Junior Book Tournament

<p style=”text-align:center”><img class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-400″ title=”Simple but fun online event! Set-up is the only time-consuming aspect.” src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/logo-capture.jpg” alt=”” width=”447″ height=”184″></p>

I thought I’d share with y’all what I’ve been working on at the Children’s Library since I’m guessing that other youth librarians out there would enjoy seeing/using this. &nbsp;I’ve generally kept this blog free of my personal library info, but recently I decided that it wasn’t that hard to figure out who I was or where I worked, so why not embrace that and just go with it?

A little more about that: &nbsp;I’m very honored to be part of a community that values its library. &nbsp;We’ve been growing leaps and bounds over the past few years, and there’s no signs of slowing. &nbsp;Last year, the City recognized that we were running out of room and they gifted us with a unique solution: our library was split into two locations. &nbsp;One location houses materials for Young Adults and older, and one is the Children’s Library. &nbsp;As of last month, I have begun managing the Children’s Library and March is the first month where a lot of my planning and work will become evident. &nbsp;Anywho, that’s enough of that – you’ll get to know more about my work as time goes by.

Back to this particular project that I’d like to share:

I’ve seen other libraries do this with epically-awesome wall-sized brackets. &nbsp;Unfortunately, for us to do that then it’d involve some tall ladders, and I am&nbsp;<strong>not</strong> a fan of heights. &nbsp;We also have a lot of other events going on this month and I wanted something that sort of ran itself. Therefore, I decided to make this an online tournament where the children can vote from our website (thus driving more traffic to our <a href=”http://www.gretnapubliclibrary.org/kids/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>newly revamped children’s site</a>). &nbsp;I also narrowed-down the tournament to Junior Books since it seems like (unintentionally) the Junior crowd gets overlooked here in terms of events – and I want to change that. &nbsp;The greatest amount of time given to this was to make the bracket itself – and then inserting the book images. &nbsp;Looking up the top sixteen most checked-out Junior Fiction books from the past year was easy with our library’s software (hopefully it’s easy for most too). But once that’s set up, it’s just a matter of once-a-week seeing who won their bracket and updating the brackets!

In the end I may actually attempt creating a GIF for the winning book’s reveal – something that I’ve always wanted to try, but haven’t had a good reason to. &nbsp;We shall see (and I shall share, even if it’s a fail).

The basic gist is that we’ll be updating a Word Document that I created and posting that image online once-a-week. &nbsp;Here’s an example of the template as it sits so far for our particular tourney:

<p style=”text-align:center”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-396″ title=”Tournament Time!!!!!” src=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/sweet-16-hafuboti.jpg?w=300″ alt=”” width=”300″ height=”231″></p>

<p style=”text-align:left”>All of the “book” text boxes listed above were just part of an example template we used to show the kids how brackets work. &nbsp;All of them are removed from the downloadable template at the bottom, except for the 16 outermost text boxes (in case you were wondering).</p>

<p style=”text-align:left”>We’ll be using <a href=”https://www.surveymonkey.com/MyAccount_Login.aspx?sm=xkwYOP7pGlZW7qyV%2btBLOG7CBdoa4U8%2b75eoLbteLHfPrNG8H3qkGTp5lSsH3amFohrPWx07Egb4P8Qg6yBFzjqMoPt6e1ZJRjv1VqtxBTMOSG1u0%2bZxiitH6Ft0eJ7M78Jr%2ffeBtu0YLMyWyByWaydxkBB3kupc%2fbr5bQtLipA0BAcjq5h6riET8vWqwg1YFiwhxMtCtL14uTJ74eg1vLyeMIibCUevzuOr81daoJAPwRCPm%2bVEk4DPKJQ%2bmA5oHw1Q1WNCfuYbZfg%2bYeiLSA%3d%3d” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Survey Monkey</a> to create the online voting system. &nbsp;The only thing that I’m bummed about is that the kids will have to vote using the text. &nbsp;Next year I might see if I can find a “visual” voting system.</p>

<p style=”text-align:left”>So, here I am having done all this last-minute work, and it occurred to me that I should share this with others so that they can do something like this at their library or home. &nbsp;Therefore, I’m going to share my template with y’all so all that you’ll need to do is plug in the pictures and then adjust the sizing (which is sort of a pain – sorry, I’m not an expert, and our library has Microsoft Office and that’s it in terms of creating signs and similar things). &nbsp;If you have <em>any</em> problems or issues, then please don’t hesitate to contact me! &nbsp;I’ve never attempted to created a template for others to use before. &nbsp;But basically, if you’re comfortable with text boxes, then you’ll be comfortable with this!</p>

<p style=”text-align:left”>If you don’t have the font that I’ve used for this template (it’s called <em>Teen</em>) then you can get it for free at the amazing <a href=”http://www.dafont.com/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>dafont.com</a> (if you’ve never visited dafont before, then be prepared to spend HOURS browsing and downloading).</p>

<p style=”text-align:left”>Please enjoy and share!</p>

<p style=”text-align:left”><a href=”http://hafuboti.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/tournament-template.doc”>Click here for your very own Tournament Template</a>!</p>

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