It's July 31st! That means Summer Reading is ov----hmm? What's that? Oh? But...all my friends are done with Summer Reading at THEIR libraries? Oh. Oooooh. 24 more days? Well, I guess I can maybe..... ::thud::
HI THERE! 24 days to go here at my li-berry before we're through with Summer Reading! That's good, because I'm nowhere near my goal. I'm still about 150 shy of last year, but there are usually a lot of teens who come in for their prizes and sign up at the same time, so I'm not too worried. I also noticed that one branch didn't get the memo about 6th graders being teens this year (in past years we've offered them the choice. This year they were all supposed to be teens, unless they had some strong objection), which accounts for about 50 lost teens. Still, I'm at 480 right now, and for a library my size I think that's quite reasonable. If I can get to 600 I'll be happy.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Quick and Dirty Book Review #2
You guys, I need more people to read this book and discuss it with me. I'm not particularly sensitive to sexism in pop culture--in fact I've gotten into arguments where I'm siding WITH the appropriateness to sometimes have a movie or book where there isn't a strong female character. It's okay to have a buddy movie! Or a movie set in a men's prison! But this book definitely rattled me. I recognize what Andrew Smith is TRYING to do here. The main character definitely grows throughout the book--he starts off simply thinking every girl is super hot (even mustachioed ones, gee thanks) but completely ignores little things like personality. By the end he realizes that he really DOES like one girl for who she is, even if he totally keeps making out with another girl. So, he's a standard 14 year old boy. I get it. I just don't think it was well executed, and it took away from the whole book for me. It had promise--the comics are well drawn and I love a good boarding school novel, but it was just a little too much. Am I getting old and lame?
Really, I am usually pretty lax about getting riled up about books like this. I LOVE Swim the Fly, which is about a group of boys spending their summer trying to see a real live naked girl. THis one though...there's just something about this one.
It's "dont' have time to stop for a free slurpee" day!
Things are still going well over here! Programs left and right. On Tuesday I was at both branches for tie-dye programs. I did the same thing last year--I buy the dye but each teen brings something to dye. That ensures that they'll end up with something that fits, and also cuts the costs for me down significantly. I let them do two things, if they want. Most do shirts, but I had a couple of girls do shorts and 4-5 did pillow cases. I bought plastic tablecloths from GFS to protect the carpet, some Tulip brand dye kits, and I stole rubber bands from all of the assorted places we hide rubber bands around the library. The dye I use doesn't require that weird ash soak thing, you just get the item damp. I made kits ahead of time for each teen--a gallon sized ziplock bag with about 10 rubber bands, a pair of latex gloves, instructions on how to create a few different looks (photocopies of the instructions that come with the kit) and instructions for what to do after they get it home. Because of space issues and also "room full of teenagers holding permanent dye" issues, I only let 15 register for each building. Both filled up, and 13 showed up in each building---a great turnout! We only dyed the carpet a tiny bit---and it was in the building we're leaving within a year so I wasn't too horrified.
3.5 weeks in and we're at 352 teens registered for summer reading. 7 weeks to go!
3.5 weeks in and we're at 352 teens registered for summer reading. 7 weeks to go!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
I need to find a .gif of someone being extremely busy, but I'M TOO BUSY!
Summer Reading registration started one week ago and we already have about 135 teens signed up! That's pretty good, since teens tend to sign up when they come for their first prize--and prizes started today so those 135 are the super responsible ones. (edit: I had to stop here on this post yesterday--today we're up to 160!)
I'm excited about the prizes this year--especially the Above-and-Beyond. The teens are too, I know this because there's a poster up behind me with the prizes and I can hear the squealing. Here's what I went with:
Last year my final number of registered teens was about 620, and I've increased by about 50% every year for the past few years. That means I'm aiming for 1000 this year, which is insane and probably out of reach but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try! I'm hoping to spend more time at the branches this summer pushing it--at the main library (where I spend most of my time) I track down teens and tell them enthusiastically about how they can win CANDY AND MONEY YOU GUYS! and it totally works. The branch librarians do their best but many are not as comfortable engaging teens as I am. Understandable, I'm totally nuts.
Summer Reading registration started one week ago and we already have about 135 teens signed up! That's pretty good, since teens tend to sign up when they come for their first prize--and prizes started today so those 135 are the super responsible ones. (edit: I had to stop here on this post yesterday--today we're up to 160!)
I'm excited about the prizes this year--especially the Above-and-Beyond. The teens are too, I know this because there's a poster up behind me with the prizes and I can hear the squealing. Here's what I went with:
Saturday, June 8, 2013
The Fifth Wave - Rick Yancey
I confess: I'm a huge fan of disaster/apocalyptic/dystopian teen novels. You'd think I'd be tired of them by now, since nearly every other book published follows something along those lines, but so long as the author throws in some element that is new or different I'm generally totally in. This means I've read quite a few really terrible books, but sometimes one really shines.
It's no secret that I'm a fan of Rick Yancey. When I was on the Thumbs Up! award committee, I lobbied hard for The Monstrumologist. The committee felt it was a little too terrifying for the younger end of the age group that the award is for, so they went another direction, but I still think it was the best thing written that year. I have made all of my book clubs read it, and I recommend it all the time, usually with the statement "DON'T TRY TO READ IT IF YOU'RE HOME ALONE!"
Obviously I have been anxiously waiting for The 5th Wave to come out. It's possible I swiped it from the in-process cart...shhhhh don't tell. It did not let me down. I'd hate to spoil it for anyone, so I'll just say that the general premise is that aliens have come to earth and started wiping out the human race in a series of waves. We have a tough but realistic female protagonist who is not perfect. I love love love survival books, and the living in the woods and foraging for stuff elements of this one are great. An offhand comment early on about how she is worried about her supply of tampons (I totally think about that when reading other books where the ladies are just tromping around happily) made me realize that the author really thought through what a woman alone and on the move might worry about. There's a tough of romance but it's good and necessary, not just thrown over the top of a shaky plot like it is in so many cases.
Read it!
It's no secret that I'm a fan of Rick Yancey. When I was on the Thumbs Up! award committee, I lobbied hard for The Monstrumologist. The committee felt it was a little too terrifying for the younger end of the age group that the award is for, so they went another direction, but I still think it was the best thing written that year. I have made all of my book clubs read it, and I recommend it all the time, usually with the statement "DON'T TRY TO READ IT IF YOU'RE HOME ALONE!"
Obviously I have been anxiously waiting for The 5th Wave to come out. It's possible I swiped it from the in-process cart...shhhhh don't tell. It did not let me down. I'd hate to spoil it for anyone, so I'll just say that the general premise is that aliens have come to earth and started wiping out the human race in a series of waves. We have a tough but realistic female protagonist who is not perfect. I love love love survival books, and the living in the woods and foraging for stuff elements of this one are great. An offhand comment early on about how she is worried about her supply of tampons (I totally think about that when reading other books where the ladies are just tromping around happily) made me realize that the author really thought through what a woman alone and on the move might worry about. There's a tough of romance but it's good and necessary, not just thrown over the top of a shaky plot like it is in so many cases.
Read it!
Friday, June 7, 2013
Oh lordy it's June
Our local high schools are having finals right now. Because we were so packed during midterm exams, I decided to throw a study hall. We started yesterday, and I estimate we had a total of 25-30 teens make use of it, the most at one time was about 15. Not too shabby, though I'm hoping for more today and tomorrow!
It's easy enough to do--I just booked our auditorium for Thursday-Tuesday, and had all the round tables set up. I borrowed the laptops that our ANF department uses for computer classes and set them up, and had the IT department set up a printer so that I can offer free printing! I filled a table with supplies that I thought they might need--paperclips, staplers, tape, markers, pencils and pens, scrap paper, rulers. I bought Doritos, Cheetos, and pop in bulk (and some other snacks) and put them out on a counter (all free for studying teens!). Tomorrow I'm coming in and doing nothing but Study Hall all day, so I'm getting them pizza. I made sure to notify the schools, and one of them has been in contact with me. They've been pushing it hard during announcements and that sort of thing. The kids who came yesterday loved it--I heard a group of boys talking as they left yesterday about how much more they got done than they would have at home.
Even if the crowd was a little small yesterday, it was made up mostly of teens I've never seen before, which is definitely a success. I left flyers about summer reading around, and filled the display case across from the auditorium doors with summer reading prizes.
Such a simple thing to do, yet it has helped our bond with the local schools and general community goodwill. I had adults popping their heads in to see what was going on and commenting on what a good idea it was. Yay!
It's easy enough to do--I just booked our auditorium for Thursday-Tuesday, and had all the round tables set up. I borrowed the laptops that our ANF department uses for computer classes and set them up, and had the IT department set up a printer so that I can offer free printing! I filled a table with supplies that I thought they might need--paperclips, staplers, tape, markers, pencils and pens, scrap paper, rulers. I bought Doritos, Cheetos, and pop in bulk (and some other snacks) and put them out on a counter (all free for studying teens!). Tomorrow I'm coming in and doing nothing but Study Hall all day, so I'm getting them pizza. I made sure to notify the schools, and one of them has been in contact with me. They've been pushing it hard during announcements and that sort of thing. The kids who came yesterday loved it--I heard a group of boys talking as they left yesterday about how much more they got done than they would have at home.
Even if the crowd was a little small yesterday, it was made up mostly of teens I've never seen before, which is definitely a success. I left flyers about summer reading around, and filled the display case across from the auditorium doors with summer reading prizes.
Such a simple thing to do, yet it has helped our bond with the local schools and general community goodwill. I had adults popping their heads in to see what was going on and commenting on what a good idea it was. Yay!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
So far so good on the Minecraft server! We've got about 15 teens involved, and they're happily building away. So far the tasks have been:
1) Find the City
2) Build a house
3) build a business (just for show, we're not messing around with an economy at this point)
Here's the city:
I have been impressed with the adorable houses some of the teens have built! They're mostly boys, but we've got at least two ladies in there. The building up in the air is the insane asylum, and in the distance you can see a couple of towers of the fort. I'm disappointed to see a little destruction--someone must have spawned some creepers, which isn't very sporting.
Now I need to come up with more tasks and challenges to keep them occupied. I think perhaps I'll have them build famous landmarks next?
I purchased three Minecraft gift cards at our local Game Stop, and this summer I'll be giving them away. The first contest will be your standard "guess how many whatevers are in this jar", and I think I'm going to try to track down green gummy bears in bulk and call them creepers. Cute, eh? Not sure what I'll do for the other contests, but I'm sure something will come to me!
We've been in creative mode all of May, I think in June I may switch to survival. Perhaps survival mode AND a building challenge, to make it extra difficult? Hmm.
1) Find the City
2) Build a house
3) build a business (just for show, we're not messing around with an economy at this point)
Here's the city:
I have been impressed with the adorable houses some of the teens have built! They're mostly boys, but we've got at least two ladies in there. The building up in the air is the insane asylum, and in the distance you can see a couple of towers of the fort. I'm disappointed to see a little destruction--someone must have spawned some creepers, which isn't very sporting.
Now I need to come up with more tasks and challenges to keep them occupied. I think perhaps I'll have them build famous landmarks next?
I purchased three Minecraft gift cards at our local Game Stop, and this summer I'll be giving them away. The first contest will be your standard "guess how many whatevers are in this jar", and I think I'm going to try to track down green gummy bears in bulk and call them creepers. Cute, eh? Not sure what I'll do for the other contests, but I'm sure something will come to me!
We've been in creative mode all of May, I think in June I may switch to survival. Perhaps survival mode AND a building challenge, to make it extra difficult? Hmm.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Minecraft 2 --The Plugins Episode
You have a functioning server! Ain't life grand? But what about all the fiddly details that will make your server YOURS? You want PLUGINS, my friend!
As my teens start logging in, I'm sure my needs will change, but I started with a few basics. Start here to see what's available, http://plugins.bukkit.org/ These are what I'm playing around with now:
Anticheat: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/anticheat/
Essentials: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/essentials/
WorldEdit: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/worldedit/
GroupManager: http://wiki.ess3.net/wiki/Group_Manager
ChestRestock: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/chestrestock/
To add a plugin, you just download what you want, unzip it if necessary, and put the files into your plugins folder. Personally, I put the download into my plugin folder and THEN unzip it, but my computer programmer boyfriend had a heart attack when I did that---though he couldn't give me a good reason why NOT to, so nyah nyah.
Here's my plugin folder after adding Essentials and Anticheat
Easy! Try logging in now and then to make sure nothing has gone wonky. There's nothing worse than having something go wonky and not knowing WHICH of the many things you just did has caused the problem!
Another important thing: Make sure you have given yourself permission to use the things you're installing. In the main folder, you'll see a file called "ops". When you open it, it shows a blank notepad document. Just type your name, and the names of any other admins in there. Just make a list, no need for punctuation. That should make everything work. To check, get the server running and sign in. Then try a command. Wait, you don't know any? Well then, try this:
type:
/time set night
Did you go from something like this:
to something like this:
If so, you're golden.
You can read about what those plugins all do at their sites, but here's a rundown:
AntiCheat: keeps teens from being able to use cheats in your server. Seems like a good idea.
Essentials: gives you lots of handy tools. I'm still learning to use them, the loooong list of commands is here:http://wiki.ess3.net/wiki/Command_Reference/Perm
WorldEdit: Does what it says on the box! You can get really creative with this, but I've mostly used it to fiddle with the landscape a little to make room for my town. You can easily flatten land, dig big holes, drain ponds, etc. It takes some time to figure out, and it is possible to make a very wonky world, so PRACTICE this one!
GroupManager: This was the easiest permissions thing I have found. It allows you to decide who can do what. In my world right now there are two groups: admins (me and my intern) and the default group that all the teens fall into. GroupManager had things pretty nicely set up already-if the teens decide they need more permissions I think I'll be able to add them, but it gave them reasonable stuff. They can build and fight, but don't have access to TNT, and only I can change the game mode.
ChestRestock: This allows you to put items in a chest, and the chest restocks itself through magic. I like the idea of being able to hide things for the teens to find--this way everyone who finds it gets the prize, and I don't have to worry about restocking it myself.
That's all I'm using, currently! I'd love to know if you discover/have heard of interesting plugins. I saw one that generates a TARDIS, and one that gives you the arena from The Hunger Games! Lots of cool stuff available!
As my teens start logging in, I'm sure my needs will change, but I started with a few basics. Start here to see what's available, http://plugins.bukkit.org/ These are what I'm playing around with now:
Anticheat: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/anticheat/
Essentials: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/essentials/
WorldEdit: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/worldedit/
GroupManager: http://wiki.ess3.net/wiki/Group_Manager
ChestRestock: http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/chestrestock/
To add a plugin, you just download what you want, unzip it if necessary, and put the files into your plugins folder. Personally, I put the download into my plugin folder and THEN unzip it, but my computer programmer boyfriend had a heart attack when I did that---though he couldn't give me a good reason why NOT to, so nyah nyah.
Here's my plugin folder after adding Essentials and Anticheat
Easy! Try logging in now and then to make sure nothing has gone wonky. There's nothing worse than having something go wonky and not knowing WHICH of the many things you just did has caused the problem!
Another important thing: Make sure you have given yourself permission to use the things you're installing. In the main folder, you'll see a file called "ops". When you open it, it shows a blank notepad document. Just type your name, and the names of any other admins in there. Just make a list, no need for punctuation. That should make everything work. To check, get the server running and sign in. Then try a command. Wait, you don't know any? Well then, try this:
type:
/time set night
Did you go from something like this:
If so, you're golden.
You can read about what those plugins all do at their sites, but here's a rundown:
AntiCheat: keeps teens from being able to use cheats in your server. Seems like a good idea.
Essentials: gives you lots of handy tools. I'm still learning to use them, the loooong list of commands is here:http://wiki.ess3.net/wiki/Command_Reference/Perm
WorldEdit: Does what it says on the box! You can get really creative with this, but I've mostly used it to fiddle with the landscape a little to make room for my town. You can easily flatten land, dig big holes, drain ponds, etc. It takes some time to figure out, and it is possible to make a very wonky world, so PRACTICE this one!
GroupManager: This was the easiest permissions thing I have found. It allows you to decide who can do what. In my world right now there are two groups: admins (me and my intern) and the default group that all the teens fall into. GroupManager had things pretty nicely set up already-if the teens decide they need more permissions I think I'll be able to add them, but it gave them reasonable stuff. They can build and fight, but don't have access to TNT, and only I can change the game mode.
ChestRestock: This allows you to put items in a chest, and the chest restocks itself through magic. I like the idea of being able to hide things for the teens to find--this way everyone who finds it gets the prize, and I don't have to worry about restocking it myself.
That's all I'm using, currently! I'd love to know if you discover/have heard of interesting plugins. I saw one that generates a TARDIS, and one that gives you the arena from The Hunger Games! Lots of cool stuff available!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
MINECRAAAAAFT
Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft. It's all the rage these days...by which I mean for the past three years or so. It's starting to become a THING for libraries though, so of course I'M ON IT.
There are a bunch of blog posts and articles out there about how fun and valuable it is to host your own minecraft server, but it turns out there aren't a lot of articles about how to set up the dang thing. I am by no means an expert, but here's how things shook out for me.
Step 1) buy a Minecraft account and figure out the basics of the game. This is going to mean putting in some hard work playing video games, but I know you'll get through it! Having an understanding of the game is pretty important for the rest of it. There are plenty of tutorials and things available on the minecraft wiki, as well as recipes for crafting. The most important thing to know up front: you move with the letters WASD and space bar (a teen walking by had to explain it to me my first time, that's the level of experience i'm starting with).
Step 2) talk to your IT department. If you're going to want to open your server to the outside world, they're going to need to be involved because firewalls and ports and other IT mumbo jumbo. Right now my server is hosted on a computer in my boyfriend's basement, but it will migrate to one of our servers once ::insert IT mumbo jumbo:: is moved/upgraded/something something.
Step 3) set up your server! You'll need a computer that isn't doing much of anything else, or for your IT department to do some wizardry and then give you access to that wizardry.
-Pick your server. I chose to go with the Bukkit server because it seemed like the most user-friendly and has a lot of great plugins to make my life easier. MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THE MOST RECENT VERSION. At the time of this posting, that is version 1.5.1-RO2 (http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/craftbukkit-1-5-1-r0-2-is-now-available.141097/)
There are lots of tutorials available, but I found that they assumed a certain amount of previous knowledge, even the ones that are aimed at total noobs. Here's one of the most valuable things I learned:
YOU OPEN .YML FILES IN NOTEPAD. YOU'RE WELCOME.
There it is! Rename it craftbukkit (it'll automatically add the .jar, in my experience. When I named it "craftbukkit.jar" it turned out to actually name it "craftbukkit.jar.jar" which took a while to figure out.), and then make a new folder (name it something fancy like "server" or "bukkit" or "minecraft" or "francis" and put it inside! DO THAT BEFORE YOU OPEN IT! LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!
Double click it! It should generate a bunch of files:
In your fancy folder, right click and open a new text document. Paste this in it:
Double click our fancy new "run" thingydo.THINGS WILL START TO HAPPEN:
Mine is telling me there might already be a server running on that port. I am able to login to it though, so I'm going to assume that's something to do with the fact that I can't actually run this on my computer (IT stuff blah blah computers ports blah blah) for now though, I am able to log in and I am able to install sweet plugins. It's pretty easy to move all of your hard work to a place where it WILL be functional to the outside world, so if you're working on it while IT figures out their end, it's all good.
Even though I've done this a few times now, I did it from scratch as I was creating this tutorial, and goodness did I mess it up a lot. Hopefully if you walk through these steps you won't need as many stiff drinks as I did after my first couple of tries.
Next post: PLUGINS!
(here's where I got my info when setting it up. The link does NOT go to the most recent version, use my link above. This article had all the info, but I found it hard to follow--it took me many tries to get it right! http://wiki.bukkit.org/Setting_up_a_server)
There are a bunch of blog posts and articles out there about how fun and valuable it is to host your own minecraft server, but it turns out there aren't a lot of articles about how to set up the dang thing. I am by no means an expert, but here's how things shook out for me.
Step 1) buy a Minecraft account and figure out the basics of the game. This is going to mean putting in some hard work playing video games, but I know you'll get through it! Having an understanding of the game is pretty important for the rest of it. There are plenty of tutorials and things available on the minecraft wiki, as well as recipes for crafting. The most important thing to know up front: you move with the letters WASD and space bar (a teen walking by had to explain it to me my first time, that's the level of experience i'm starting with).
Step 2) talk to your IT department. If you're going to want to open your server to the outside world, they're going to need to be involved because firewalls and ports and other IT mumbo jumbo. Right now my server is hosted on a computer in my boyfriend's basement, but it will migrate to one of our servers once ::insert IT mumbo jumbo:: is moved/upgraded/something something.
Step 3) set up your server! You'll need a computer that isn't doing much of anything else, or for your IT department to do some wizardry and then give you access to that wizardry.
-Pick your server. I chose to go with the Bukkit server because it seemed like the most user-friendly and has a lot of great plugins to make my life easier. MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THE MOST RECENT VERSION. At the time of this posting, that is version 1.5.1-RO2 (http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/craftbukkit-1-5-1-r0-2-is-now-available.141097/)
There are lots of tutorials available, but I found that they assumed a certain amount of previous knowledge, even the ones that are aimed at total noobs. Here's one of the most valuable things I learned:
YOU OPEN .YML FILES IN NOTEPAD. YOU'RE WELCOME.
There it is! Rename it craftbukkit (it'll automatically add the .jar, in my experience. When I named it "craftbukkit.jar" it turned out to actually name it "craftbukkit.jar.jar" which took a while to figure out.), and then make a new folder (name it something fancy like "server" or "bukkit" or "minecraft" or "francis" and put it inside! DO THAT BEFORE YOU OPEN IT! LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!
Double click it! It should generate a bunch of files:
In your fancy folder, right click and open a new text document. Paste this in it:
java -Xms1024M -Xmx1024M -jar craftbukkit.jar -o true PAUSE
Save it as run.bat
Double click our fancy new "run" thingydo.THINGS WILL START TO HAPPEN:
Mine is telling me there might already be a server running on that port. I am able to login to it though, so I'm going to assume that's something to do with the fact that I can't actually run this on my computer (IT stuff blah blah computers ports blah blah) for now though, I am able to log in and I am able to install sweet plugins. It's pretty easy to move all of your hard work to a place where it WILL be functional to the outside world, so if you're working on it while IT figures out their end, it's all good.
Even though I've done this a few times now, I did it from scratch as I was creating this tutorial, and goodness did I mess it up a lot. Hopefully if you walk through these steps you won't need as many stiff drinks as I did after my first couple of tries.
Next post: PLUGINS!
(here's where I got my info when setting it up. The link does NOT go to the most recent version, use my link above. This article had all the info, but I found it hard to follow--it took me many tries to get it right! http://wiki.bukkit.org/Setting_up_a_server)
Friday, April 5, 2013
It's business as usual these days at the library. I try to give myself a month here or there without too much to worry about, and April is one of them as I gear up for summer reading.
Winter Reading is finally over, and was a pretty decent success! I had about 50 teens turn in about 350 entries. Since I re-vamped the whole thing this year, I can't really compare to last year's stats, but I was definitely excited to see a lot of unfamiliar names on many of the entries--which means it's not just the kids I see all the time participating. My favorite bingo square was the one where I had them email me a joke--it meant I got random emails with terrible jokes in them! Highly recommended.
I had another Trivia night and it went well. I pretty much get the exact same teens each time, which is fine so long as they remain into it! I wish we could get a few more though, because it is SERIOUSLY fun.
There was one pretty big flop this week-- due to lack of interest by the youth librarians, I put together our first Battle of the Books. I kept it pretty low key, since we really had no idea what sort of interest there would be. It turns out not much! If we (and by "we" I mean "not me, but someone") do it next year there are plenty of things that we could do to ensure more participation. Because I'm the Teen Librarian with plenty of my own work to do, I didn't do those things. We'll see how next year goes, if it goes at all.
Right now I'm focused on my upcoming trip to C2E2 and getting my Donna Noble costume together in time! I'm also using all of my free time at work to start assembling grab bags for summer reading prizes. Last year I went through about 1500, and I hope I need many more this year! I've got about 200 made, so if I keep going I should be in good shape when the SRP starts.
Winter Reading is finally over, and was a pretty decent success! I had about 50 teens turn in about 350 entries. Since I re-vamped the whole thing this year, I can't really compare to last year's stats, but I was definitely excited to see a lot of unfamiliar names on many of the entries--which means it's not just the kids I see all the time participating. My favorite bingo square was the one where I had them email me a joke--it meant I got random emails with terrible jokes in them! Highly recommended.
I had another Trivia night and it went well. I pretty much get the exact same teens each time, which is fine so long as they remain into it! I wish we could get a few more though, because it is SERIOUSLY fun.
There was one pretty big flop this week-- due to lack of interest by the youth librarians, I put together our first Battle of the Books. I kept it pretty low key, since we really had no idea what sort of interest there would be. It turns out not much! If we (and by "we" I mean "not me, but someone") do it next year there are plenty of things that we could do to ensure more participation. Because I'm the Teen Librarian with plenty of my own work to do, I didn't do those things. We'll see how next year goes, if it goes at all.
Right now I'm focused on my upcoming trip to C2E2 and getting my Donna Noble costume together in time! I'm also using all of my free time at work to start assembling grab bags for summer reading prizes. Last year I went through about 1500, and I hope I need many more this year! I've got about 200 made, so if I keep going I should be in good shape when the SRP starts.
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