Events on the Horizon!

So, I said last time we were working on not waiting so long between posts, and then I waited even longer between posts to say anything! My apologies! Summer was crazy and then the fall was a lot of playing catch-up. But we're getting there! I just wanted to let you know about some of the programs we have coming up next week - and then we're taking a programming break until January.

At a Glance: Catching Fire Cornucopia Challenge: Wednesday, November 20, 4:00-5:30 PM. Prizes for top team AND door prize! Register today!
Shelter in Place: Thursday, November 21, 6:00-7:45PM. Door prize! Register today!


To celebrate the release of Catching Fire next week, we're having a Cornucopia Challenge Event. You'll be competing with a teammate to earn weapons and supplies for a few days in the arena, and then seeing how you fare with what you were able to collect. We'll have survival scenarios, scavenger hunts, target practice, and more!

The two winners will each receive a prize pack that include a ten dollar gift card to Muvico!


And we know we're a little late to the zombie apocalypse since Halloween was last month - but I've learned that the zombie apocalypse makes its own time. And I'm not about to say no to a horde of zombies! Shelter in Place is a live-action role-playing game (shortened to a LARP). In it, players are given character sheets for being specific humans - like a doctor or a businessperson - and some are given over to the zombie horde. Play begins and the two sides have vastly different objectives - the humans want to escape to safety, the zombies want to eat some brains.

This is a game of tag and strategy. And a little bit of creepy. We play-tested this last week and even though we all knew each other and knew what was going on, the zombies still scared all of us. Other zombies included! If you've ever wondered what you would do in a horror movie, now's your chance to find out!

We will have a door prize for this event. Just for showing up and trying to stop the zombie apocalypse, you'll be entered to win a signed edition of Darren Shan's Zom-B! It's the first in a great, dark series about everyone's new favorite undead, signed and dated earlier this year!

Welcome to Summer!

Hello all! Long time, no write! We are busily working on fixing that and we hope to have some great information out to you soon! In the meantime, we have just started our summer reading program: Beneath the Surface. It only takes a few moments to register, and you can win some great prizes - get a laser finger light just for signing up! We hope to see you out at the book clubs, summer events, and end-of-summer party. Keep tuned in for more information!

http://fl.evanced.info/phlib/sr/homepage.asp?ProgramID=10

Catching Fire Is Coming

Last night, the world witnessed the first teaser for Catching Fire. After the success of the tributes at Palm Harbor Library's training arena on Saturday, this teaser came at a great time.

If we were to run a celebration for the release of Catching Fire, what sort of activities would you like to see us run?

Hunger Games Training Arena

Palm Harbor Library presents the 77th Annual Hunger Games!

In honor of what has come to pass, we shall still be holding training for a mock Hunger Games. Join us for creating, training, and tests of survival to see which district comes out on top with training points! We will have multiple group challenges testing your survival skills and your wits; we will have multiple training stations such as plant identification and knot tying (with a twist!); and we will have crafting stations - everyone leaves with something!

The district that wins the most training points throughout the day will win one prize basket for each member of the district! Come join the reaping, find out your district, and strive for the best!

Questions? E-mail Kiki or Samma! (kiki@phlib.org OR samma@phlib.org) Space is limited to twenty-four tribute, so register today!

Here's a sneak-peek at what's to come!

Camp NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - is the month for writers, where they set a challenge of 50,000 words for themselves and write furiously alongside thousands of other writers.

The Office of Light and Letters, the mother organization of NaNoWriMo, is putting together another challenge this year. In light of funding, they had to cut this year's Script Frenzy - but they redesigned Camp NaNoWriMo, an offshoot of their Young Writers' Program, to allow for another time period of fervent writing.

In April and in July, writers across the world are banding together to create their own word goals, for whatever they wish to write. Join Camp NaNoWriMo today to be a part of this great community. For an added bonus, let Palm Harbor Library know that you are joining Camp NaNoWriMo. By providing your username for the competition, you will be signed up for an exclusive Camp PHL newsletter every week and the opportunity for feedback, more immediate word count competitions, and prizes!

I'll be writing as Samma Lynne. I'm still deciding just what to write! ;) So many choices, only two months!

Thanks!

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who came out, participated, and had a great time last night! The murder was successfully solved in our annual Murder Mystery Night, which means further peace on earth and good will of the immortals to men.

Spring break is coming up! We have two great programs this week for you. Both are drop-in programs - no registration required! Just show up.

Monday at 1:30 PM we will be showing the latest DVD release of J.R.R. Tolkien's grand adventures. Chairs will be provided... but we suggest bringing comfy pillows and blankets. What's a good road trip adventure without some camping?

Thursday at 3:00 PM we will have another great Drop-By Gaming program! We'll have some board games out - as well as the Wii! Come prepared to sing and play your heart out with Rock Band and get moving with some Wii Dance!

Keep an eye on the Teen Page for more upcoming events, great books, and other fun things to do! Also like us on our new Facebook page! www.facebook.com/PHLteens!

TTW - Autocomplete

You've heard of autocorrect fails - but how about autocomplete fails? They're becoming more prevalent in funny screencap blogs.

Autocompletes change constantly - and are based on your location. While it can lead to some amusing results, autocomplete is an important feature in technology, working to reduce time not only in searches but in computer programs as well. They are also very telling of the culture they represent. Check out this interesting infograph of the top search engines (Google and Bing) and see their predictions for each letter of the alphabet: http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/infographic-the-abcs-of-search-engine-autocomplete

Have you ever had a strange outcome to some innocent search terms?

Teen Tech Week - Code Academy

We're fast approaching Teen Tech Week, a national call to libraries to showcase technology resources for teens. The technology world is your world now, and a fast-changing one at that.

In preparation for TTW, I want to share an interesting resource that isn't directly from the library. It's called Code Academy and its purpose is to teach the building blocks of computer language to build websites and programs. It's easy to use, encourages constant learning through badges and achievements, and in our tech age, any of the featured languages (CCS, HTML5, Javascript, and more) are great languages to be proficient in.

 

 

Click on the above link to get started learning today! Starting March 10 we will be posting more information about online library resources, so keep an eye out!

New Programming Ideas

I am quite often bursting at the seams to pitch new programming ideas - it comes from a decade of volunteering to run panels and events at various conventions around Florida. However, all the best ideas in the world aren't worth a lick if they aren't what you, yes, you, teenaged member of Palm Harbor Library, want to do. I haven't been a teenager in a few years and change, and we all know how quickly what's "cool" changes from year to year.

So tell us what you most want to see. Give the teen programming some direction! Please vote in the new poll, located on the sidebar. If you'd love to see something that isn't listed, comment here with what sort of ideas you have! We can't wait to see what you want. Don't worry about being vague or specific - just let us know what you want and we'll fill the calendar to the best of our abilities.

YALSA Reading Challenge

A good challenge can be just the fire needed to get moving on a great goal - like reading more. YALSA is presenting a challenge that has some great bragging rights and the chance to win a bookworm's dream prize - a tote full of 2012 and 2013 YA Lit titles! Follow this link to learn more:

http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2013/02/03/yalsas-2013-hub-reading-challenge-begins/

Speaking of reading challenges, this is a great challenge to combine with the reading challenge presented by Goodreads!

http://www.goodreads.com/challenges/940-2013-reading-challenge

There is no physical prize at the end of this rainbow, but the satisfaction of setting and attaining a reading goal. And, hey, it might coincide nicely with the summer reading program coming up soon (which will feature a contest with prizes)!

Secret (Book) Valentine!

Feburary 14, 3:00 to 5:00 PM, Harbor Room

You'll meet new people and win new books at this fun new Valentine's Day program! Come play a game of White Elephant and see what book you can keep safe and yours. A safe and crazy fun way to meet new people.

Blind Date book display from Mercer County Library

We hope you'll join us to mingle with new and old friends and win some great new YA titles in the process!

I Love Him to Pieces

My Boyfriend is a Monster #1 - I Love Him to Pieces by Evonne Tsang and Janina Gorrissen.

I am not a zombie fan. I know, I'm a terrible fantasy fan. But even though I don't like zombies, I adored this first book in what looks like will be a cute comic series. It's a love story between a jock and a geek that developed fast but believably, and then there are zombies. The zombies were even more sudden than the love story, but the characters kept me reading along.

Bonus, it takes place right here in Pinellas! St. Pete is overrun with zombies first. Keep an eye out!

Secret Lives Of

For children and teens, interest in a TV show or a video game usually denotes a limited reading resource. Sometimes the same holds true for a book series - hype may interest someone into reading one series, but that interest may not carry over into branching out to read other books. Fanfiction creates a bridge between the non-literary and an impossibly vast world of literature.

While “fanfiction” may not be considered by all to be literature, it is words on a page - words that may be more interesting to a reluctant reader than a published writing. Fanfiction brings characters to life in a whole new way that is more understandable to struggling readers because they might have been written by that reader’s peers.

Fanfiction not only encourages reading, but it can inspire writing as well. Fans of a series will often want to know more about characters and events- and fanfiction gives them a chance to decide what that “more” is for themselves.

The Palm Harbor Library will be offering Fanfiction workshops, exercises, discussions, contests, and more through the website Figment. We are running a private group called The Secret Lives Of, in which we will promote reading, writing, and sharing. You can find it here: http://figment.com/groups/12684-The-Secret-Lives-Of Please feel free to sign up today and get ready to start the new year off with a bit of magic and wonder.

Goblin Secrets

"Quite right," said Thomas. "As with a charm or a chant, the world might change to fit the shape of your words. Your own belief becomes contagious. Others catch it. You believed yourself a giant when you spoke as a giant, and so you became one. Your audience regarded you as one. They knew better, but they believed it anyway."

 "I got taller?" Rownie asked.

"Everyone thought so," said Thomas, "so please don't declaim anything at all while wearing another face - most especially anything about yourself. Don't say any lines Semele did not write for you. And remember, always remember, that curses and charms have consequences. You set yourself apart from the world by changing the shape of it."

 

Goblin Secrets by William Alexander.

Sometimes a book comes along that you hear is going to be magic and it lets you down. That is not this book. I had reservations, but this book moves along at a river's pace. It doesn't explain things to you, it shows you and knows you'll be clever enough to learn on your own how to swim. It sweeps you along and you forget to question it, but learn to live it.

The story of Rownie and his quest of discovery is one many teens can relate to. This book is of special interest to anyone with an interest in acting. The fantastical is beautiful, but the power of actors is so strong that it can fill anyone with the passion to pursue acting and learning to make your mark in this world.

Figment

Social media has become the way to share ideas. Facebook keeps us in touch with the daily lives of our friends, Pinterest gives us a place to collect bookmarks in a fun new way, Tumblr shows off all the great things we find the moment we find them - no more forgetting to share a picture later!

Social media websites to share writing have existed, but never in so bright and fun a way as Figment.com currently offers. In the past websites, like sister sites FictionPress.com and FanFiction.net, have provided a place for anyone to share what they have written in a very efficient manner, but websites that provided a place to share and a cozy and fun atmosphere have been lacking. Figment.com, however, is changing that, one young writer at a time.

Figment.com looks like how one might imagine a teen-based coffee lounge would appear. Many writers on the site are tweens, teens, and young adults, and reading works by your peers and sharing your own work with your peers seems to have made a boom in the writing world.

Encouraging writing in any form - be it nonfictional essays for school or fantastical fiction on the side - improves language skills at any age, and Figment definitely knows how to make it fun. Add to that their daily offerings of inspiration and idea springboards and a multitude of writing contests, and there's little that Figment can't do to encourage people of all ages to write every day.

There's a Samma Lynne on Figment.com! I'll slowly be sharing writing from all stages of my writing career under that username, if you would like to explore my little worlds, or share with me any of your own stories!