Teens


Reading Dragons

Reading dragon cards for the Skeleton, Glowshroom, and Calico dragons

This Fall, I’m excited to announce that the Reading Dragons are back with a new look and brand new games to play!

Earn a new dragon card for every 30 minutes of reading. You can get 4 different dragons each month. That is a total of 16 cards a month! One card for every box on the tracker.

Where did the dragon cards come from? How are there so many different kinds? The original line art was designed by Ms. Mallory of the Children’s Department. The unique colors and themes for each dragon are then created by library staff. Sometimes, these designs are even based on patron ideas!

So how do you get a Reading Dragon? You start with an egg, and then you read to make it grow! It will hatch into a baby, then grow to a teenager, and then finally become an adult dragon. Then, you can start all over again with a new egg!

And now, Ms. Mallory has developed two new games to play with your dragons! The more you read, the more dragons you collect, the more fun you can have playing.

Stop by the Children’s Department at the Library to pick up your Reading Dragon tracker, game instructions, and some special starter cards!

-Liz Strauss & Mallory Thompson

Update 12/27/2023

Please email Mallory at mthompson@doverlibrary.org for information on how to get started and access to our Google Drive!


Mini Sketchbook Project

Calling all young artists in grades 6-12! This October, we’re throwing down a challenge: fill up a mini sketchbook with art and return it to the Library for inclusion in the Teen collection.

Sketchbooks are 4″ x 4″ and can be picked up at the Library while supplies last.

Guidelines:

  • Artwork must be original work.
  • While a prompt list is provided for inspiration, art is not required to follow the prompts.
  • Fanart or studies that copy famous art must give credit to the original artist or copyright holder.
  • Submissions featuring inappropriate artwork will not be added to the collection.
  • Sketchbooks must be approximately four inches by four inches.
  • Finally, sketchbooks will not be returned to the artists.

There is no deadline for submission, but any teen who turns in their sketchbook by November 1 will be entered to win a gift card. 

The Mini Sketchbook Project is inspired by Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketchbook Project, the largest collection of sketchbooks in the world. More information about the original project can be found at https://brooklynartlibrary.org/sketchbookproject

The original Sketchbook Project is amazing, and I’ve always wanted to participate, but it seems so daunting. I hope our Mini Sketchbook Project helps make the idea more accessible by providing mini sketchbooks, for free, to the young artists in our community. I can’t wait to see what the teens in our community come up with this fall!

The Mini Sketchbook Project is funded by a 21st Century Afterschool Learning Grant with Dover High School, which supports learning opportunities outside of classroom walls. This grant has also funded author visits, the Dover Public Library’s Mobile STEAM Lab, and the publication of Tornado Alley, the Teen Literary Magazine published every Spring. 

What are you waiting for? Get drawing!

Liz Strauss, Teen/Outreach Services Manager


Questions from the Switchboard

There have been a lot of changes at the library since we’ve reopened. Some everyone can see: free masks, more hand sanitizer, less computers open so users can spread out. Some are more behind the scenes. One such change is the elimination of the phone tree when you call in so you get to talk to a real person, real quick.

When staffing allows, we have a librarian dedicated to answering the phone in one of our staff work spaces, now affectionately nicknamed “the Switchboard.”

We get a lot of work done in the Switchboard, and we also get a lot of questions. Here are some of the most common:

What are your hours?

New Hours library photo background Monday through Friday 10 AM to 6 PM Saturday 10 AM to 2 PM and Closed Sunday

Our new hours are Monday through Friday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Saturday 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. We are still closed on Sundays.

How do I return materials?

Due to health and safety guidelines, all materials returned to the Dover Public Library must be placed in our outdoor bookdrops. There is one in the back parking lot as you pull in from 6th Street, and one to the left of the front entrance.

I returned _____ . Why is it still on my card?

Books in Quarantine

All returned items are placed in Quarantine for three days before they are checked in. If you’re getting emails that items are being renewed, are overdue, or notice that items are still on your account, and you know the items were returned, please don’t worry! The items are probably here, just waiting in quarantine.

What are my overdue fines?

You don’t have any! We all have enough to worry about during this crazy time, so the Dover Public Library is fine-free until further notice.

We get some uncommon questions at the Switchboard as well. Here are some of my favorites:

How do I cook shiitake mushrooms?

This one was a challenge. But apparently you… saute them? Check out this blog post from The Kitchen Magpie for more information!

What’s the weather for the week?

For the answer to this one, I like good old Google.

How do I contact the White House?

There’s a handy dandy form on this website!

Where do I send in my Absentee Ballot Application?

The Tuscarawas County Board of Elections: PO Box 69; New Philadelphia, OH 44663

Got Questions? We’ve got answers! Or… we’ll find answers. Call us at 330-343-6123 to talk to a Librarian.

-Liz Strauss, Teen/Outreach Services Manager


Happy Shark Month!

cartoon in a shark costume: August is Shark Month at Dover Public Library

Did you know that there are around 500 known species of sharks? That’s a lot of teeth!

Join us in the Children’s Department to learn even more about sharks this month as we celebrate these fascinating creatures with craft kits and books. Help us fill the ocean with many colored sharks on our Shark Wall and check out our other displays. Special freebies are also on hand in the Teen Room for older shark fans.

Check out our Shark Month kick-off story time on Facebook as Ms. Jen reads Misunderstood Shark.

Ms. Jen wearing a shark headband and a shark mask
Happy Shark Week!

Stuck at home? Learn 50 Amazing Shark Facts from Shark Sider, or sink your teeth into a Shark Word Search from Monster Word Search!


The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Review

With everything going on in the world, the library’s copies of the latest Hunger Games novel by Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, arrived about two months late. Was it worth the wait?

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

The short answer, from a Hunger Games fan, is YES! The long answer is… maybe?

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place about sixty years before the original trilogy. The first two parts of the book follow the tenth Hunger Games, the annual competition slash punishment that takes twenty four children from the twelve districts of Panem and puts them in a fight to the death. This year the Capitol is trying something new: mentors. The first class of mentors includes students from the Capitol in their final year of school. Eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is one of those students, and he is assigned the female tribute from District 12.

Weighing in at 528 pages, this book, full of surprises and insights, is not what I would call light reading. It raises a lot of questions about Panem and about future villain Snow. The book tackles war, reformation, poverty, hatred, ambition… It makes you think.

Personally, I like this book. It was a good read. As a Hunger Games fan, I would recommend this to other fans. But fair warning: if you haven’t read The Hunger Games, you’ll need to after reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Then, you’ll probably want to read all four of them again.

-Liz Strauss, Teen/Outreach Services Librarian


Health & Safety Update

The Dover Public Library seeks to enrich lives in our community while being committed to the health and safety of both the public and the staff. For this reason and in light of the COVID-19 world we now live in, the Dover Public Library will implement the following measures per state & local health guidelines:

  • Six-foot minimum distance between all individuals or the minimum required by the Ohio Dept of Health (ODH). Visual indicators and signage posted in high traffic areas demonstrating a six-foot distance.
  • Staff will not report to work and the public should refrain from entering the library if showing the following COVID-19 symptoms in the last 72 hours: cough, fever, respiratory illness or difficulty breathing.
  • Clear, protective, counter shields installed at transaction desks between staff and public where appropriate.
  • Sanitization of shared surfaces daily with additional sanitation provided by staff, hourly as needed, to high-touch areas.
  • Everyone who enters the building are encouraged to sanitize their hands upon entering & exiting the building.
  • Patrons are asked to limit their visit to the library to 1 hour.
  • The library’s Unattended Minor Policy will be enforced.
  • All returned materials must be placed in one of the library’s two exterior book drops.  Materials will be quarantined for a minimum of 72 hours before they are handled by the staff & public.
  • Library staff are required to wear masks. Staff may supply their own masks or choose to wear one provided by the library. The Library strongly encourages the public to wear their own masks in compliance with ODH guidelines.
  • Adequate supply of cleaning products, masks, and gloves will be available to staff.
  • Staff required to perform thorough hand washing for at least 20 seconds per ODH guidelines; Glove use is optional but available for staff as needed/requested.
  • Staff will clean workstations before and after use.
  • The Library strongly advises members of the public refrain from entering buildings if you or a member of your household has been ill or has a temperature.

Welcome to Your New OPAC

Atriuum

This week, the Dover Public Library migrated to a new computer system called Atriuum. To do this, all of our data, including book and patrons records, had to be transferred to the new system. In doing so, there have been some glitches that we are working hard to correct as efficiently as possible.

Important! Your PIN number has changed

One of the biggest issues we’ve run into so far is that the PIN numbers on all of our patron records were reset to a new default in the transfer.

Your default PIN is now the last four digits of your CARD number.

We are also experiencing some confusion regarding holds, or reserves. While a lot of the reserve data did transfer, there may be duplicates or other oddities that occur due to the transitional time over the last week. These will be worked out on their own over time.

We ask for your patience and understanding as we work out the kinks that come from migrating data to a new computer system.

On a more exciting note, Atriuum also came with a brand new OPAC or Online Public Access Catalog. The OPAC is all for you. Here you can log in to your account, see what you have out, place reserves, and more. While we are still setting up some of the functions, feel free to play and email us if you have any questions or concerns.

While the switch comes with some growing pains, we believe that, once this time of transition is over, the new system and OPAC will enable us to serve you, our patrons and our community, better than ever before.

Thank you for your continued support!

-The Dover Public Library Staff