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Comment by Zaiga Alksnitis on March 31, 2011 at 9:59am

Hi folks,

I'm trying to solve one of those "I can't remember the title" mysteries. It's actually a children's book, and this is the description I was given:

"I read this book when I was a kid back in the 70s or 80s. As far as I can remember, it was an Asian folktale illustrated for kids. The main character was either an old man, or maybe a monkey? Whichever it was, the main character was trying to eat, but this devil/ghost was on his back and kept moving the man/monkey's hand into his (the devil/ghost) mouth. The one trying to eat couldn't figure out why he was staying hungry. There were illustrations--picture book format."

I have no idea what it is. It seems really obscure. Anybody have a clue?

Thanks! :-)

Comment by Joanie Proske on October 25, 2010 at 11:14pm

Rita,

I've also found that contests are popular with my high school students. They let me know in a library survey that they enjoy them and want several a year. No big pressure - just keep it light and fun. Anything involving food always goes over well. Sometimes it's just something simple to get the books out the door and start a conversation with us about good reads.

Chinese new year - envelopes decorated with different zodiac animals and taped up near the circ desk. Any book signed out qualifies. Students place the draw entry into the Chinese zodiac envelope which matches their year of birth. Do a daily draw from each of the twelve animals - treats in red Chinese envelopes.

February - "I Red a Book" Do a quick display of books (fiction, non-fiction, anything goes), have an entry slip handy and if a student signs out a book with red on the cover (or the word red) - lettering, background, etc. then it counts for draws for book gift card, Starbucks, chocolates, etc.

March - Luck of the Irish. Our Cafeteria students made absolutely sickeningly green iced sugar cookies in shamrock shapes as prizes - kids loved them! Relabelled a large die with a shamrock sticker on two of the faces. Kids sign out a book and then roll the die. If the shamrock comes up they win a cookie.

With all contests, I ask that overdues are in (or renewed) in order to qualify for a draw slip or prize. This really helps to get back the overdue books. Hope these ideas help.

Comment by jan on October 25, 2010 at 11:27am

Hey all,
Looking forward to sharing some interesting conversations. I'm a 6-12 media specialist in an Independent School in Ann Arbor My blog: http://www.libraryjan.com

Comment by Martha Hickson on September 30, 2010 at 4:59am

Rita: Contests are always popular with my students. I generally run three or four contests per school year. Currently, I'm running a "What's New in the Library" contest in which students answer three questions about new features in the library (answers can be found on the library home page). I'm offering 12 themed prize packages of books (adventures, historical fiction, graphic novels, etc.) that I collected over the last few months from publishers and conventions, plus a grand prize of a $25 gift certificate to Borders. Kids were able to enter once a day throughout the month of September, and the prize boxes are nearly overflowing with entries.

In about a month, I'm planning to launch a "Stuff Yer Facebook" contest, which will encourage kids to "like" the library's Facebook page or follow us on Twitter (I post updates about the library, book and reading-related news links, and cool web tools to both places). Everyone who likes or follows us will be entered into a drawing for gift certificates to local teen-friendly food joints, such as Sonic, Dunkin' Donuts, and Panera.

I get the funds for prizes from grants from our parent-teacher association, overdue fines, and/or donations from local businesses. Whenever possible, I like to use the contests as a way to share information about the library (as I'm doing with the current What's New contest) or collect information from students. For example, one year during Library Lover's Month (February), I ran a Love the Library contest with heart-shaped entry forms on which students wrote one thing they liked about the library and one thing they thought the library could do better. Their responses gave me renewed appreciation for the library's generally calm atmosphere, which many students use as a refuge from the hectic environment of the cafeteria or study hall.

Comment by Martha Hickson on September 30, 2010 at 4:46am

Jennifer: There are lots of ways to create video (or video like) materials without Adobe suite. Here are a few that I have used:

Animoto to make easy music-video style presentations
Screentoaster and Jing to make screencast demonstrations (especially helpful for database instruction)
VoiceThread to make narrated, annotated, and interactive slide shows
GoAnimate to make cartoons (I just used this to create a virtual tour of my library for freshman orientation; e-mail me if you want the link to see that)

I come across new tools I'm interested in using nearly every day, so I keep a "warehouse" of those resources on Delicious. Feel free to browse through that stash; I'm mehickson there.

Comment by Rita Mayer on September 30, 2010 at 12:40am

Hello everyone,

I'm new here and I'd like to introduce myself.

I've been a library media specialist for the past 10 years, working in PK-8 and college level libraries. I have just started a new position at an all-boy IT high school - my first time working at the high school level.

I was wondering if others could share some ideas about activities and events you have had success with in the past, particulary those that would appeal to boys. I'm thinking along the lines of contests, book clubs, etc.

I'd also be interested to learn if you have any behavior management systems you use in your library. Everything I have experience with is not age-appropriate for this group.

Thanks in advance for your help. I will upload a profile pic soon! :)

Comment by LaDawna Harrington on June 20, 2010 at 11:35pm

Thanks for some good things to think about Martha and Cana. I have been invited to the end of the year faculty luncheon on Tues., so I will get a chance to meet some of the faculty and then I plan on diving in to curriculum, collection, etc. to wrap my brain around the environment and start planning...this will be an intense working summer...but I am looking forward to it.

Comment by Cana Nudi on June 20, 2010 at 12:09pm

LaDawna, Congrats on your new position. I've been conducting freshman orientation for 10 years now and change it each year. I comb the journals and online sources for new ideas each summer. What I have found works best in the 50 minutes I have each of the 25 freshman English classes is planning a variety of strategies or formats to deliver information.

Two years ago I developed a session using Adobe Captivate and I mention this because I'm thinking of doing it again this coming year. Each computer station (I have the luxury of having each student at a computer during the orientation.) has set of headphones and the students activated part 2 of the orientation from the media center webpage. Part 1 was introduction of staff and a welcome - we did this live.

The adobe captivate video had rules, services offered, pictures of all the rooms in the media center their function and how to access - all the little details of what is in the media center.(it was about 7 minutes long) It was different than everyone watching it on the big screen and I think better - they each had their own sound levels and could rewind if they missed something.

Part 3 was a live activity - getting them all registered to use the school's computers. (establishing a username and password and a brief talk on security, responsibilities and consequences of misuse.)

The final part - part 4 was an online survey we created on SurveyMonkey.com (free) asking them about their reading habits and technology use. The results of this survey allowed us to see the big picture of the freshman class. We also used the survey as an evaluation tool. ( I had to laugh as over 50% of them did not know who their "home" internet provider was but they all reported having internet access.)

They all walked away with a brochure about the media center as well as a list of the online databases and how to access them from home.

The year we did it this way, we were not totally exhausted at the end of the day after repeating the orientation 5 times 5 days in a row! Hope this gives you some ideas.

Comment by Martha Hickson on June 20, 2010 at 10:02am

Congrats on the new job, LaDawna! You'll do just fine with the HS crowd; no worries. Our freshman orientation has evolved over the years. When I first started at my school, we were doing a 5-day, soup-to-nuts orientation that was overwhelming for all involved. In September of their freshman year, most kids are still so freaked out to be in high school that it's hard to get new info to "stick." As a result, they tended to forget just about everything as soon as they left the library (mainly because we were giving them information out of context ... before they had a need for it). So we've scaled our orientation back to just two days, with the goal being to help the kids feel comfortable with the physical and virtual space of the library, including the people who work there. We give them a tour of the library and its web site followed by a scavenger hunt (with prizes ... usually bags of chips) to help reinforce what they've learned. I try to emphasize the freshman-friendly reasons for coming to the library -- a relaxing refuge from lunch or study hall, magazines, great YA fiction, computers -- knowing that I'll have plenty of other opportunities to hit the information literacy topics when students return for instruction within the context of a classroom assignment. E-mail me if you have questions.

Comment by LaDawna Harrington on June 20, 2010 at 9:05am

The library program in Woodbridge, a large school district in NJ eliminated their elementary positions last year and this year they have eliminated their middle school positions leaving only 3 librarians in a district that has 3 HS, 5 MS, and 18 elementary schools...I have been in this district for the past 13 years (MS), I am gone in 2 days, but am blessed to have landed a position at Millburn HS in NJ...so I will begin my new school year as a newbie HS librarian...I would love some suggestions for freshmen orientation!

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