Outreach for Librarians: Coffee in the Library

Things to Think About: 

• This is an activity that you can put out, leave, and come back occasionally for monitoring and straitening up.
• I recommend that you designate one coffee urn as “water only” because some people can taste the coffee residue even if it has been cleaned.
• Brew the coffee where you want to serve it so that you aren’t pushing urns full of hot liquid that could potentially fall off a cart and burn someone.
• Costco or Sam’s Club is a good place to get coffee urns, cups with lids, as well as coffee, tea, etc.
• You can buy flavored creamer in a pump bottle. (Date the bottle so that you know when it was opened.)  I have also put out liquid, flavored creamer, and students love it.
• Once you have a lot of these supplies, you’re set for a while.
• It takes approximately 20 minutes to brew 30 cups of coffee.  Plan accordingly.
• If you have a student group, this is great activity for them to do and manage on their own.

Alternatives: 

You may want to put out cookies or other snacks, but I recommend having someone there to pass them out.

Coffee in the Library

Objective:  Students will be able to relax with coffee, tea or hot chocolate

Supplies:  water, 1-2 coffee urns, ground coffee, tea bags, packets of hot chocolate, cups with lids, stirrers, sugar, creamer, flavored creamer (optional), napkins, cart(s) to transport coffee urns and other supplies, plastic bowl, ice, measuring cup, pitcher, large garbage cans, surge protector (optional),

How To:

• Decide if you’re doing coffee or a combination of coffee, tea and/or hot chocolate.  If you’re just doing coffee, you’ll only need one coffee urn, but if you decide to do tea and hot chocolate, you’ll need hot water and a second coffee urn.
• Prep the coffee and fill the hot water urn.
• Using the cart, take both urns to where you are going to serve the beverages and plug in the urns.  You may need to use the surge protector if you don’t have enough plugs or if the plugs don’t reach the outlet.
• Allow the coffee to brew and water to heat up.  (You may want to make a sign saying that the coffee is still brewing.)
• You will know when the coffee is ready because it will stop percolating. 
• Once the coffee is ready, put out the other supplies (cups, lids, etc.).
• Put any creamer that needs to be refrigerated in the bowl with ice.
• Monitor the urns and supplies after the coffee is made.

How to make coffee:

• Read the directions on how to assemble the coffee urn and the amounts of coffee needed.  Sometimes the inside of the coffee filter will mark how much coffee is needed.  If not, refer to the label on the coffee can.
• Using the pitcher, add the appropriate amount of water to the urn.
• Using the measuring cup, add the appropriate amount of ground coffee to the filter.
• Put the filter into the urn per unit directions.
• Replace lid.
• Take the prepped coffee urn to the place where you will serve it and plug it in.
• You will know that the coffee is ready when it stops percolating.  Depending on the unit, you may also have an indicator light and/or be able to see the color of the coffee in a gage to see how much coffee is still in the pot. 

If you need hot water for tea and hot chocolate:

• Fill the second urn with hot water, but you don’t need to put the coffee filter back inside the unit.
• Take the filled urn to the place where you will serve it and plug it in.
• You will know that the water is hot when it stops percolating.  Depending on the unit, you may also have an indicator light.