MONDAY MORNING EYE-OPENER 11/9/09

Good Morning! November spells football, turkey dinners, and pumpkin pie. And a few more commemorations, too, ones maybe not so obvious. If you’re up for some fresh displays, newsletter tidbits, or website fillers, then today in EYE-OPENER:



1) National Gaming Day November 14
2) National Game & Puzzle Week
3) November Notables
4) Meetings / Events This Week



1) National Gaming Day November 14

For game fans everywhere—Wii or otherwise—the second annual National Gaming Day @ Your Library is set for November 14, 2009. Hasbro, the largest producer of board games in the world, will be the exclusive sponsor for this year’s event; ALA is the national promotions coordinator.

A check of ALA’s website points to some fun programming ideas for all ages, including a national video game tournament in which your local players can compete against players in other libraries across the country. And how about this kick off?

“…Through a generous donation from Hasbro, more than 16,700 public libraries in the U.S. will receive a box set of its highly popular card games Monopoly Deal, Scrabble Slam, and Pictureka! ‘Hasbro is honored to sponsor 2009 National Gaming Day, an event that brings people together to play games and create memories,’ said Matt Collins, vice president of marketing for Hasbro Games. ‘By donating our card games to each of America’s libraries, we hope to give more people the opportunity to be a part of the nationwide game play’…”


For great strategies on holding a winning National Game Day @ Your Library, visit the official website http://ngd.ala.org/

2) National Game & Puzzle Week

If you get your game on for November 14, why not just keep it on through November 22-28—that’s National Game & Puzzle Week. Inspired by Patch Products, National Game & Puzzle Week has been going on since 1994 as a means of promoting board games for fans of all ages.

Patch Products is the company that produces Blurt, Malarky, Tribond, Talkin’ Tango and others. “…The objective of National Game and Puzzle Week has been to encourage families to spend time together over a board game or puzzle. The response to National Game and Puzzle Week has been excellent…”

Other playful websites have neat ideas, too. Like Surfing the Net With Kids, where you can spend many happy hours looking at word searches, scrambles, crosswords, math and science quizzes, holiday games, along with games based on famous characters like Harry Potter—it’s a fun site. (I got kind of carried away with Turkey Attack…) And there’s Crayola Crayons: click on the calendar icon and follow the links to coloring pages, crafts, games, ecards and lesson plans galore. From Zany Holidays blog, there’s ideas for bringing puzzles and games to the workplace for a little lighthearted team-building, plus ideas for hosting game nights at home. And of course ALA’s National Gaming Day site...

This month, there’s lots of ideas for gaming programs @ your library. We’d love to hear what you’re doing, so please share on NWILS Blog :-)



3) November Notables

For empty display cases, newsletter deadlines, or website grabbers, you could build something around any of these notable November dates throughout history:

· Burning of Atlanta—Civil War—Nov14, 1864

· Kristallnacht—World War II—Nov9, 1938 portends the beginning of Hitler’s master plan with a rampage that burned over 200 synagogues throughout Germany

· Elizabeth the First Becomes Queen of England—Nov17, 1558

· Nuremburg War Trials begin, following the end of WWII, judging crimes against humanity—Nov20, 1945

· King Tut’s Tomb revealed—Nov26, 1922

· President John F. Kennedy assassinated—Nov22, 1963

· Berlin Wall torn down 20 years ago this month—Nov11, 1989

· Lewis & Clark and the Corp of Discovery site the Pacific Ocean “Ocean in view, Oh the joy!” Nov7, 1805



4) Meetings / Events This Week

The State Library sponsors a program for library trustees tomorrow evening (Nov10) over the ICN. The topic is Iowa’s Open Meetings Law and the speaker is Angela McBride with the Iowa Ombudsman’s Office.

“…The Open Meetings Law was designed to ensure the public has access when discussion or deliberation regarding public policy takes place. To many citizens, libraries are one of our most prized governmental entities which symbolize openness, freedom of speech, and access to information. Live up to these ideals and avoid embarrassment by making sure your library board meetings are conducted in accord with this law. In her presentation, Angela will address the definition of a meeting; giving proper notice; agendas; minutes; and when a meeting may be closed. Time for questions, too…”


Great opportunity for library boards to gain confidence in navigating through open meeting requirements. The time is 5:30—7:00PM at Sac City and Spencer Public Libraries. More ICN locations—and online registration—in the c.e. catalog.

Our teacher-librarian friends throughout Northwest AEA meet Wednesday November 11 at the AEA building in Sioux City. That meeting starts at 9:30AM; Jean and I are planning to attend—we appreciate the standing invitation :-)