Teen Tech Week Robot Story

Give teens the freedom of Facebook and limitless story telling possibilities and what do you get? An action-packed story! Now, I like action books, don’t get me wrong, but when Zionsville teens think, they think BIG! Check out the Library’s first ever social experiment as part of Teen Tech Week 2011, which is hosted by the American Library Association!

Once there was a little troll walking through the forest when she met a robot. The robot jumped out and said, "BLLAAARRRG!" and then shot lasers out of its eyes. The troll does a Matrix dodge and then casts a spell that chains the robot to a wall, immobilizing him. Then the troll does the traditional troll rain dance and rusts the robot and then he does a dance like this (visualize three teens doing a stiff version of Michael Jackson's Thriller). The robot sputtered, sparked and blew up. The troll screamed. The robot formed back together and fought like a MANIAC! Suddenly, a dragon comes and breathes fire at the robot. The robot is so hot that it melts and immobilizes the troll in liquid metal. Suddenly, the robot springs up and swears revenge on the dragon that melted him. Out of nowhere the robot sees a shooting star; and she wishes to meet her true love because even though she was hard on the outside, she was mushy on the inside. Little did he know, the troll saw the star first and wished for an object, or weapon, to defeat the robot once and for all. The troll then, being who she is, used her powers to steal all of the light from the land, ALL OF IT. She also stole the dragon's and robot's luck so she had all of that too.

If you would like to keep track of this story and other information about the Library, be sure to "Like" the Library's Facebook Page.

Teen Tech Week

After literally months of preparation, Teen Tech Week is finally here! Now if you’ve been paying attention to my previous blog or reading the Zionsville Star newspaper, I will consider you a genius and say that you have rockin’ awesome current events skills. Or, if you have been living under a rock and are completely oblivious to the above information, just click on the links (we put them there for a reason). After several days of running on empty and refueling on coffee, I’m finally able to sit down and tell you about the best part of Teen Tech Week. On Wednesday sixteen teens showed up to the Make Your Own Robot Keychain Program. These robots are extra special because they have light up LED components. Our teens not only made some really, really cool key chains, but they are the very first teens to participate in the Library’s first ever social experiment.
Teens took photos of their critters (because not everyone made a robot and that was awesome and very creative) and these photos will be posted on the Library’s Facebook page. On that page you will find a status update, which is the start of a story about the critters. Each teen in the program will be going online and commenting on the status to create a story. Those teens not having Facebook accounts will contact me, and I will be adding to the story on their behalf. So each day, the story will become more and more developed and by the beginning of next week, our teens will have written their own story all on Facebook! Now, if you don’t have Facebook, don’t worry. You will be able to find the story right here on our blog early next week and see how the teens right here in Zionsville are using technology to participate in library programs from the comfort of their own home. See you soon!

Teen Tech Week

Here in Zionsville, our Library has made it in the national spotlight. You live here, so you already know how great the Library is, but I’ve got some awesome news for you. I need to give you some brief background information so this can all sink in, so just read on so you can appreciate what I have to tell you. The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world. They help librarians and libraries alike to really cool cutting edge stuff. They have lots of smaller organizations inside ALA, like one that caters just to young adults. This association holds something called “Teen Tech Week” every year for one week in March. Yeah, we totally want you to watch DVDs, play video games, and surf the internet. I know, I don’t sound very much like a librarian, but I am and you still haven’t heard the great news (but I do think being encouraged to play video games in the library is pretty excellent news). Each year, school and public libraries across the country celebrate Teen Tech Week. The ALA wants us to celebrate so much, that they give away ten grants for $450 for libraries and librarians as a way to celebrate with technology. Did you guess my big news yet?! The Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library is one of TEN libraries in the country to get this grant! Join us on Wednesday, March 9 from 4:00 – 5:30 as we make light up robot keychains. Yours does not have to be a robot, I’ve got a Stewie Griffin from Family Guy and a Hello Kitty in the teen display case. We’ve got lots of supplies, but we’d still like to see you register. This is just a small part of our celebration, we’ll be using grant money to help advertise Teen Summer Reading to make our own READ posters. So check the blog again in May and be sure to look at the middle schools and the high school, because you just might see someone you know who has their own READ poster thanks to one of ten national grants. Woot!