated areas to inform them about the series**
•	Added all dates to electronic campus calendar
•	Were added to the campus Black History Month calendar**
•	Handed out candy with film bookmarks in front of the Student Union and in the lobby of Middleton Library before the discussion of The Loving Story (on Valentine’s Day)**
•	Created virtual announcements for display on the large screen televisions in the Student Union  
•	Created a display for the entrance to the LSU Libraries Government Documents Department that focused on The Loving Story. This display emphasized the legal aspects of the landmark Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia by using primary government resources**

At the community level, the film committee did the following:

•	Publicized on the events calendars of local publications
•	Sent press releases to University Relations
•	Created posters for each film and a large poster detailing all films
•	Gave each collaborating group a packet of posters, bookmarks, etc. for advertising
•	Baton Rouge Parish public libraries included information regarding the series on their Facebook page**
•	Distributed information to community centers, alumni associations**
•	Had a public service announcement of the program on the local NPR station**

  * These were done only for the first film series
**These were only done for the second annual film series

Appendix B: Logistics Checklist for Film Series

Pre-planning

•	Seek approval from relevant parties within your library
•	Form a grant committee
•	Meet with campus entities that are involved with public events for ideas and possible collaborations
•	Reach out to community groups that may want to partner
•	Discuss film series with heavy faculty users of the library for buy in and potential collaborations
•	If this is a grant funded endeavor, review the budget with your university’s grant supervisory group
•	Decide on the dates and best times for screenings at your institution
•	Determine on venue(s)
•	Decide what films to show
•	Create budget for film licensing, refreshments, advertising, and honoraria, if speakers are involved.

Pre-Event

•	Secure licensing for all films
•	Advertise in all applicable venues (see Appendix A for examples)
•	Purchase or make catering arrangements if refreshments will be provided
•	Do an audiovisual check 
•	Design a survey for feedback and as an assessment tool for participants

Post-Events

•	Post event wrap up meeting
•	Report by committee for knowledge management