T-Shirt Tote Bags

Our most recent Maker program was one that I've had on my radar for ages now:  Making tote bags out of old t-shirts.  I'd seen versions of this project floating around Pinterest for ages and I heard a little buzz about a library or two that did this project at a conference last year, and I decided that it was finally time to give this one a go myself.

If you were to use Google or Pinterest to search for "t-shirt bags" you would easily find TONS of tutorials.  Some versions of this project are more involved than others in terms of finishing.  There is even a way to do this as a no-sew project, which is great if you do not have access to a sewing machine and don't have the ambition to do hand sewing with needle and thread.  The tutorial that I decided to use as a basis for this program was this one.  I liked that the finishing was pretty minimal, which would make the project easy for my teens and tweens to complete in a short amount of time.  But it also included one sewn seam on the bottom, which I appreciated.

In my advertising for this event I tried to make it clear that all participants needed to bring their own shirt to use for this project.  This makes the finished product much more personal for everyone, plus it saves me the trouble of needing to procure the shirts.  I sent a reminder email to everyone who had signed up out a few days before the program and asked that anyone who wouldn't be able to bring their own shirt contact me as soon as possible so that we could work something out.  No one contacted me, and everyone who attended (4 teens and 3 tweens) brought a shirt with them.

To do the project, we pretty much followed the instructions in the tutorial exactly as written.  I gave everyone a pair of scissors to cut the sleeves and neck of the shirts.  Fabric scissors definitely would have been ideal since they are sharper and easier to use on fabric, but we made do with the regular scissors that we had on hand.  Only one participant had trouble with the cutting but was able to get it done with a little help.

I brought in my own sewing machine from home and showed everyone the basics of how to use it.  Each participant was able to sit at the machine and stitch the bottom hem themselves.  I was impressed that about half of my participants had done some basic sewing on a machine before, and these people caught on especially quickly.  Even those who had never seen a machine before figured everything out pretty easily with some instruction.  Sewing a straight seam is actually not terribly difficult or time consuming even for a beginner, and it was very exciting for everyone - even those who had used a sewing machine before - to use this piece of equipment.  Because sewing one seam is pretty quick one machine was enough to go around for my small group, but someone with a much larger group might want to try to get a second machine for people to use.

As I instructed everyone, I also pointed out a few areas where a more professional seamstress might work extra hard to make the finished product really nice (sewing finishing hems along the bag's opening and handles, for example).  But we also talked about how we weren't professionals and why skipping some of these steps was okay for our purposes.  The teens and tweens seemed to think this was interesting and I'm glad that I was able to bring in this brief "real world" application to this simple DIY project.

For the most part, everyone finished their t-shirt bags in about 15 minutes.  Most of the participants used their bags to carry books home after the program.  I call that a success, and I would definitely consider running this program again in the future.

Fortune Tellers

This month's passive program in the Teen area of the library is reading-focused.  I'm totally on board any time we can tie a program or activity in with our collection and encourage people to read and/or check out books because in the end, the library's collection is one of my highest priorities.

Do you remember Fortune Tellers?  Or perhaps you knew them better as Cootie Catchers?  These folded pieces of paper had the mystical power to answer all of your deepest childhood questions.  Did Jimmy have a crush on you?  Should you wear your blue shirt to Jenny's birthday party?  Would you mom mind if you ate a few more cookies?  Just make a few easy choices, open and close the Fortune Teller appropriately, and BAM!  A virtually instant answer from the universe, offering guidance and wisdom during troubling times.

I decided to take this trope and use it as a way to help bored teens pick their next read.  Teens can pick up a Fortune Teller (I made three different ones to pick from), make their choices, and then find out exactly which genre of book they are destined to try today.  If they don't like the answer that the Fortune Teller gives them (because hey, sometimes the universe gets it wrong), they of course are more than welcome to try again.

I put the Fortune Tellers on top of one of our book displays, along with a selection of books that fell into some of these genres.  Amazingly enough, with 24 different book fortunes, some of which are as broad as, "Read a book by a female author," literally anything at all from the collection goes.  Sneaky, right?  I used this as an opportunity to display books that are under-circulated and that need a little extra help getting into people's hands.

There is absolutely no way to track how many people are using the Fortune Tellers, but I'm really okay with that.  In a halfhearted attempt at more concrete usage-tracking I did put out a few slips of paper that people could fill out telling me what their fortune was and which book they selected, but I honestly don't really expect the teens to bother with this without further motivation.  I have been keeping an eye on display and have seen that the fortune tellers have moved a bit and that some of the books on the display have been checked out, so I suspect that it's seeing at least a little traffic.

In the interest of full disclosure:  I did not come up with this idea all on my own.  I found an image on Pinterest that used this idea.  However, I am unable to link to the original source as it has since been taken down or moved, and my saved link on Pinterest is no longer valid.  So big thanks to whoever it was that originally came up with the idea!

Arm Knitting

A few weeks ago we had a very successful Maker program for teens & tweens devoted to a craft that I'd been wanting to try anyway:  Arm Knitting.

The idea behind arm knitting is that it is actually exactly like regular knitting, but you use your arms as very large needles.  While this might sound a bit intimidating to someone who has never tried something like this before, it's actually pretty easy to catch on.  There are tons of videos out there on YouTube that will show you the basics, but this one is the one that I liked best:


I taught myself to do arm knitting by watching this video with some yarn in hand, and I just copied what she did.  I already knew how to do "regular" knitting with needles, so I caught on pretty quickly.  Even without this background knowledge, it's not too hard to figure out if you pay attention!

This event was hugely popular.  I had 12 teen/tween girls sign up to participate, and another two dropped in unexpectedly.  We also heard lots of comments from parents who wandered into the library and saw my sample who said that they'd love to do something like this too, so our Adult Services department will be doing a similar program in a few months.

It was a bit challenging to teach everyone how to do the arm knitting because it is a skill that is much easier to teach one-on-one than to a group.  I did have the above video playing the the background on a loop for people to watch, and I think that helped.  I circled around to show people up close what needed to be done and, if needed, actually held the kids' hands and showed them what the motions needed to be like.  This helped a few who were slower on the uptake quite a bit.  Things were a bit hectic with so many people to help, and I do wish that I had had an assistant or two to help out with the instruction.  But we made do.

Casting on was by far the most difficult part, but once that was done everyone caught on to the repetitive motions needed to knit the length of the scarf.  I did have to remind them quite frequently to pull their loops snugly around their wrists so that their stitches would not be overly large (and there were a few who ignored this advice), but otherwise there were no real snags. 

To make an arm knit infinity scarf, you will need two balls of super bulky weight yarn.  You will hold the yarn double (one strand from each ball held together) to get the thickness that you need.  Of course, you could use only one strand for a thinner scarf, or more strands for a thicker scarf.  I provided yarn for all participants, and seriously lucked out when bulky yarn went on sale at Michaels just the week before my program.  I didn't spend more than $2 on each ball of yarn, which is a steal!  If you'd like to do this program, I recommend keeping your eyes peeled well in advance for similar sales, and have a coupon ready to help minimize your costs.

This was a challenging program to pull together, but I would absolutely do it again in the future.  Everyone had a good time, and I even had the mom of one of my participants drop in and tell me that they had bought more yarn to make more scarves on their own now that they knew the technique.  Success!

Banana Keyboards

I found a half-finished version of this post saved as a draft in my blog's archives.  Oops!  I took a few minutes to finish writing and add a few pictures.  It's a bit belated, but enjoy!

This month's Maker Monday program delved a bit more into the tech than past programs as we experimented with a Makey Makey.

What is a Makey Makey?  Well, it's a nifty little device that can connect to a computer via USB.  You then can connect other objects to the Makey Makey to create your own custom keyboard using alligator clips.  Any object that conducts electricity would work fine:  Fruits, vegetables, houseplants, play-dough, other people, or even water.  Couple this with a few simple web programs that utilize the arrow keys and suddenly you can capture Pokemon with potatoes, play a tune on the piano with play-dough, win at Tetris with bananas, or drum a wicked beat on a houseplant.  The possibilities are limitless.

Jay Silver, one of the creators of the Makey Makey also gave a really awesome Ted Talk about his inspiration for the device, which I really recommend watching.  I did not show the video as part of my program due to time constraints, but it would be great to share if time allows because it helps get everyone into the proper mindset for thinking outside the box.  Enjoy it here:



I purchased a Makey Makey starter kit for $50, which comes with everything you need to get started.  You can find the kit for sale on Amazon, or you can buy directly from the Makey Makey website.  I also definitely recommend exploring the Makey Makey website to get lots of ideas for way that the device can be used.  They have links to a whole list of awesome recommended programs that work well with the Makey Makey, which is a great place to start.

Since only so many people can use the program at once, I decided to limit the size of the program to 5 people at a time with two time slots, one for teens and another for tweens.  Neither group completely filled (I had 4 teens and 2 tweens), but I was actually thankful for the small numbers as we tested what the Makey Makey could do.

On the day of the program, I set up a laptop and connected the Makey Makey.  I pre-loaded a couple of programs that I knew I wanted to try out (piano and bongos) so that they would be ready to go, and kept another tab open with the list of recommended programs to give us more options.  I set up another table with some conductive object to connect to the Makey Makey.

When the teens/tweens arrived, I have them a quick 2-minute rundown of what the Makey Makey was and how it worked.  Then I basically just let them go to town.  I let them decide which programs they wanted to test and which objects they wanted to turn into their keyboards and only offered a bit of advice and encouragement when it looked like they needed it, and occasionally challenged them to try something a little bit different or reminded them to take turns.  With such a small group, it was very easy to just let them experiment with the Makey Makey to discover what they could do with it.  As the afternoon progressed, everyone started to get even more creative and innovative as they tested the Makey Makey's limits.  It was awesome.

Check out these pictures to see some of the ways that the teens/tweens got creative with the Makey Makey.

     

   

Maker Mondays - Lava Lamps & Pet Jellyfish

This month's Maker Monday program was a combination of crafts and science as we did two hands-on projects, both involving plastic bottles and colored water.

The first project, and probably the easiest of the two, was the lava lamps.  I got the basic idea for this idea from a project I saw on Pinterest (check it out!) and many similar projects with tutorials can also be found online.  The basic idea is to fill a bottle half with water (colored with a few drops of food coloring) and half with vegetable oil (baby oil also works and is clear in color, but is more expensive).  The oil and the water will not mix no matter how much you try to stir/shake the two together because of their differing densities.  To make the lava lamps work best, I recommend filling your bottles with water first and then topping them off with oil.  If you do it the other way around, you'll need to give the bottles more time for the liquids to sort themselves out before moving on to the next step or the effect will not be very exciting.

Extra bling like glitter and sequins could be added at this point to give the lamps a bit of pizazz.  Once the bottles are prepped, the real magic begins.  Simply break an alka-seltzer tablet into pieces.  Drop a piece of the tablet into the bottle and watch the colored water bubble up through the oil.  Neat!  Our testing showed that with a one-liter bottle you could put up to half of a tablet into the bottle at once, though any more than that was overkill.

The second project was a little more involved, but the finished product was totally worth the effort.  We made jellyfish in a bottle!  Instructions for this project can be found here, but I do have a few tips for anyone who might want to give this project a try. 

• When you're cutting the plastic bag to give your jellyfish legs/tentacles, remember that you're cutting off and throwing away A LOT more plastic than you're keeping.  You really only need 15-20 super-skinny tentacles.
• Related to that:  Be sure that your tentacles are skinny, skinny, skinny!  If you're looking at your tentacles and think that you could cut them in half pretty easily, then you probably should.
• Instead of using a string to tied your jellyfish's head, we used tiny rubber bands used for hair braiding.  Seemed much easier to use and provided the needed stretch.

The finished product was super cool.  I put one of these jellyfish out as a sample, and tons of people stopped to play with it.  It helped to drum up lots of interest in the program!  I tried for ages to get a good picture, but my timing wasn't very good.  Enjoy this video instead.

I had eight participants in this program, four teens and four tweens, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves.  Part of me wishes that I would have had an assistant to help them with their projects since everyone, especially the tweens, needed a little guidance and/or reassurance that they were doing everything correctly.  But we made do, and everyone's projects turned out really well. 

The cost of this program was pretty minimal since most of the materials were easily upcycled.  Both projects required empty plastic bottles.  Fortunately, I have a friend with a crazy soda addiction who buys his soda in one-liter bottles.  He saved tons and tons of bottles for me to use for this program.  We had food coloring left over from another project, and plastic shopping bags were easy to come by.  A staff member with daughters who were totally over the hair braiding phase donated tiny rubber bands to use for the jellyfish.  The only supplies that I had to purchase was the vegetable oil and alka-seltzer for the lava lamps.

Pi Day Display

Pi is a pretty magical number.  For those of you who haven't taken a math class recently and/or do not use pi on a regular basis, pi is a number that is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.  Pi is always the same number no matter the size of the circle.  It is a never-ending, non-repeating, very very very long number, usually truncated down to two decimal places:  3.14.

Math geeks in recent years have taken to celebrating Pi Day on March 14 since the date, when written out with numbers, uses the first three numbers found in Pi.  This year's Pi Day was extra special because when we included the year along with the month and date, we could expand Pi by two additional decimal places (3.1415).  Neat!

To celebrate, I did a little display all about Pi in the teen area of the library.  I found lovely printables online and mounted them on construction paper, pinning them to the bulletin boards on our shelves' endcaps. One of these was a super cool infographic with some neat facts about pi.  The other was a printout of pi's digits in much of its glory.

I also wanted to add an interactive element to this display, but didn't want to put out math worksheets because a) we're not a school, and I'm not a math teacher, and b) that's not exactly super exciting or attention-grabbing.  Instead I found a Pi-themed crossword puzzle and put them in a folder for teens to take.  Since voting has been a popular passive program for us, and since eating pie is one of the more popular methods of celebration on Pi Day, I also asked the teens to vote for their favorite kind of pie.  (For the curious, apple pie was the clear winner with 20 votes.)

Maker Mondays - Cupcake Wars

This year I have started a series of programs for teens and tweens (grades 5+) affectionately dubbed, "Maker Mondays."  Once each month (yes, on a Monday) participants gather to do some sort of hands-on project.   Sometimes we might do craft projects, sometimes we might do something more science based.  No matter what the project may be, each month's activity is very hands-on and often requires some creativity.  I'm also trying hard to make sure that there's a component where the participants are working together and collaborating/sharing as they work.

Our first Maker Mondays program was Cupcake Wars.  This is a program that I've had on my radar for some time, and it seemed to fit in nicely with the theme.  I set out a ton of frostings and toppings, and gave each participant three cupcakes.  The teens were given three challenges for decorating their cupcakes:

1)  One cupcake could be decorated any way desired.  Anything goes!
2)  One cupcake had to be decorated to represent a book.  Any book was fine!  A book display was on hand to provide inspiration.
3)  One cupcake had to use at least one of the ingredients from the "unusual toppings" table.

I decided not to do any actual voting or judging to declare a winner, though I did ask all participants to take turns showing their cupcakes to the group and talking about their inspirations and what ingredients they chose to use.  At the end the kids were allowed to eat their cupcakes and/or take them home.
 

Food-based programs are always hugely popular, and this one was no exception with 16 total participants.  Everyone seemed to have a great time, and it didn't even take too much cajoling to get the teens to share their creations. 

It's a good thing that food-based programs are so popular, because they unfortunately are always a tad expensive.  Let's face it, junk food and candy aren't cheap! 

To save a bit on money, I bought boxed cake mix and made my own cupcakes to use in this program.  This saved us a ton of money compared to the cost of purchasing cupcakes from a bakery, but required a bit more time and effort on my end.  I also suggest that other librarians looking to do this program double check their library's rules regarding serving food before making their own cupcakes to be sure that your policies allow for this.

I purchased several different types of canned frosting for the teens/tweens to use.  I also provided a few containers of easy-squeeze decorating icing.

Toppings for the cupcakes were easily the largest expense.  To put this program together, I suggest first raiding your own cupboards at home to see if there is anything that you can spare a small amount of.  There were tons of leftovers since we really only needed a very small amount of each topping, but we did want to have a wide variety of toppings to choose from.  Many of the leftovers were saved to be used as snacks for upcoming programs.

Some of the toppings that I made available included:

• Oreo Cookies
• Chocolate Chips
• Butterscotch Chips
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Sweedish Fish
• M&Ms
• Pixie Stix
• Snickers Bars
• Reece's Peanut Butter Cups
• Pretzels
• Graham Crackers
• Marshmallows
• Peanuts
• Trail Mix

I also had a table full of "unusual toppings" that you might not normally think to include on a cupcake.  The teens were allowed to use toppings from this table at any time, but were required to use at least one of these for one of their cupcakes:

• Flavor-Blasted Goldfish
• Chex Mix
• Corn Chips
• Sun-Dried Tomatoes
• Crispy Pepper Chips
• Beef Jerkey
• Olives
• Jalapenos
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Doodles

During the months of December and January, our passive program in the teen area was very simple.  I put out some quarter sheets of colored paper and asked the teens to draw something.  They were then invited to pin their drawings up on the bulletin boards.

In two months time, we had 21 doodles posted up on the bulletin board.  Not bad considering how slow of a month December usually is in Library Land.  It was also really interesting to see what kinds of things the teen choose to draw.  Subjects ranged from flowers to fan art to winter scenes to animals.  The artistic rendering ranged from super basic to very detailed.  But since it's all anonymous, there was (I hope) no real pressure for anyone to do anything in particular - which is in my mind one of the major appeals of this activity.

Wrapped Book Display

My Teen Advisory Group had a great idea for a book display this month.  We wrapped up books and set them out under a decorated Christmas tree.  I made up some stickers that listed the book's genre and affixed the stickers to the books.  People could then take one of the wrapped books and check them out with their library cards.  They wouldn't know anything about the book except for the genre until they took the book home and unwrapped it.

Since my library has RFID, checking out one of these wrapped books is super easy.  The wrapping paper doesn't get in the way of anything with RFID - just place the book on the pad and you're done.  Libraries that scan barcodes for checkout would need to take extra steps to either ensure that the books' barcodes remain visible or to write the barcode number on the wrapped book for manual entry.

December is a slow-ish month at the library with so much else going on, but the display has still been moderately successful.  The teens that I've spoken to who have checked out these books have all been intrigued by the mystery.

What Are You Thankful For?

November's teen passive program drew its inspiration directly from one of my favorite holidays:  Thanksgiving.  Bad news:  I neglected to take a picture of the display before taking it down.  You're stuck listening to me describe it instead.

Setting up this passive program was super easy.  I made a large sign on 17x11" paper with the question, "What are you thankful for?" written on it.  Then I put out some quarter sheets of colored paper and pens.  The teens could write their answers out and post them to the bulletin board.  Easy!

Most of the answers were very nice.

A few were a little bit more...interesting.

Teenagers:  Gotta love them!

I've also learned that when asking the teens to write something simple like this, a smaller piece of paper is best.  Even these quarter sheets were too large since the answers were so brief.  Next time I might use Post-Its, or perhaps cut these quarter sheets in half.

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!

Teen Program: Angy Birds LIVE

Traditionally, the last teen program of the summer is held after hours.  This allows us to use the library space in unique ways and, since the teens basically get the library all to themselves and can make as much noise as they want, it really makes the program special for the teens who attend.  This year I was inspired by a few other libraries' success stories to try out a program that had been on my radar for awhile:  Angry Birds LIVE.

Most people are familiar with the Angry Birds game, which is an video game made popular as an app on mobile devices (iOS, Android, etc.) which, thanks to its incredible popularity, is now also available on other platforms.  The premise of the game is simple:  Pigs are positioned in/on various structures.  The player's goal is to destroy the pigs by using a slingshot to fling a variety of wingless birds at the structure, hopefully knocking it and the pigs to the ground.

Creating a "live" version of the game was actually pretty simple.  Well in advance, I asked the library's administrative assistant to set aside boxes for me as we received deliveries at the library.  In one or two months' time I had collected 60 boxes, mostly Baker & Taylor boxes of uniform size, for this project.  We then used these boxes to build structures that mimicked the levels seen in the Angry Birds game.  I also purchased some small playground balls from Oriental Trading which came printed with birds' faces on them.  Not exactly trademarked Angry Birds materials, but it was close enough to give the general idea without being too terribly expensive.  I brought bath towels from home to use as rudimentary sling shots.  The only other supply that we used, which is strictly optional but helped to set the mood, was green balloons, which were taped to paper cups and set on our structures as the pigs.  My summer helper even decorated the balloons with pig faces - they were super cute!

I had seen a number of posts from other librarians online describing their versions of such a program.  Some of the most helpful ones that I used in planning can be found here:

Teen Librarian's Toolbox
The Show Me Librarian

I more or less followed these librarians' descriptions of how to put this program together in terms of what supplies to use and how to play the game.  I did make one major change, however.  Most of the program descriptions that I came across had this event taking place in a large program room, where participants were also responsible for designing the structures themselves and then knocking them over.  This is a very good way to do it, and I love that this kind of program is creative play at its best from start to finish.  However, I really wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were in the library after hours and I wanted to use as much of the library's space as I could.  My solution was to instead design six "levels" of the game in advance.  Each level was assigned a location in the library, and the teens could wander from level to level to try their hand at the game with a different structure, kind of like a game of mini golf.  This was a little more work for me, but it was the only solution that I could come up with that let us take advantage of the library's space.

 Because we were going to be spread out all over the library, I wanted to have someone present who could be in charge of each level.  I recruited six volunteers, one for each level, to help out with this program.  Each volunteer was assigned a level, given a diagram of how it was set up, and shown where his/her level was to be located.  It was the volunteer's job to be the person in charge of the level - to make sure that it was rebuilt after it was knocked over (though I also told them to make the participating teens help out with this), help chase down the balls when they went flying, and basically be the person in charge to made sure that the teens didn't do anything stupid.  Myself and another staff person were then able to wander around from station to station, mingling with the teens, taking pictures, replacing pigs as their balloons were popped, keeping track of the time, etc.

In the end, 25 teens attended this program.  They divided themselves into six groups, and each group was given about 8 minutes to try each level before I flexed my vocal chords by yelling really loudly for them to help reset the level and move on to the next one.  We were able to go through all six levels in about an hour's time.  Since destruction is always fun the teens generally were eager to try each level multiple times, which was good because it generally only took the teens about two minutes to successfully "complete" each level. 

I had created a scorecard for the teens to use, but didn't exactly expect that they would care enough to keep score.  And I was absolutely right about this - no one kept score, and they had a great time anyway.  The big thing that they did take from the scorecard was the set of optional rules printed on the back, which basically gave each color bird a different way that it could be used and launched.  I didn't even directly point this out the teens and figured that those teens who wanted to use these rules could, and those who preferred to play the game in its most straightforward manner could do that.  The groups were split about 50-50 when it came to using these optional rules.

The only hiccup that we came across was the fact that the small playground balls that I had purchased were actually almost too small and light to pack enough force to knock the large boxes over using the typical slingshot method.  We did find throwing the balls to be a more effective technique than using the slingshot, and slinging multiple balls at once also seemed to work well.  The teens, however, had no complaints about the balls that we used.  Part of me wonders if coming up with a solution to this problem was part of the appeal.  Smaller boxes, of course, would be easier to knock over but have the drawback of making each level smaller as a whole.

All in all, this program was a tremendous hit.  It was actually pretty easy and relatively inexpensive to plan - the balls were the only real expense, and I bet that a diligent shopper could find something fairly comparable to the balls that I used for cheaper.  Even still, now that the balls our purchased we have them at our disposal for future programs.  Most importantly, it was just so much fun to give the teens a chance to play.  Yes, you can make the argument that there's a science lesson to be found in this activity and that we're promoting teamwork, etc.  But the bottom line is that they had a good time just goofing off while playing a game.  Can't beat that.

Because this program was so successful (and because one six-year-old was practically in tears when we told him that this program was only for teens) we are planning to recreate the event on a smaller scale in our Community Room for kids of all ages in November.

Teen Program: Egg Drop

This summer was pretty crazy at the library.  Summer is always crazy with extra traffic, kids desperate to report their reading and earn prizes, and programs happening every day of the week.  For myself personally, it was also hectic because I was, through a series of convoluted events that I won't get into here, forced to come back from my maternity leave just in time for summer reading to begin.  Crazy!

Fortunately, I had done a ton of planning for this year's Teen Summer Reading Program well in advance.  Good thing to, because this year we had record numbers of teens signing up to participate in our special events.

Our best-attended program of the summer was our Egg Drop, which a whopping 28 teens participated in.  This program was based on a widely popular physics project done at many middle and high schools.  The idea is to challenge the participants to construct something that will protect an egg that is dropped from a great height and prevent it from breaking.  Teens need to use a little bit of ingenuity to figure out how to displace the force of the impact using a few basic supplies.

We set up several tables for the teens to work at with four chairs at each table.  Each table was given a single egg and the teens worked together to build an egg-protecting contraption.  This was great for encouraging the teens to be social and to promote teamwork and cooperation.  We set up a supply table with a variety of objects that the teens could use to construct their contraptions.  Supplies included:  Berry baskets, styrofoam, cardboard, plastic bags, string, toilet paper tubes, craft sticks, and of course, scissors and tape.  The teens were encouraged when they signed up for the program to think about designs in advance and bring any supplies from home that they might need, but most were happy to just use what we had on hand.

We basically told the teens what the goal was, showed them a few of the supplies at the supply table, and then just let them go to town.  We gave them about 40 minutes to build their contraptions, and much of this time was also filled with socializing and snacking.  I made a point of walking from group to group to ask them about their contraptions and many were eager to show off their ingenuity.

When time was up we went over to our drop point in the library.  My library has a fairly unique two-floor construction, with a main floor on ground level and an open basement below.  There is a large open space in the center of the main floor surrounded by a rail that looks down on the lower level.  We found a spot along this rail that didn't have much that could be disturbed below it, covered it in plastic tablecloths, and marked it off as the area where the eggs and their respective contraptions would be dropped.

The teens gathered on the lower level near the drop point to observe, and groups were called one at a time to go upstairs and drop their contraptions.  The group then had to come back downstairs to open up their contraption to see if their egg survived the fall.  All in all, the dropping portion of this program took a little over 20 minutes with (if I remember correctly) 9 groups.  Yes, we were a bit noisy out in the middle of the library.  But most of the other patrons in the area were actually really interested in what the teens were doing and came by to observe.  I also think that it was nice doing a program like this out in a public place so that other people could see the teens in action doing something positive at the library.

Generally this was a very successful program.  There is only one thing that I would change if we were to do this program again:  I wouldn't include so many packing supplies on the supply table.  I might even leave the styrofoam and bubble wrap out completely.  These materials are built specifically to protect the objects inside from impact, and I think that providing these materials made building successful contraptions a little too easy.  We didn't have a single egg casualty and I would say that at least six of the nine contraptions had more or less the same secure design.  While there is something to be said for such a high success rate, it could have been nice to see more variety and to encourage a little more creative thinking.

Book-to-Movie: Divergent

This week we showed the movie "Divergent" here at the library.  The books upon which this movie was based, written by Veronica Roth, have been hugely popular - so much so that the multiple copies of the book that my library owns are always checked out, with an incredibly long hold list that ensures that we won't be seeing the book anytime soon.  It's no surprise that, in a movie market that is happy to turn successful YA books into film, this series was quickly optioned and adapted to the big screen by Summit Entertainment.  The film was released in theaters in March 2014 and came out on DVD and BluRay on August 5.

Our showing of the film here at the library was quite successful.  Thirty people attended this program and, just as when we showed "The Hunger Games" back in 2012, I was impressed at the number of adults - several parents and a few stand-alone adults - who were interested in seeing this movie with the teens.  It is exciting to see more opportunities for intergenerational programming here at the library thanks to the growing cross-appeal of YA books and movies.

Clearly, the movie is popular.  But was it actually any good?

In my humble opinion, the answer to that question is highly debatable.

When it comes to the movie's ability to translate what happens in the book onto the big screen, I would say that it did quite well.  As I was watching the movie I could think of only one event from the book that was left out of the movie, and though this scene was powerful in the book, I completely understand why this cut was made (time, lack of lasting impact on the series).  As far as my memory is concerned, watching the movie was just like reading the book when it comes to plot. This should please most fans of the book immensely.

There is actually very little significantly wrong with the film.  Fights are well choreographed.  Kate Winslet is significantly villainous as Jeanine Mathews.  I truly enjoyed being able to see the different factions and how each one is symbolized by a different color scheme and sense of design.  Yet this movie just didn't "wow" me.  It was fine.  Maybe I'm just a bit tired of the genre, but I couldn't help but feel that I'd heard this story before, only told better.

My biggest complaint will probably spark some debate since most critics seem to feel differently than I did:  I just didn't care for Shailene Woodley as Tris.  In both the book and in the movie, Four comments that fear doesn't shut Tris down; it instead wakes her up.  I frankly never really saw Tris wake up in this movie.  I saw her jump off of trains and get into fights and go through all of the brave motions she is supposed to.  But I never saw that spark in her eyes, that moment of desperation that drives her to be brave and to enjoy her new freedom.

Still, even if the movie isn't perfect, it is reasonably entertaining.  And since it does such a good job of portraying the plot of the book I'm willing to bet that the majority of fans will be satisfied.

Overall Quality of the Film:  C+
Overall Faithfulness to the Book:  A

Cookies, Cocoa, and Karaoke

I mentioned in my last post that we had a bit of a Christmas party for teens at the library this week.  The event was called "Cookies, Cocoa, and Karaoke."  Needless to say, the program involved all three of those elements.

I'd had teens asking for a karaoke program for quite some time, and the Christmas season seemed like a good time for this sort of event.  There are many options out there for hosting a karaoke event.  You can rent or purchase a karaoke machine.  There are several video games that have karaoke elements, including "Karaoke Revolution" and "Karaoke Joysound."  Several elements prevented me from using either of these options, however.  Price was an issue was getting a karaoke machine since I just didn't have much money left in my programming budget.  A Wii game, such as the ones listed above, would certainly have been cheaper to purchase and easy to use since we already have a Wii here at the library.  However, I didn't think that any of these games would give us a wide enough selection of songs to choose from.  I also wanted to have Christmas songs available as options for the teens to sing and I could not find a single karaoke game that included Christmas music.

Desperate for a simple solution, I asked around on Facebook and a friend told me that she had once hosted a karaoke event using a program she had found online.  She told me that she had simply hooked her laptop up to a set of speakers and paid a small subscription fee, which gave her access to lots of songs to sing along with.  I looked into several online options like this and eventually selected a program called KaraFun to use for our event.  There is a lot to like about KaraFun and I highly recommend the program to anyone else who is planning their own karaoke event.  The software that KaraFun provides was free to download and very easy to use.  KaraFun also boasts a very large music library of over 17,000 songs, which meant that just about anything that we could think of would be available to sing - including lots of Christmas music.  There was a small subscription fee that had to be paid to allow us to access KaraFun's music library.  I paid $5.99 for a two-day pass, giving me access to the music library for more than enough time for the event.  There is also an option to pay for an ongoing monthly subscription, which would certainly be worthwhile for serious karaoke enthusiasts but was more than we needed for a one-time event.  KaraFun also has an app which can be downloaded onto Apple or Android devices.  In the end I ended up putting the app onto the library's iPad, which gave the teens the freedom to hold the iPad right in front of them to see the lyrics they needed to sing and eliminated the need to set up a more cumbersome table with the laptop.

The KaraFun program worked perfectly for our event.  The teens were pleased with the song selection, and they sang a good mix of contemporary tunes and Christmas classics.  The free software was actually very easy to use and provides users with a surprisingly large range of editing options that allows you to customize the music to your liking.  The feature that I actually enjoyed the most was the ability to adjust the volume in three different areas.  Of course the music's volume could be adjusted.  The impressive part was being able to adjust the volume of the back-up vocals (or turn them off entirely) or turn on and adjust the volume of a lead vocalist.  We ended up turning on the lead vocals but adjusting the volume to make this element fairly quiet.  This gave less-confident singers a little bit of extra guidance as they could follow the lead voice, but keeping the lead vocals quiet made the singer's voice the focal point of the performance.

In the end the equipment that I needed was fairly minimal.  I put the KaraFun app onto the iPad and hooked the iPad up to a large set of speakers.  We also had a wireless microphone hooked up to a different set of speakers, which was perhaps not an ideal sound scenario but was the best system that we could come up with given the equipment at our disposal.  At any rate, none of the teens noticed that the sound was coming from two different places so no harm done.  I had a small book cart available to be used as a stand for the iPad and where the microphone could be set between singers.  Finally, I also set up a laptop to the side of the main stage.  This allowed teen who were waiting for their turn to sing to easily browse the music library and make sure that their songs were available before stepping up to stage to sing.

Of course, there was more to this event than deciding which karaoke program we were going to use!

As the title of this program indicates, there were also cookies and cocoa to be had.  I heated up lots of water in our coffee pot and put out a tub of cocoa mix.  It was really as easy as that.  For the cookies, I actually asked my very enthusiastic Teen Advisory Group if they would be willing to help provide the cookies for this program.  I asked everyone to bring 1-2 dozen cookies to the program.  The three teens from my TAG group who were able to attend complied and there were more than enough cookies to go around.  Asking the teens to bring food is allowed by my library's policies but might not be acceptable at other libraries - be sure to check your policies before trying this.  But the fact that we were able to do this not only meant that I could save some money on snacks, but also that we got to eat some yummy homemade goodies instead of bland store-bought cookies.

The teens also spent quite a bit of time creating Christmas decorations for the party.  We hung up tons of snowflakes and made festive paper chains.  And of course, there was the awesome book tree.   Unfortunately, I neglected to take any pictures of the other decor.  Oops.

In the end I had five teens in attendance for this program.  There was much interest in the program and almost all of the handouts that I had put out were taken.  But this time of year is tricky for a lot of people as schedules fill up quickly and everyone is busy getting ready for the holidays.  I was not too surprised at this fairly low turnout, and I actually wonder if we would have had more success holding this program a week later after Christmas had ended but during the kids' break from school.  The low attendance, however, did have its perks.  We could all be very relaxed about the structure of the program.  I never had to put together a formal waiting list of singers and what songs they wanted to sing, which I may have needed to do with a large crowd.  Instead we could simply use good sense to take turns singing and we could afford to take our time between singers to find the songs we wanted.  A larger audience would certainly have been nice, but there was something to be said for the relaxed nature of a smaller program too.

Fortunately, this was also a very inexpensive program to put together, and an inexpensive program does make one feel better about low attendance.  I only spent about $13 on this program, half of that cost being the rental of the KaraFun music library and the other half being the cost of the cocoa mix.  All other supplies and equipment used were already on hand.  Even if I had needed to purchase cookies to serve for this party, the overall cost would still have been very, very low.

I would certainly plan some version of this karaoke event again for the teens again in a heartbeat.  Now that I know about the features that KaraFun offers and know how to set up the equipment it would actually be a very easy program to plan.  Perhaps we'll see a karaoke event during this year's Summer Library Program...

Teen Summer Program Success

The 2013 Summer Library Program is wrapping up here.  Summer is always our busiest time of year, and this year it felt like especially crazy.  I've been pulling some statistics together for my Teen SLP (which I am completely responsible for) and the numbers don't like:  It really was a lot busier than last year.  A lot busier.  Here are a few of the more interesting numbers:

Total registration in the Teen SLP increased by about 24%.
Total reading done by teens increased by about 16%.
Here's the real kicker:  Total attendance at teen programs increased by a whopping 210%!  This number increases to 431% if you include all of the passive programming that I put together for this summer (none of which existed last year.

No wonder I'm exhausted!  Being around that many teenagers will do that.

There are a couple of things that point to the increase in participation this summer.  The first is that, since I'm not longer the new kid in town at this library, more of the teens in the area know who I am.  Some of the teens who know me especially well (who came to other programs during the school year, etc.) have started bringing their friends to the library and getting them to sign up for summer reading.  Peer pressure and word of mouth does wonders.

I also like to think that the increase in program attendance has something to do with the fact that I put together some awesome teen events this summer.  Enjoy a few pictures from some of these programs:

Last year's popular Ninja Training program returned with
a new and improved format...  And a new and improved
outdoor obstacle course! 

My most well-attended program of the summer was
DIY Henna Body Art.  I ordered and mixed the henna, and
the teens had the change to design their own temporary tattoos.

We did some geocaching at the library...

And found some neat prizes!

We also held a Super Smash Bros.
Brawl tournament.  We had 20 teens
participating in this modified single-
elimination tournament.

The winner of the tournament won
this awesome trophy that  I crafted
from a block of wood, an Iron Man piggy
bank, and some gold spray paint.

To finish off the summer we had an after-hours
zombie party at the library.  Most of the teens
came in costume, and so did I.  I came dressed
as one of the zombies from the hit game Plants
vs. Zombies.  All of teens understood the
reference.  None of my adult co-workers did.

Dig In, Read In

When I was planning this year's Teen Summer Reading Program, I soon realized that I was going to run out of money in my summer budget.  I found myself looking at the summer calendar with one more day of programming to fill and almost no money for special supplies or a presenter.  I needed a program that would grab attention, but not cost much money.  And given the intensity of a few other programs I had planned, it wouldn't hurt if the program was super easy to plan and put together.  What to do?

Desperate for inspiration, I thought back to other programs that I had seen done and other libraries.  My mind wandered to a previous job and some of the programs I had seen done there.  One program in particular seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.  I'm not ashamed to say that I borrowed this program plan (which had been originally been done with school-age kids in mind) and adapted it for my teen audience.

The idea behind this program is actually pretty simple:  Everyone comes to the program with a book.  Everyone reads silently for a set time (I settled on 45 minutes).  Afterwards, everyone is given a tasty treat as a reward for their effort.  Easy!

One component that I decided to add to this program was a show and tell.  Before we started reading, I gathered everyone in a circle and asked them to each say just a few quick words about whatever the book was they were planning to read.  This way everyone was able to hear about new titles that other teens were enjoying that they might not have otherwise have heard about.  I was actually very impressed with how well my group of teens handled this part of the program.  They did a good job of giving us succinct summaries of their books, and they got excited about talking about books with each other as we moved around the circle.  At one point we actually had a mostly thoughtful discussion about the merits and flaws of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight.  This discussion added about 20 minutes to the program time - admittedly, more time than I'd anticipated thanks to the depth of the discussion and the number of teens in attendance - but it was totally worth it.  After all, it's the library's job to get teens excited about books and reading.  I'd say mission accomplished!

When I first told my supervisor about this program idea, she was skeptical.  She cautioned me that I might not see the attendance numbers I'd prefer in a low-key program like this.  In the end, however, there was no need at all to worry as I had a whopping 19 teens in attendance.  Wow!  I was confident that there would be a market for a program like this in my community, but I truthfully wasn't quite expecting to have this many teens.  Not that I'm complaining.  I'm thrilled that so many people were willing to come to the library simply to hang out and read.

Everyone was also invited to bring pillows, blankets, or whatever else they wanted to get comfortable while they read.  They were also invited to sit anywhere they wanted while they read.  I was pretty impressed that so many teens were excited about curling up underneath one of the many tables that are always present in the programming room.  Who knew?

As far as the tasty treat promised as a reward for reading, I decided that given this year's underground theme I would make some dirt cake.  It was a big hit!  The dirt cake was also the only expense for the program.

I've seen a few different dirt cake recipes floating around, but this is the one I used:

2 (20 oz.) pkgs. Oreo cookies
1/2  stick butter
1 (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
3 1/2 c. milk
2 sm. French vanilla instant pudding boxes
1 (12 oz.) Cool Whip

Cream the butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together in a bowl, and then set aside.

In another LARGE bowl, mix pudding together with the milk, add the Cool Whip to pudding mixture. (Don’t follow the directions on the pudding, just use the 3 ½ cups of milk).  Then blend in with the cream cheese mixture.

To crush the Oreos, put the packages of Oreos in a large Ziploc bag.  Then, in case of a tear in the bag, just put your Ziploc bag inside another large Ziploc bag for protection, then crush.

Then, in a large bowl, layer the cream and the Oreos.  Start with the Oreos on the bottom of the bowl, then end with Oreos to top it off.  Don't be afraid to go a bit heavy on the cream (or you'll have lots left over) and use a thin layer of Oreos (or you won't have enough).  Chill at least one hour before serving.  Top with gummy worms or other goodies as desired.