Need for Speed: Winter Gaming Tournament Photos

The Winter Gaming Tournament was held Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2005.

The event was covered by the local media with an evening feature on KMBC Channel 9 and an article in The Kansas City Star.

This year's winners? Martin Gonzalez won a $150 gift card to Game Stop. The second-place finisher, Darie Shellner of Kansas City, Kan., won a $100 gift card, and the third-place winner, Philip Kuzila of Kansas City, Kan., won a $50 gift card.

Thank you again to the Library Foundation for the prizes. Check out the winners and photos from the event.

Technorati Tag: GaminginLibraries

Basic Genealogy

Looking for a new hobby to start off the New Year or have you just been putting off that subtle, yet growing urge to start researching your family tree. Well then, Basic Genealogy is for you. On January 5 at 7 p.m., Cedar Roe Library will be offering an introductory class for aspiring genealogists. Learn about how you too can get started researching your ancestors and documenting your research with genealogy forms, all while getting your budding genealogy questions answered. Registration has already begun; call (913) 384-8590 now to register.

You Think You Know, but You Have No Idea What Life as a Teenager is Really Like

It was this theme on life as a teenager that inspired the submissions to the library’s Third Annual Teen Photography Contest. Check out the photos from this year’s winners and find out when the photo display will be coming to a library branch near you. These photos were all contributed by local teens and judged on theme, composition, and creativity.

Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest Exhibit

On display now at the Central Resource Library is an art exhibit displaying waterfowl. The waterfowl art was created by Kansas students from Kindergarten through twelfth grade for the Federal Duck Stamp Program’s Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest. The selected works were collected from 687 student submissions to the contest with student representation from public, private, parochial and home schools. The program provided an opportunity for the students to learn more about the importance of wetlands and waterfowl to our environment. The art exhibit will be on display at Central until January 12. For more on the Junior Duck Stamp Program and art images from the national winners go to Federal Duck Stamp Program.

Winter Gaming Tournament

The Game: Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Xbox)
The Place: Central Resource Library Large Meeting Room
The Date: Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2005 at 10 a.m.

There's still time to register for the Need for Speed: Most Wanted video game tournament. Call (913) 495-2400 to reserve a place in the tournament. The first 30 gamers (ages 15-19) to register will be guaranteed a position. All others may be needed as alternates. Pizza, snacks and soda will be provided.

Thanks to support from the Johnson County Library Foundation, prizes will be awarded to the first, second and third place winners.

After the tournament, check the Teen's page and the Library blog for results! Game on!

Librarians recommend great books for children and teens on KCUR

Tune in to Collection Development Specialist Debbie McLeod and Young Adult Librarian Tricia Suellentrop on KCUR-FM's Up to Date. They will join host Steve Kraske to discuss the latest and best books for children and teens - just in time for holiday gift-giving! Tuesday, Dec. 20 is the date, 11:00 a.m. is the time. Turn your radio dial to 89.3 FM to listen in on the conversation.

6 Million Milestone

Four year old Joshua Hinkle of Kansas City, KS came to the Antioch Library this morning along with his mother Lisa and 5-month old sister Lillian to check out books and DVDs for the holidays. Imagine his surprise when County Librarian Mona Carmack handed him a balloon bouquet as library staff, Friends, and volunteers clapped to congratulate him on checking out the 6 millionth item from the Johnson County Library in 2005.

The name of Joshua's book was An Elf for Christmas by Michael Garland. Other prizes for Josh and his family were a Friends of the Library book bag, gift certificate to the Friends book store, Friends reading journal and a library mug filled with candy kisses. Joshua and his family are regular visitors to the Antioch Library...they especially enjoy storytimes with Miss Arlene (Wiler).

This is the first time that the Library has checked out more than 6,000,000 items in one year. This represents 15.3 items per capita per year. The national average per capita per year for similar sized libraries is 7.6 items.

Another milestone will occur in January or February 2006 when the library will check out the ONE HUNDRED Millionth item (100,000,000) since we have been keeping records (1956). The Library reached 50 million total checkouts in 1996, meaning more items have been checked out in the last ten years than in all previous years combined.

Who says people don't read any more? Happy reading!

Library Web site and services down Sunday night

The library Web site, catalog, and online databases will be unavailable between 5 p.m. on Sunday, December 18 and 9 a.m. Monday, December 19 as we transition to a new internet service provider.

All online resources will be restored Monday morning.

Information at the speed of light

In this fast-paced world we live in, nothing can be obtained too soon. To cater to this lifestyle, speedy services like drive-thru windows have been created for just about anything: food, dry cleaning, money, prescriptions. You name it, you can get it fast!

We feel you should get your information quickly too. For quick updates about book discussion group schedules, the next author visit, or new services provided by your friendly Reader’s Advisory staff, look no further than the Readers' Corner blog.

On the blog you can search the library catalog for a recommended book or author, peruse staff recommendations, and read reviews to help you find your next favorite book.

All this so you can sit back with a good book, kick up your feet and relax.

"Podcast" is word of the year: Enjoy podcasts from the library

The term "podcast" has been declared Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. The word is a combination between "broadcasting" and "iPod," but you don't have to have an iPod to enjoy a podcast from you library. Podcasting is simply a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player. Or, you can just listen to the program from you computer.

Download podcasts from the library including our most recent online event, our Online Author Visit with Debi Gliori, author of No Matter What, the official selection for Kansas Reads to Preschoolers, the Kansas State Library’s One State-One Book project for 2005 highlighting the importance of reading to preschoolers.

Ms. Gliori is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the very popular Mr. Bear series. She won the Children's Book Award picture book section, and was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1997. She lives in Scotland, near Edinburgh.

• View and listen to the streaming audiorecording, with text chat and websites visited, of the Debi Gliori discussion
  
• WMA audiorecording of the Debi Gliori discussion (7.9 MB file; playback time of 53 minutes)
  
• MP3 audiorecording of the Debi Gliori discussion (18.3 MB file; playback time of 53 minutes)

Learn more about podcasts at the library.