Cooking up engagement during a pandemic: The international Great Rare Books Bake Off between the Penn State and Monash University Libraries

Abstract

In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Monash University Library in Melbourne, Australia, and the Penn State University Libraries in Pennsylvania, USA, leveraged their previously established international sister-library partnership to host a virtual engagement event focused on promoting the partnership and selected special collections at both institutions. The Monash–Penn State Great Rare Books Bake Off, a friendly competition collaboratively developed by the two academic libraries, engaged both institutions’ communities with their collections and resources by inviting participants to bake featured recipes from their collections and post evidence of their experiences on social media platforms. In addition to promoting awareness of the institutions’ international partnership and their respective collections, a primary goal of the collaborative project was to offer their local communities an enjoyable and creative outlet during a difficult time. This illustrative case study describes how the two institutions planned, executed, and assessed the project.