Re: Dewey Stump the Librarian

[AliceInfo <AliceInfo@AOL.COM>]

Friends:
I got so many requests for explanation of this activity that it seemed simpler
to send this to everyone, so if you don't want/need to know, hit the delete
button NOW.

Dewey Stump began as an outgrowth of:
1.  Student activities/learning about the organization of information in the
5th grade curriculum. As a culminating activity we would play Dewey Decimal
Show:  I ask where to find "a book about --" and kids have to hold up the
right number of fingers for the DDC category.  (great time-filler, and even
attention-keeper during fire drills)
2.  Annual 8th grade Jeopardy contest (all-school assembly) at the end of the
year; one perennially favorite category is "Information Location."

Now I use Dewey Stump as the finale to 6th grade orientation, and as part of
the 8th grade Mindgames Contest.
Students have 5 minutes (working in teams) to find obscure subject books
throughout the library.
Each team has 3 chances to challenge me:  can I give the correct call number
(within 3 digits before the decimal) in 60 seconds?  If I'm wrong, the team
gets 5 points, if I'm right, the team gets nothing.
The team with the most points wins a plate of my home-baked cookies.
Do I cheat and lose a few?  Of course.
Remember the ground rules, and the necessities:
1. Only use your own collection -- kids cannot chose subjects not represented
on your shelves.
2.  Librarian should have a fairly good background in DDC numbers -- an
inevitability after years of working, for most of us.
3.  Make sure some of your answers are totally off the mark -- so you can ask
the kids to go check those shelves to make sure!
4.  Be prepared to be a really bad actor -- furrowed brow, the whole works.

It's corny, and silly, and fun, and most successful with 4th grade +up.   And
more important, it gets kids into all those nooks and crannies of our
collections.

Alice H. Yucht
in a mental junkyard somewhere in NJ
AliceInfo@aol.com

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