Re: GEN: Stump the Librarian Game

["Carol L. Tilly" <ctilley.dahs@ASH.PALNI.EDU>]

This past spring during Nat'l Library Week I ran my first Stump the
Librarian competition.  It was a tremendous success and students have
already been asking me if I will be having another one this year.

The rules I set up were...

One question per student per day (Staff were invited to submit questions
and many of them did).  No problem-solving or questions of a personal
nature were allowed.  Questions were dropped into a box, and when I drew
one out, I was allowed 15 minutes to answer.  My goal was to award as
many prizes to students as I could as well as show them how versatile the
resources are that we have in our school.  I posted answers and sources
on a wall outside the library, and when I missed a question, I posted it
on the "Librarian Hall of Shame" outside the library as well.  I always
included my search strategies.  Students gathered around the displays in
between classes, and some teachers brought their classes down to check
out the responses.  Even having only 15 minutes to answer questions
(including "Who made Wolverine's adamantine skeleton?" and "Who's the
largest purchaser of silver in the US?") I still had about a 60% success
rate...and lots of happy students!

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Carol L. Tilley                   Library Media Specialist
Phone:  (317) 745-3912      Danville Community High School
Fax:  (317) 745-3908                    100 Westview Drive
Home:  (317) 271-4280                  Danville, IN  46122
        email:  ctilley.dahs@incolsa.palni.edu
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Current favorite reads:  Susan Douglas's Where the Girls Are,
Nancy Willard's Things Invisible to See, and Ellen DeGeneres's
My Point...and I Do Have One (my non-literary choice!)