Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital library serving staff, patients, and family members was closed to in-person visitors from March 2020 to April 2021. However, the need remained to let staff know about electronic library services. In an effort to celebrate the library services, and create a fun, interactive way for hospital staff to become more familiar with the broad range of services and products that remain available through the library, a virtual library treasure hunt was created that could be completed at the leisure of the individual participating.
Description: The virtual treasure hunt was developed by first identifying a variety of electronic resources to highlight for hospital staff. This included how to find the complete list of databases, searching for specific items in databases for hands-on learning, setting up remote access, downloading an app for reading full text subscriptions, requesting an interlibrary loan, and finding a specific e-book. The treasure hunt was broken into 10 sets of instructions, beginning with a slide deck that introduced the treasure hunt, directed a participant to the first resource, and gave directions to email the librarian with a specific subject line. Outlook email templates were created to auto-respond based on email subject lines, to provide the next “clue.” Participants were promised a chocolate bar for getting through all 10 resources.
Conclusion: The Library Treasure Hunt was introduced in October 2020, in conjunction with National Medical Librarians Month. To date, 10 individuals have completed all 10 steps of the treasure hunt for a chocolate bar. Others have started the hunt, but as it is participant-driven, individuals decide how far they want to go. The treasure hunt remains available to hospital staff. Feedback has been positive, indicating that participants learned about new-to-them resources and were excited to use them. While it may have been COVID that generated a need for a different kind of way to market library resources, it has become a fun way for staff to explore library resources they wouldn’t otherwise know about.