Teen Polls

For some time now I have been interested in trying different forms of passive programming in the teen area of the library.  Passive programming is great for library staff because it is (generally) much less time-consuming than traditional programming.  It's also great because your audience doesn't need to attend an event at a specific time to participate.  Staff just puts out the supplies needed and library patrons can do the activity whenever they are able to visit the library.  Everybody wins!  

During the month of October, I borrowed an idea that I had seen ages ago (so long ago that I can no longer site the article) in an issue of VOYA and put up three polls in the teen area.  The questions and the options that the teens had to choose from were each posted on a large 11" x 17" sheet of paper.  I also posted an envelope with stickers inside.  To vote, teens simply needed to take a sticker and stick it in the appropriate area to indicate their choice.  Easy!

I posted three questions in total, all of which were book-themed.  Click on the images below to get a closer look at my set-up and to better view the questions.

I wasn't sure what kind of response these polls would get, but we actually had a very good turnout for this passive program.  The number of votes for each poll ranged from 26-38 depending on the question - fantastic for one month's time if you ask me.  I could never get those kinds of numbers doing traditional "arrive at this time and do this activity" programs.  Even better, little things like this will help to give the teens a chance to express their opinions and get them engaged.

With the success of October's polls, I'm planning to roll out a new passive program each month during the school year in this area.  The specific activity will change from month to month.  Stay tuned for more!

Dog with Bunny Ears

Today a girl, five years old, came up to me and asked me to help her find a movie that she had once seen at the library.  She had never watched this movie before; she just remembered seeing it on the shelf at the library once and now wanted to check it out.  Naturally, she did not remember the title of the movie.  All she remembered was that the cover featured a picture of a dog with pink bunny ears.

??

A dog with pink bunny ears?  Doesn't that just sound ridiculous? Still, I am a professional, and I promised to do my best to help her figure out what the movie was.

I asked a few probing questions but, of course, since the girl had never actually seen the movie she couldn't tell me anything about the plot or the characters.  Her nearby father (not prone to being drawn to cute images of dogs in rabbit ears) was unable to offer any additional clues.  So I decided to take a leap and try searching for Easter DVDs.  I reasoned that Easter was the only real reason that a dog would have to wear pink bunny ears.  I turned to our catalog, did a search, and one particular movie's title jumped out at me:  "An Easter Bunny Puppy."  I was able to show the girl a picture of the movie's front cover and, sure enough, she instantly recognized this movie as the one she had seen.

I'm going to be prefectly honest with you:  This movie looks pretty bad.  It's gotten terrible reviews from viewers on Amazon and IMDB.  For the curious, here's a description of the plot according to IMDB:

"A Mystery writer is not thrilled when she's assigned to write a children's book, 'An Easter Bunny Puppy.' Out of ideas, she asks her daughter for help. Meanwhile, her dog, RUSS, the narrator of the story, digs up a priceless Faberge egg buried in the woods and takes it home with him, unaware that he's trailing a thief who stole the egg."

Still, even if the movie is bad it was exactly what this little girl wanted.  Most days it's impossible to track down a movie or book just based on a description of the cover and absolutely no other clues.  It felt kind of nice to uncover this mystery movie for a lucky library user.