A few days ago I posted about what my library is doing for TRW and I asked all of you to email me at jberns89@gmail.com with a short paragraph or two about what your libraries are doing for it. As of yesterday morning I only had one response to post but all of the sudden I got five or six more so I will post a few today, a few tomorrow, and I will keep going as long as people keep sending them in or until TRW is done. Here we go.

Randa, a Media Specialist from Sumter, SC wrote in saying:

“I am trying a new experiment for Teen Read Week. Are you familiar with Bookcrossing? It is an “open” world-wide library. Book lovers register books on bookcrossing.com and receive a unique bookcrossing number akin to an ISBN for that book. They then mention where the book is “released” and the person who finds the book is to do the same. This way the book’s travels can be traced throughout the world! The books can be tracked by title, city, or bookcrosser.

We will adopt the strategy to limit the “travels” to our school campus. It will be fun to track the travels from room to room, grade to grade, and the related Arts areas. If the books travel outside our school, who cares as long as they are read! This promises to be a fun way to promote and encourage teens to explore books.”

John, a Teen Librarian at the Franklin Township Public Library in NJ, writes:

“I have Libba Bray coming in for a reading/discussion about her series of books that currently includes A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY and REBEL ANGELS (she just turned the third book into her publisher) on Tuesday October 17.

Then on Thursday, October 19, we are going to make an 8-page zine out of one sheet of paper. I publish a sci fi zine called Electric Velocipede, and I saw a cool Flickr photo set showing how to take one sheet of paper and make an 8-page zine out of it. Since I have a background in zine-making (and there’s the cool book: Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? : The Art of Making Zines and Mini Comics) I thought this was a good match. I was going to spend the week making a zine, but this will be better since we can get it done in one evening. Here’s the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizabethgenco/sets/72157594276405114/. She also gives a link to the PDF of the files used in the examples. I’ve made some blank templates in Publisher (and printed them out) so the teens can use the blanks and make one unique zine with cut-outs from magazines and catalogs, or we can make one electronically and make multiple copies of the same thing.

This last one is actually found in a zine published by Megan Johnson, a Teen Services Librarian at the Rochester Hills Public Library in MI. I received a copy of the Zine at The Michigan Library Association Conference yesterday during a wonderful seminar she gave on getting teens into the library, which I hope to mention more at a later date. Any way, here is what her zine says about TRW:

“This year’s theme for Teen Read Week is Get Active @ Your Library. We have several events planned for this year’s events, including DDR night and Capture the Flag on Saturday, September 21, from 5:30-7pm. You will need to register for capture the flag if you want to play. If you have not already registered, ask at the reference desk to find out how. We are also having a martial arts demonstration on Wednesday, October 18 from 7-8:30 pm. There are lots of things you can do to celebrate Teen Read Week. You can join a club, or volunteer. You can play a game of kickball, or race your friends to the manga section in the library. Whatever you do, get active!”

As I said, I will post a few more tomorrow, the next day, and so on, as long as people continue to send me their plans and TRW hasn’t ended. If you haven’t already read them check out the ideas in the original post and update #1. Thanks to all who have written in so far. Stay tuned for more.