A treasure hunt for a teen lock-in.
The 9 questions are printed on a colored sheet of paper in blocks, three across and three down for each team. A map is printed on the back. The questions are cut apart and dispersed to the appropriate places in the library. Question #1 is given to the team. The object is to collect all 9 questions, assemble the map on the back of their question cards, bring the completed map to me and I put a red X on the spot where their team's treasure is hidden. The teens work in teams of three and are chained together! (Plastic chain and velcro strips, yarn or ribbon)
The map I made was of our basement level. Gift bags of goodies are hidden in different rooms of the basement for each team. To avoid confusion and congestion, each team is a different color with their questions/map a different color, and the numbers of the following questions are changed so each team is starting in a different place. You may want to give a few tips on limiting searches to your own library's holdings and how to search more than one record at a time before you begin.
You can do this kind of scavenger hunt with any theme. The questions and answers given here are examples that fit our collection and catalog resources. My objective was for them to experiment with the different types of searches available to them on the online catalogs and also to learn where to go to find the items. The answers the teens have to come up with are in bold type.
1. Subject Search:
Baby Face Nelson was a bank robber during the Depression.
Can you find a book about him in the catalog?
Baby Face Nelson: Portrait of a Public Enemy
What do you do if the book doesn’t belong to CPL?
Place a hold
What do you need to do that?
1) library card number
2) PIN number
Where do you get those?
The main desk
Go there to find question 2.
2. Dictionary Alphabetical Search:
What is a siren in Greek Mythology?
Singing sea nymph
One of today’s sirens is Britney Spears. Find a biography about her in the YA room to find question 3.
What is the call number?
YA/B/SPE
3. Series Search:
If you are looking to see if CPL owns any titles in a series, try the Series Search.
Greek and Roman Mythology is a series we have.
What titles do we have in this series?
Athena, Zeus, Venus, Hercules
J/292.13/LOE
Find them on the shelves to find question 4.
4. Mystery, Romance, etc.[Genre] Search:
Genre is a category of work that is in a particular style.
Try a search for a comedy film and limit the search to Coshocton’s holdings.
Limit it to DVDs.
What is the title of the recent movie based on Homer’s Odyssey?
O, Brother, Where Art Thou?
Where do you find DVD’s in our library:
Write your answer here and go look there for question 5.
Video room, DVD shelves
5. Title Keyword Search:
This search is used when you don’t know all the words in a title of a book or in the title of the stories in it.
How many listings does CPL have with the word “Cyclops” in the title?
SIX
Find the book Odysseus and the Cyclops to find question 6.
What is its call number?
Write your answer here: J/292/HUT
6. Author Search:
The author James Joyce wrote a book that is considered to be one of the best books of the 20th century.
Its title is the name of a Greek character that Homer wrote about over 3000 years ago.
What is the title of James Joyce’s book?
What is its call number?
Ulysses F/JOY
Go to the shelf to find it and question 7.
7. Subject Keyword Search:
Old time bluegrass music was made popular with the movie O, Brother, Where Art Thou.
Maybe you would like to learn a few songs!
Find a Bluegrass music book in the Q section and also find question 8.
What does the Q mean?
Oversized book, queen sized, quarto
What is the title and call number of the book?
Bluegrass Complete
Q/781.642/BLU
8. Title Exact Search:
The Oracle knows (the Oracle Nose?) how to find an adult fiction book with Oracle as a first word in the title.
What is the title, author, and call number?
Write your answers here:
The Oracle by Ellen Gunderson Traylor
F/TRA
Find the book on the shelf to find question 9.
9. Performer Search:
Type in an actor or singer in this search and you will find the library holdings of their works.
The star of O, Brother, Where Art Thou has a few other films on video in the library.
List them here:
Perfect Storm
Ocean’s 11
One Fine Day
Assemble your map and take it to your librarian to find where your treasure is!
Note: Route this question back to the Adventure video question when you change the order of the questions and always make the map assembly the end of question 9.
Snack Mix Relay Race
The teens divide into 2 teams. Each team has two chain lengths with yarn or ribbon ties from the treasure hunt and a large bowl at the other side of the room. The first player's ankles and wrists (behind his back) are chained by the second player and then relays a scoop, cup or baggy of snack mix ingredients to the bowl, dumps it in and comes back to be untied by the second player. The second player is tied by the third player and repeat down the line. The ingredients are arranged so the more "boring" ingredients are first in and the the M&Ms or other sweet is last in. The first team done gets to dump in the remaining ingredients from the other team's supply. For even more work for the players, add a prison uniform to the items they must put on. I made prison shirts with plastic lab coats and black crepe paper stripes glued on with Tacky glue. You can award a prize, or just dig in to the snack mix!
The ingredients for our snack mix were: mini pretzels, cheese puffs, Fritos, peanuts and M&Ms.
©2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 RoseMary Honnold.