Checklist of prompts for planning an activity or project

Planning

Management support/ links to library and university strategy

  • Define the rationale behind activity/initiative
    • Prepare single side A4 summary justifying the project?
  • Does it link to wider university strategy?
  • Have you got management support? 

Specific goals

  • Thinking in advance about what you want to achieve from your activity will help shape the initiative and assist with selecting a good evaluation method. Are you looking to:
    • Provide information about mental health and well-being?
    • Raise awareness of different mental health difficulties?
    • Improve mental health and wellbeing?
    • Encourage students or staff to make changes to their everyday practices that will support better mental health and well-being?
    • Encourage a sense of community?
  • Should activities be targeted at particularly vulnerable groups, if so which are they?

    Budget/ resources

    • Who will be responsible for the activity? Who will assist?
    • Estimate how many hours of time will be required
    • Is there likely to be a financial cost? If so, estimate all costs and create a budget.
    • Who holds the budget?
    • Pick a suitable date/time for the event (eg avoid exam periods, choose midday or afternoon slot?)
    • Will the event be face to face or online? Or hybrid?
    • Is there a room available for face to face, or which platform to use (MS Teams, Zoom, Google Meet etc.)?
      • Should the event be recorded? This might be efficient for an information giving event, but if sensitive topics are being discussed you might not want to record anything
    • Do you need a room booking?
    • Do you need any equipment (projector, laptop, other)?

    Marketing

    • Advertise event - who are key target audiences?
      • Physical posters or flyers
      • Web site
      • Social media
      • Word of mouth
      • Personal invites
    • Do participants need to register or just drop in?

      Collaboration

      • Can someone share the organisation with you?
      • Has anyone done something similar?
      • Are there pre planned events that you could tap into?

      Student involvement

      • For services/ activities aimed at students, consider involving students in the governance and running of the project 
        • Existing student library reps/ or student shelvers could be recruited
        • Contact the student union
        • Try and ensure that diverse groups are represented
      • How could students be involved in delivering activities?
      • How could students be involved in publicising events/ services?
      • Collect student feedback on activities as a source for future publicity

        On the day

        Evaluating

        • What types of evaluation will gain the most recognition from management (eg quantitative data or direct evidence of impact)?
          • Are you only able to get anecdotal feedback from participants?
        • What questions do you need to ask? Think back to how you defined the purpose of the exercise.
          • One key question might be ‘did you learn something new?’
        • What tools will you use (padlet, mentimeter, kahoot, polls, survey, postcards, voting for things - or simply paper forms)?