Interested in running a trivia tournament in your library? Check out Fun Trivia’s Quiz Night Wizard. Based on your selections (preferred categories, country you’re playing in, etc.), the wizard pulls a custom question set from a huge bank of questions and packages it with scorecards and other tournament materials. I ran through the wizard quickly, making all of the recommended choices and selecting a package type that seemed to be for one tournament night. The cost for the set I created was $40.

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Our goal was to publish Gamers . . . in the Library?! in time for the Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium, where author Eli Neiburger was a keynote speaker. To the right is a carton shipped to the symposium. Hats off to Managing Editor Christine Schwab for making it happen. Yeah, I guess Eli deserves some credit too. Authors will tell you that a book project can shift the domestic workload and diminish attention space for family and friends. At the symposium, I saw Eli’s family and thanked them for letting us borrow him for a while. Eli assured me though that the book was written at Denny’s while the rest of the family slept. Eli is a funny guy. He also speaks truth. I chuckled when reading in the book’s introduction: “My son will surely cherish his memories of the first time he camped out with his dad . . . on the sidewalk in front of Toys R Us, the night before the Wii launch.” Eli used the same line at the symposium then clicked to the photograph documenting it. He is an unabashed gamer.

In short, I’m one of them. You know who I’m talking about. The thumb twiddlers. The cathode-ray zombies. The strung-out junkies who can’t even wait for the bus without staring at some sort of screen. I am a gamer.

In the spirit of confessions, I’m one of them too. That is, one of those parents who don’t let the videogame consoles or the gameboys into the house. We were afraid it might hinder the kids’ creativity; you know, turn them into thumb-twiddling, cathode ray zombies. We might be wrong. My teenage son was arguing the point just last night at dinner. If he had known of Eli’s work at Ann Arbor Public Library and in his book, it might have been Exhibit A.

After seeing the vibe gaming tournaments have created at the library, as shown in Eli’s keynote, it’s hard not to be a convert. A word of caution though. I often hear the argument for gaming in the library of getting kids in, especially that hard-to-reach teenage boy demographic, so that you can show what else the library has to offer. No, the gaming is the thing. It’s not a hustle for pushing books. Eli repeatedly warned against the bait and switch.

As summer reading programs wind down, here’s a source of supplemental their summer reading programs. ReadWriteThink.org has has assembled a collection summer activities  for children and teens on a site is called Learning Beyond the Classroom.  The goal is designed to help students continue to build on their literacy learning outside of school.  

At last month’s Association of College & Research Libraries conference, attendees shared convention center space with a cheerleading competition and a meeting of Mary Kay independent beauty consultants (which probably had cheerleading too). This was a marketing opportunity! Certainly for the Mary Kay reps, and surely the top ones saw it, but for libraries also. Top marketers like Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo are going after cheerleaders as teen influencers.
According to an article in last week’s Wall Street Journal, these companies recognize that cheerleaders can be among the most popular people in school (still!?), able to influence opinion on deodorant, shampoos, or other products. How about reading and library programs? A quoted cheerleader shows how it works: “If there is a new scent that I really enjoy, I’ll share it with them and they will be ‘Oh my gosh, what is that?’ and I’ll be, ‘It’s Secret’s new jasmine scent’ or whatever it is.”

Word-of-mouth is seen as an effective way to reach teen consumers. What clever ideas do you have for getting cheerleaders talking up the library?

I received a letter from Jennifer Bromann asking that we bring Storytimes for Two-Year-Olds back into print. She had used the book for her programming as well as in library school classes that she was teaching. The popular second edition had gone through a few reprints, but sales had slowed. We decided not to reprint in hopes that Judy Nichols could revise the book. A couple of our editors had contacted Judy to see if she would be willing, but we had not been able to get the project going. Jennifer’s letter inspired us to pick up the ball again. Judy updated the bibliographies of all the programs so that recommended books include newer publications as well as the best of the old favorites. A favorite feature of mine is the basic sign language instructions, which I think can enhance programs even for kids who aren’t hearing-impaired.

Haiku #1

I’d normally spare
You from my poetry but…
It’s poetry month.

I guess one, now painfully obvious, way to celebrate National Poetry Month is…to post poems on a blog! But here are a few more fun and creative ways to promote poetry to kids - or to the ‘child-at-hearts’ – all from Sylvia Vardell’s “Poetry Aloud Here!”

• Start each day with a poem read aloud by a different guest reader: thirty poems for thirty days.
• Set up a coffeehouse-style poetry reading in your classroom or library. (Do not forget the refreshments.)
• Contact local banks and businesses to ask them to consider displaying student poetry on their walls.
• Write poems on postcards or letters and mail them to friends and neighbors.
• Contact radio stations about hosting a live, on-air poetry reading at either the school, the library, or the radio station.
• Record a poem on your answering machine at home or school or as a cell phone message.
• Make a National Poetry Month time capsule. Students can submit favorite poems or their own original writing. Put the works in the time capsule and seal it ceremoniously, not to be opened until National Poetry Month next year.
• Send a poem to your state or local representative or other government official.
• Make National Poetry Month buttons. Inscribe them with haiku, short poems, or favorite lines of poetry. Wear the buttons the whole month of April.
• Become pen pals with another classroom or student group, locally or nationally, and pass favorite and original poems back and forth throughout the month. Make a book of your correspondence.
• Plan a poetry reading for a senior center, hospital, or local business.
• Experiment with developing a poetry blog where students can share favorite poems or respond to posted poems.