2007 Teen Poetry Contest Winners

The winning poems for the 2007 Teen Poetry Contest are now posted at the STDL Virtual Coffeehouse.

1st place - "Song of the Breadwinner" by Jessica Kneller
2nd place - "Why Do You Keep Coming Back?" by Moonhee Lee
3rd place - "My Beloved Country" by Sylwia Gres
4th place - "Winter" by Michelle Lauterbach
5th place - "Without You" by Mobin Bahrami

Honorable mentions:
"The Game" by Ashley Bucz
"Summer" by Victoria Johnson
"Spring" by Lauren Lindgren

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to all who participated! We encourage all of you to continue writing and developing your craft. Don't forget that you can share your writing with other aspiring writers at our monthly Teen Writing Club--check out our program list for dates and times.

Celebrate National Library Week, April 15-21

It's about that time once again for National Library Week festivities at the STDL. Our National Library Week kick-off is on Sunday, April 15th. Stop by the library for some movies, games, and entertainment. Last year's big top theme was a big hit, and all are welcome to celebrate old-Hollywood style with us this year!

There will be chances to win prizes and we'll also be giving away various freebies. You can take our National Library Week Survey and be entered in a drawing for a $25 gift card--just for sharing your thoughts on the library.

Click here to take the survey!

Spring Break @ the Library!

Spring Break is coming up and we got the feeling you might have a little time on your hands. What to do, you ask? You can stop by the library to sit back and relax to a good movie on our new 120 inch screen, or you can sign up for one of our Spring Break Great Gaming programs.

Movies will be shown in the seating area in the back of the AV department from 1 P.M. - 3 P.M. Here's what you can see:
Mon 3/26 - Ferris Bueller's Day Off (could there be a more fitting movie for your day off?), 1986, PG-13
Wed 3/28 - Zoolander, 2001, PG-13
Fri 3/30 - Spirited Away, 2002, PG

For all you gamers, we've got two special gaming programs:

Tuesday, March 27 1-3 p.m. @ the Hoffman Estates Branch
Thursday, March 29 1-3 p.m. in the Youth Services Classroom @ the main library
Try out the latest video gaming equipment on a variety of platforms, including Guitar Hero 2, DDR, XBox 360 games and more! Mini tournaments for prizes will be held throughout the events. Registration required for teens in grades 6-12.

As always, you can give us your feedback for upcoming gaming programs (such as what titles we should purchase and upcoming tournaments). See you there!

"Techknowledgey" Quiz

This week is the first ever Young Adult Library Services Association's Teen Tech Week. Take our "Techknowledgey" Quiz and be entered for a drawing for Best Buy cerfiticates and various other prizes. You can post your responses as a message on MySpace or send an e-mail to teenservices@stdl.org. We'll be accepting entries from the weekend, but this is your last chance!

Onwards to the quiz!

Name:
Grade:
Phone number or email:

1. Go to the Schaumburg Twp. Dist. Library Myspace site: www.myspace.com/stdlteen. Name a new library item featured on that site, either a book, DVD, music – anything!

2. Go to the STDL library homepage: www.stdl.org. Find the Teen Page. What is Teen Weavings? Please list one program described on there.

3. Also on the Teen Weavings: What are the Spring Break Fever programs?

4. One last Teen Weavings question: When does the Gamers Group meet?

5. Again on the STDL library homepage http://www.stdl.org/. Click on e-resources and then the Health and Medicine area. Go down to the link for the Teen Health and Wellness Database. On the link list find Skills for Work, School and Life. Go into that page and list two skills featured on there.

6. Stay in the Teen Health and Wellness database. On the homepage for the database, find the Hotline button below the links. List one hotline featured in that section.

7. Return to the STDL home page http://www.stdl.org/, then e-Resources by Subject. Go to Books and Literature and choose Novelist K-8. Click on the Browse Lists Tab. What do you find under Young Adult?

8. Back again to the STDL homepage http://www.stdl.org/. Go down to the 'Ask Us' link. These are ways to contact a reference librarian for help with a question. What ways could you contact us? (What options open up?)

9. Go to Teenreads.com and find out what the question of the month is:
10. Go to http://stdlteen.blogspot.com/. What is the latest posting about (you're already here!)?

Random Trivia: It's National Pancake Week!

This random food holiday that you probably never heard about runs from Feb 21- Feb. 27. Go ahead and have a glorious stack of these fluffy delights for us.

Links (for all you pancake lovers):
Impress your friends with your pancake knowledge--click here for the pancake wiki.
Pancake recipes on lovetoknow.com
Free pancakes at IHOP on Feb. 2oth

Unfortunately, we missed "National Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Week. . ." although, there's always next year, we suppose. . .

Teen Advisory Board 9th Anniversary

Next Tuesday marks the 9th Anniversary of the Teen Advisory Board, and we'll be celebrating it Mardi Gras-style. The TAB Board is your chance to let us know what you'd like to see in the library. Past TAB member suggestions have led to the creation of new programs and contributed to the redesign of the Teen Center. Stop by and share your thoughts and ideas!

The meeting will be held next Tuesday from 5:45-7 in the Rasmussen South Meeting Room. Well be doing some mask-making, candy-making, and participating in a Mardi Gras themed scavenger hunt along with the usual setup of DDR and pizza. Although we wish we could get some of the traditional New Orleans favorite, beignets, we'll be enjoying some somewhat similar donut holes. If you'd like to register for the meeting, e-mail us at teenservices@stdl.org or send us a message on MySpace. If you can't make it, feel free to leave your comments and suggestions here. Happy Mardi Gras!

The Summer Reading Program Theme...as Voted by You!

Looking out the window into the snowy landscape or just stepping outside into the bitter cold--the summer seems a long way away; but here's something to remind you about the warm days ahead of us--the votes are tallied for the summer reading program! Thank you to all that voted and submitted alternate themes (we received some great ones!).

Based on your votes, the sci-fi related theme will be:
The Teen's Guide to the Galaxy

The theme is a take on the classic humorous sci-fi novel by Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
If you haven't had a chance to read this novel, we highly recommend it -- a must-read for sci-fi fans; it is the "most popular known reference book in the milky way," after all. For more information on the novel, check out these links:
Hitchhiker's Guide Review on Teen Ink
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Wiki
Hitchhiker's Guide on Scifidimensions.com

If you interested in checking out this novel at the library, click here to access the library catalog.

Winter Reading Program Prizes Are In!

Prizes for the Teen Winter Reading Program are now available! You can turn in your "snowball" book review slips to the Reader's Advisory Desk at the main library or either of the branches.

Here's what you can get:
1 snowball - your choice from an assortment of candy bars
5 snowballs - $5 off overdue fines certificate
10 snowballs - $5 McDonalds gift booklet

You're limited to 1 McDonalds gift booklet per person, but there is no limit on the candy bars and fines certificates. If you need any extra slips, they are still available at all locations. Just remember the get them in before the deadline of March 1st, folks. The Summer Reading Program is just around the corner...we'll be announcing the winning theme that you all voted for shortly!

Last.fm: Share Your Musical Tastes with the World!

Last.fm -- they're calling themselves the "Social Music Revolution." Has anyone gotten in on this? If not, it's nifty little site that is pretty much the one of the coolest sites out there for finding new music. It allows you to share your musical tastes and suggestions with your friends, or you can register for free and download a plug-in that logs what you listen to in whatever programs you use for listening to music (iTunes, Winamp, Window Media). I guess that in itself is not all that exciting, but once you have started logging your music, that's when you can really get the most out of last.fm.

At the very least, your last.fm page functions as a chart of your musical history. So, 4 years from now (if the site is still around, which judging by how popular it has become, it definitely will), if you wanted to see what you were listening to your senior year of high school, all you'd have to do is click on your charts and go back to this week in Jan '07...and bam! You'll see that you've listened to Muse's "Starlight" 500 times or whatever. You can also listen to different radio stations that are crafted just for you. For example, "Recommendation Radio" is a station that plays new music that you might like based on what you've played, or you can just listen to your own radio station made from music and artists that you've already played. Now that, if you're an information archiving nut like myself, is pretty great right there. Again, there's that social aspect to it. You can add friends like on MySpace and leave them comments on their "Shoutboxes" or send them messages. You can also tag music however you want and listen to radio stations based on these tags (like, "Indie" or "Death Metal" whatever you're into...).

Gah! There's just a lot of music to be heard... check it out yourself @ http://www.last.fm

Studying Abroad

Traveling abroad is quite possibly one of the most rewarding and enriching experiences you could have. What better way to learn about a vastly different culture than living in it?

Your high school may even offer study abroad programs -- particularly if you are studying a foreign language. As college application deadlines loom for all you seniors, don't forget to think about this as part of your college experience. Studying abroad and experiencing another culture first hand provides and education that you wouldn't get from the classroom alone.

To read about the study abroad experiences of Jessica, a former TAB member, currently studying abroad in Ireland, click here. (http://the_eire_affair.livejournal.com/)

Sometimes in our day-to-day lives we forget that it's a big world out there; go see it if you can.

Winter Reading Program: Snowball Fight!

Yes folks, it's about that time for the annual winter reading program. Here's the deal:

• Register at the Reader's Advisory Desk or at either of the branch libraries. (Registration begins on December 1st)


• Read! Read like mad, I say!


• Fill out our "snowball" book review forms for every book you read. You can use these "snowballs" to buy prizes or to enter drawings.

What are the prizes, you ask? For that sensitive information--well, you'll just have to wait and see...

ATTN: Gamers!

We held our first-ever Gamers Group Meeting this past Monday and had a great time. The next meeting will be held on Monday, Dec. 4 in the Youth Services Classroom. Send an e-mail to Amy Alessio or Joe Torres.

We are also open to any suggestions you may have about any gaming-related stuff. Let us know your game suggestions (especially multiplayer games) or even any video game related stuff you'd like to see at a meeting besides acutally playing games. Feel free to leave us a comment...

Oh, and never fear: we will have Guitar Hero II for the next meeting.

And it has "Freebird"!

Author Visit: Kenneth Oppel

Hey all,

Award-winning author Kenneth Oppel will be delivering a presentation here at STDL. He is the author of books such as the Silverwing Trilogy, Airborn, and Skybreaker. Registration is required, but there are still slots available. A variety of titles will be available for purchase and autographing. For more info on Kenneth Oppel:

Kenneth's Official Site

Info on Airborn and Skybreaker

Author Profile from CM Magazine

Teen Read Month 2006: Get Active @ Your Library

Celebrate National Teen Read Month by filling out review slips to enter weekly drawings. Tell us what you thought about a book, CD, video game or movie to enter drawings for gift certificate prizes and more. Two lucky winners will win a dinner with author Kenneth Oppel when he comes to the library on November 14. Review slips can be picked up and turned in to the Reader's Advisory Desk at the main library or either of the branch libraries.

First.Blog.Ever.

Hello folks, welcome to our blog (we're just getting started...bear with us)!