A close-up photo of a little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) resting on a tree trunk

2022 Bat Week

Public and school libraries across Montana participated in Bat Week to celebrate the role of bats in nature!

Bat Week is a national awareness week that many organizations across the US celebrate

November 18, 2022

Montana Bat Week At A Glance

Who: The Montana State Library, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP), public and school librarians, and Montana citizens!
What: Bat Week is a week-long awareness and education-focused celebration of why bats are important to the environment, and to us!
When: 10/24/22 - 10/31/22
Where: All across the state!
Why: Bats are misunderstood and feared creatures - Bat Week helps to show people the important role that bats play in our world, and why they should be celebrated for the amazing creatures they are!

Bat Week in Montana - MSL and FWP Partnership

Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks has been celebrating Bat Week for many years, but it was not until 2018 that FWP and the Montana State Library partnered together to help Montanans learn about these cool animals. Since 2018, MSL and FWP have provided the following resources to public and school librarians across the state:

A Bat Week Resource packet: Contains information on bats, activities, crafts, games, and other resources that librarians can easily use to create programs for their community
A Bat Week Package: These consist of bat posters, bat pencils, bat stickers, bat buttons, and bat tattoos.

The Bat Week Resource packet was distributed digitally via an online PDF link, so anyone was welcome to use it. The Bat Week Package had limited supplies, so teachers and librarians signed up through an online Microsoft Form on a first come, first served basis.

Bat Week Reach and Participation

35 libraries/schools across Montana participated!

4,629 library patrons/students participated in a Bat Week program or lesson

Please see the map below for all of the Bat Week Package recipients. Blue tags are public libraries, Red tags are schools, and Teal tags mean that more than one organization from that town requested a Bat Week package. You can click on each teal tag to see what kind of organizations requested a package. We created 35 Bat Week packages, with 27 public libraries and 8 schools participating

Bat Week Resources Feedback

We sent out a survey to ask for feedback on what was useful, and what could be improved for future Bat Week resources, and 22 librarians responded with their ideas.

Most Used from the Bat Week Resources PDF

Here is the list of the most used resources from the Bat Week PDF:

Bat Printables (15 mentions)
Bat Crafts (12 mentions)
Quick list of Bat Facts (12 mentions)
Bat Information Websites (10 mentions)
Montana Field Guides (6 mentions)
Book list and Bat display both tied with 5 mentions

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Bat Week Pictures from Across Montana!

Feedback from Librarians

"We kept it simple this year and didn't use as many items as usually due to other circumstances at our library, but both adults and children enjoyed the bat week fun we did have!"

"These are such great resources for all age levels."

"I really appreciated the printable info and fact sheets! It provided a great framework to build from and the kids really enjoyed the cool facts."

"I really liked Bat Week. Students of all ages were very interested in learning about bats. The video of the World's Largest Bat was a hit. "

"This year I received enough stickers/tattoos/pencils combined with a few stickers from last year I was able to get every student in first grade something back related. If funding exists, I think larger packages are much more useful as a librarian."

"The posters were a HUGE hit. I was amazed at how many High School students wanted a poster."

Improvement for Next Year

MSL was able to provide slightly larger Bat Week Packages this year, and that made it easier for libraries to distribute materials to their patrons. In the future, MSL would recommend creating a similar number of packages, but with even more items in them.
MSL would also recommend making the Bat Week Packages available a bit earlier in the year. This year was slightly complicated due to the fact that the State Library flooded, so package creation was delayed. Hopefully next year, all packages can be distributed by the end of September..
A few libraries asked about the coloring competition that FWP organized last year. That did not work out in time for this year, but would be good to reinstate that for next year, as it was very popular among patrons.