On February 10th, the Library Student Ambassadors hosted a Blind Date with a Book event in the lobby of the Shapiro Library, during which students were able to blindly check out library books strewn across our table. Our ambassador team had previously wrapped these books so that the cover and title was hidden. The brown wrapping paper had a description pasted on top with correlating decorations, which were meant to give a general idea of the book’s plot and hook potential readers. These books were all hand-picked by the ambassador team and ranged across several genres and mediums: plays, graphic novels, historical fiction, academic studies, romance, etc.
Students were excited at the prospect of blindly choosing a book, and a line of people checking out books quickly grew. Many participants expressed excitement towards trying a new genre or intrigue towards the mystery aspect of it all. The other ambassadors and I were seated at the table of books, answering any questions students had about the book options or the check-out process and encouraging students to take a chance on a new book.