Calling all Sassenachs!

Program Description:
Calling all Sassenachs is a celebration of all things Outlander to coincide with the Season 1 finale of the Starz
television show and bestselling novel by Diana Gabaldon: Outlander. Held at the fitting Council Circle at the
lovely Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center, this outdoor event will have us discussing the novel and
the television show, comparing and contrasting the differences, and having a lot of fun with our knowledge too!
Need for the Program:
Calvert Library has many fans of Diana Gabaldons works, and the excitement level had reached a fever pitch
this spring with the final episodes of Season 1 of Outlander on Starz. We thought how much fun it would be to
celebrate this event with fellow fans of Gabaldons novels and just have a great evening of bonding with
customers who are fans, outside of the library, and in a beautiful setting such as Annmarie Garden.
Potential Community Partners:
The perfect partner to this event was right under our nose all along, the nearby Annmarie Sculpture Garden
and Arts Center. Not only is it a well-loved and gorgeous venue for any event, their Council Circle (similar to
stone circle in the books) made it an absolutely perfect venue for our event. We have a longstanding
relationship with them as they also host some summer story time events for our childrens department, and
they were more than happy to partner with us on this event.
Librarys Mission:
Calvert Library mission is to serve as a gateway to information, imagination, and inspiration. We empower
individuals by facilitating lifelong learning and strengthen our community by providing opportunities for
connection to one another and the world. This event supports our mission by providing this evening of
camaraderie to fans of the book series Outlander and opening our minds to the historic worlds depicted in this
book series.
Steps Necessary for Setting up Event:
Ahead of time, we took a quick visit to the space at Annmarie Garden to check out what facilities were
available to us and what do in case of inclement weather as this was an outdoors event. Flyers and press
releases were made. We purchased and constructed dcor to be used at the event. We prepared (by
researching the material that we were going to be talking about) and built a large bingo board to play at the
event. The day of the event we got to the venue a bit early to set everything up, move tables from the Arts
Building to the Council Circle and set up our drinks, snacks and raffle items.
Funding:
We had to make the flyer and copies at the library. We held this event after hours and were paid for set up
time. All other expenses came out of pocket (snacks, drinks, most dcor).
Program Evaluation:
From all accounts, the event was a success. We had 36 participants and many were already asking if we
would do it again next year. We had a lot of fun bonding over our mutual love of Diana Gabaldons characters
and storylines. It continues to be a topic with our customers and we hope to do it again in 2016 and maybe get
some new fans along the way!

Outlander Event Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Robyn Truslow
410-535-0291
Calling all Sassenachs! Go through the stones with us as we discuss, compare, and contrast both the book
and television show...no subject is too Outlandish!
For over twenty years, fans of Diana Gabaldons Outlander book series have fallen in love with her rich
characters and exciting plot lines. Executive Producer Ronald. L. Moore has taken these beloved characters,
brought them to life in the sumptuous Scottish highlands and put them on our screens! Join us as we
celebrate the two worlds of Outlander coming together.
Claire enjoys a wee nip, ye ken, so feel free to BYOBeverage of choice! There will also be light refreshments.
Calvert Library Southern Branch in partnership with Annmarie Garden invite you to Calling all Sassenachs on
Friday, May 29, at 6:00pm at Annmarie Garden in Dowell, Maryland. Meet us outside at the Council Circle!
This event is free.
For more information call 410-326-5289 or 301-855-1862


We used our library Facebook page to advertise the event starting about two weeks in advance. We also
advertised this as an Event on Facebook in two different local Outlander groups so that people directly
interested in this, but not followers of the Calvert Library Facebook page, would know about the event. I also
posted this on my personal Facebook page leading up to the event. We had flyers in all of the branches to
advertise this event as well as our flyer up on the banner ad on our library website. There was a display in our
display case as well as a Big Jamie lifesized cardboard cutout that sparked conversation at the branch and
we ended up raffling off at the event. Annmarie Garden Sculpture and Art Center also posted the information
on their Events page of their site and on their banner ad the week before the event.
The library did implement this idea and it was a short process from the start of the idea to it coming to fruition.
Normally, the system plans in advance when planning events so that there is plenty of time to craft the flyers
and press release and have plenty of time to get the information out there to our customers. We had six weeks
to plan this from start to finish and it ended up being plenty of time to get all of the necessary items done and
preparation completed. It was absolutely a success. I did this event with a fellow librarian in all aspects of
planning and presentation, she is a childrens librarian and this was her first adult event she had planned and
hosted.