MORE!

I admit it, I want MORE.  Let's see if we can get a few more teams to join us next year for Missouri Book Challenge 2012.  User your persuasive nature and send emails to librarians that you know who are competitive, fun loving and awesome (or who we can easily beat -- lets face it fifth place out of 11 doesn't sound nearly as good as fifth place out of 20).  Send them here http://mobookchallenge.blogspot.com/p/about-challenge.html to our new page that makes it all so easy.

SGCL November Totals

Books read: 75
Pages read: 20,370
Participants: 6

SCC Library November Totals

Total Participants: 5

Total Books: 14

Total Pages Read: 4,878

November was a little slow... We were focused on eating ;o)

U City Totals for November

Total Books: 102
Total Pages: 32,282
Participants: 11

Missouri State Library November Stats

Books read:  26

Pages read:  8626

Participants:  8

SCCCLD still ROCKS!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

103 Books
31,391 Pages
10 Participants

November Totals-Joplin Public Library

Well, we had our most participants this month but our lowest totals. I just couldn't get enough time to read, so our totals dropped.
64 books
21,173 pages
15 participants

October Totals for Springfield-Greene County

Total books read: 95
Total pages read: 26,304
Participants: 7

We might have slipped, but we're ready to rally!

October Totals for Marshall Libraries United

Books: 14
Pages, 4,313
Time: 4 hours

October Totals for U City

Total books: 96
Total pages: 24,605
Participants: 12

We may have been knocked off our throne this month, but we're already plotting our retaliation. *cue maniacal laughter*

SCCCLD is still kickin it!

SCCCLD is Always smooth like Keith Stone.......Oh Yeah!

October Stats:
113 Books
35,189 Pages
15 Participants

October's Totals for Joplin Public Library

We had 56 books
We had 15,506 pages
and 9 participants

We'll just keep plugging away.

Missouri State Library October Stats

Books read: 24

Pages read: 7522

Participants: 6

SCC Library October Totals

Total Participants: 7

Total Books: 16

Total Pages Read: 5,284

Great news!

We have received notification that a new team is preparing to join us next year.  They are gathering members and brushing up on trash talking as I write this post.  We are so excited to add to our hearty little group and look forward to adding them to the list of teams we will beat in 2012

September...grumble...sigh...QuickWitLitniks...pfft

We don't even know what to say...


Total books read: 55 (gasp)
Total pages read: 15,206 (teeth gnashing)
Total participants: 8 (hair pulling)

St. Charles City-County Library District

Oh how the Mighty have Fallen!  Congrats, U-City for pumping up your numbers so you wouldn't look too defeated at MLA.  You did indeed read more books and pages with FEWER people then we did!  I humbly bow down to your efforts (but I guess not too humbly, since we still Beat Springfield Greene County! - What happened to you guys?!?)

SCCCLD September Stats:

110 Books

36,836 Pages

15 Participants

Ready to make a team for 2012?

Welcome newcomers!  Want to get your team together for 2012?  You have lots of time and hopefully looking at our blogs and this centralized MO Book Challenge Page has motivated you!  Our copious use of LOL cats should make any librarian feel at home.

Every team runs their own contest and has their own rules...we post our totals here along with motivational messages about how we are kicking butt.  The scoring link below tells how we are going to determine who wins the grand (and it *will* be grand) prize.  Scoring may change for 2012...at least the wild card factor (#9 this year) will probably change.

Last year we posted some advice and "how to" stuff that seemed to work for the 11 teams we have now.  Here are links:
It's easy to get started
How we setup the UCPL book challenge
Answers to questions you haven't asked yet
Scoring 2011 - we can always make changes for 2012

Every team has at least one person who is an “author” on this blog.  We invite any other participants to become authors too.  Just send an email to: mobookchallenge@gmail.com to add them.  This blog is here to direct people to YOUR blog but we can also use it to keep each other informed of our progress, post a good review, introduce your team, issue team to team challenges, brag, anything you want.

Questions? Don't hesitate to ask.  We have 11 fabulous team captains that can give you 11 different answers -- all of them right!

Welcome!

If you are here to poke around after attending our MLA conference presentation WELCOME.  We will post links to all of our hints and tips for team building tonight after the KC Library event.

Oh, were we supposed to post monthly totals?

If anyone really wants our monthly totals, I can send them to you.

2011 totals (January-September) for the MU Libraries are:
120 books,   36658 pages.

Not gonna change any standings, we suspect!

SCC Library September Totals

Total Participants: 6

Total Books: 10

Total Pages Read: 2,701

*we predict a {relatively} strong comeback for October! ;o)

Joplin's September Totals

For this month we have:
73 books
20, 587 pages
11 participants
We are the little engine that could.

Missouri State Library September Stats

Books read:  39

Pages read:  12,741

Participants:  8

September Totals from University City

Total Books: 131
Total Pages: 39,412
Total Participants: 12

September totals from Marshall Libraries United

BOOKS: 18
PAGES: 7,097
TIME: 33 HOURS, 30 MINUTES

Missouri Book Challenge Happy Hour (and presentation)

Christa and I are preparing to spread the word about the Book Challenge at MLA next week! We'll be presenting on Wednesday at 3:00pm. If anyone is coming, and would like to take a more active part in our presentation, please email us soon. We need sword fighters, hecklers, anything! Also, if anyone wants to submit some funny photos of their own reading challenges, it's not too late to add them to the presentation.

We wanted to plan a happy hour for Book Challenge participants on Wednesday, but it looks like there are other events going on all night! So we're just going to adjourn to the hotel bar following our presentation. Feel free to join us!

The QuickWitLitniks have lost the battle...

but NOT the war!

Total books: 106
Total pages: 31,526
Staff this month: 13

U City Totals for Auguest

Books: 91

Pages 33,130

Participants: 13

3 of us finished War and Peace this month so watch out for our page averages!

question from Marshall

So I've noticed that many of the teams list how many members they have.  Do those numbers reflect how many people signed up at the beginning or do they reflect how many are active?  We have several members who haven't posted for months and I'm wondering if they should be counted because basically we are competing with only half the people who signed up.

Or should I just find a way to scare them into participating?  Hmm . . that could be fun!

Marshall Libraries United

August Totals
Books: 14
Pages: 4,208
Time: 14 hours, 25 minutes

Joplin Public Library August Totals

We had 98 books with 25, 601 pages and 10 participants. We just keep plugging away.

Missouri State Library August Stats

Books Read:   34

Pages Read:  13,860

Participants:    9

SCC Library August Totals -- This isn't awkward

We're pretending to ignore the post below in an effort to save face. We will, however, pat ourselves on the back for our excellent and in-depth reviewing skills ;)

Total Participants: 6

Total Books: 14

Total Pages Read: 5,178

St. Charles City-County Library District - Rules the Day, AGAIN?!

We need more CowBell . . . and more Competition!!!

45,603 Pages
135 Books
17 Participants

July totals for the QuickWitLitniks of Springfield-Greene

Did we really just lose? In the month we all tried to beat Jenny? Le sigh.

Total books read: 136
Total pages: 39,804
Total staff contributing in July: 16

Marshall Libraries United

Books: 34
Pages: 11,192
Participants: 10

Joplin Library Totals

We have 82 books and 20,367 pages and 7 participants. We continue to rock and roll.

July Totals for University City

Books:  130

Pages:  35,712

Participants:  16

St. Charles City-County Library District!

"Shh. Shh. Shh. Shh.....Do you hear that?  It's the winds of change."

141 Books

43,356 Pages

16 Participants

Missouri State Library July Stats

Books read:  30
Pages read:  10528
Participants: 6

SCC Library July Totals

Total Participants: 6

Total Books: 17

Total Pages Read: 5,882

The QuickWitLitniks of Springfield-Greene June Totals

Total books read: 103

Total pages: 30,189

Total staff contributing in June: 11

Yes, yes. We know St. Charles crushed us by two books and a few pages this month. Whatever...I mean, errr, we thought they could use a morale booster. That's it! 

SCCCLD RULES!!!!

"I Pity the Fool who thinks they can beat St. Charles City-County Library District!"

15 Participants

105 Books

34,938 Pages

SCC Library June Totals

Image from: http://www.m-trends.org/2010/07/summer-reading.html

Total participants: 5

Total books read: 14

Total pages read: 4,513

Marshall Libraries United

June Totals

Books:  51
Pages: 16,175
Time: 100 hours, 8 minutes

Participants: 10

Missouri State Library June Stats

Books read:  22
Pages read:  7129
Participants: 8

June Totals for University City

Books: 91
Pages: 26,196

Participants: 16

June Totals for Joplin Public Library

We had our biggest month so far with some great totals.
Books Read: 89
Pages Read: 23,763

Whoo-hoo!

Scoring

Team captains got a preview of the scoring system and seem to approve.  Of course your comments are welcome.

In an effort to give each team a chance to win the trophy (which will be awesome), we have developed 10 scoring factors.  You can pick 5 of them and your rank in those five will be added together for your total score.  There are 11 teams, for ease, the top 10 in each factor would get points from 10 (highest) to 1 (lowest).

Here are the factors that we came up with:

1.  Team – total books read
2.  Team -  total pages read
3.  Team – page average (your total pages/total books)
4.  Top 5 team members – total books read
5.  Top 5 team members – total pages read
6.  Top 5 team members – page average (top 5 people total pages/total books)
7.  Percentage of participants – total employees/# on your team – a person would have had to blog for at least 6 months to count as a team member.
8.  Consistency – Total team members/# of team members who have blogged at least 11 out of 12 months (or 90% of the months employed by library)
9.  Number of employees at your library whose homes were destroyed this year.
10.  Number of books blogged about that feature a pony.

Hopefully everyone will see at least a few of these that look attractive for their team. Of course part of the fun is we won't know which factors the other teams want to count in their score which may affect final totals.

The QuickWitLitniks of Springfield-Greene May Totals

Staff: 15
Total books: 127
Total pages: 36,079

The review that makes us squee

This is, hands down, our favorite review in May written by SGCL's own Heather C.D. for the book "Brains for Lunch: A Zombie Novel in Haiku?!?! by K.A. Holt and Gahan Wilson. Automatic pony winner!

Loeb is in high school

Awful enough as it is

He's a zombie too

Can't mix with "Lifers"

Pretty Siobhan is his crush

But she's not undead

Then he finds haiku

Learns that although he eats brains

He has some himself

His self-esteem's up

So he enters a contest

To share his best poems

Whoa, a zombie poet!

Will the other kids buy it?

Will Siobhan like it?

I think this book's great

Reminds me of my fourth grade

Only with more zombies

It made me laugh hard

Lots of people will like it

So go check it out!

Kirkwood Public Library May totals

Posts: 41
Contributors: 6

-CD

May Totals for Joplin Public Library

Well, we may have had a tornado hit but we're still reading and posting. Our totals are down a little but we are still going strong.
We had 8 people, 54 books and 16,003 pages read. Not bad considering the last 9 days of May were horrendous for us.

SCC Library May Totals

Participants - 6

Books read - 15

Pages read - 5,398

(image from: http://themoderatevoice.com/45255/tv-milestone-reading-rainbow-comes-to-end/)

Missouri State Library May Stats

Books read:  30
Pages read:  10352
Participants:  7

May Totals for University City

Books: 99
Pages: 28,734
Participants: 14

St Charles City-County Library District!

Well.... DUH!!!

MAY Results:

        16 Participants

      106 Books

 29,606 Pages

Standings for Marshall Libraries United

May Totals
Books:  48
Pages: 14,620
Time: 93 hours, 37 minutes

Joplin Library Okay

I just wanted to let everyone know that those of us at the library are okay. All the employees made it through, we had 6 lose houses completely and others have damage. It's amazing how many library books we've already had to set to lost. The library had no damage luckily. I will try to keep everyone updated. It's been really crazy though.

Author Postings

I just had to comment that I've had 2 authors this month comment on my reviews of their books, which is so amazing. Every time I get so excited that an actual author is reading something I wrote, whoo-hoo. Stephen Fried, author of Appetite for America and Randy Russell of Dead Rules totally rock!

April Totals for Univeristy City

Books: 99
Pages: 27,494
Participants: 13

Happy Day!

Your cards, letters and petitions worked...the Missouri Library Association realized the conference could not go on without a Missouri Book Challenge presentation and found a spot for us! We thank the Conference Arrangement Co-chairs for their re-consideration of our proposal and look forward to seeing you at MLA!

The QuickWitLitniks of Springfield-Greene April Totals

Staff participating: 16

Total books read: 131
Total pages read: 34,325

St. Charles City County Library District

April Totals!

115 Books

38,676 Pages

16 Participants

question

Weren't we going to get some information about how the teams would be "weighted" to account for some teams being smaller than others?  I'd be interested in that as I think it could motivate my team, who are showing signs of losing steam in April.

Marshall Libraries United

April Totals
Books:  50
Pages: 15,643
Time: 129 hours, 30 minutes
10 team members

Missouri State Library April Statistics

Books read:  35
Pages read:  10205
Participants: 9

April Totals: Joplin Public Library

74 books read,
22, 098 pages
10 participants

Is anyone else suffering from lack of staff participation? I've tried various incentives, but we are at less than 25% staff participation. This month I read over half the books and pages of our total. How do you get people to participate?

Kirkwood Public Library Totals

Total Participants: 7

Total Books: 63

SCC Library April Totals

Participants - 7

Total Books - 15

Total Pages Read - 4,768

Sad Day

Your Missouri Library Association has decided they don’t have the space for our follow up presentation about the Missouri Book Challenge. I guess the hundreds of participants and 11 academic and public libraries involved in the competition (not to mention the whole town of Marshall!) just don’t impress the powers that be…or more realistically, they fear us and what might transpire if we all get together in one place. Send your comments to the unsuspecting Conference Arrangement Co-chairs:

Diane Hunter Danielle Theiss

hunterdi@umkc.edu danielle.theiss@rockhurst.edu

Kirkwood March Totals

We had:

6 Participants
52 books

Team UCPL author comment

Check out the comment on this post!  Congrats to Karen and a nice message for all of us.

Joplin Public Library-March Totals

We had 13 participants, 71 books read, and 22,017 pages.

St. Charles City-County Library District!

Total number of  Books: 115

Total number of Pages: 35,514

Participants: 16

*This competition is not over yet!!  You may have won this round, but we shall make a comeback! Bwahahahaha!!!!

The QuickWitLitniks of Springfield-Greene March Totals

Total books read: 198

Total pages read: 51,978

Staff contributing in March: 20

We are very excited about getting TWO author comments in March and one review was featured on an author's facebook page. It doesn't take much to get us excited!! 

Marshall Libraries United -- March Totals

Participants:  9
Books: 64
Pages: 18,339
Time: 141 hours, 6 minutes

Brentwood Public Library - March Totals

Participants: 6
Books: 53
Pages: 14,704

Missouri State Library March Statistics

Books read:  33
Pages read:  9297
Participants:  10

SCC Library March Totals

Participants: 7

Total Books: 23

Pages Read: 7,089

(Image from: http://iruntheinternet.com/0661)

March Totals for University City

Participants: 16

Total Books: 144

Total Pages: 43,151

Brentwood Public Library - January and February Totals

January
Participants - 6
Books - 37
Pages - 14,716

February
Participants - 5
Books - 41
Pages - 9,396

The QuickWitLitniks of Springfield-Greene February Totals

Total books read: 201
Total pages read: 49,386
Participants: 24

Missouri State Library February Statistics

Books read: 31

Pages read: 10,685

Participants: 10

SCC Library February Totals

Let's hear it for the SCC team! (Keep in mind we have less participants but we're still plugging away! :) )

Total books read: 11
Total participants: 7
Total pages read: 3538

(image from: http://libraryporn.tumblr.com/post/3601471398)

Feb Totals Kirkwood

Books: 61
Participants: 7
Total pages: ? - we aren't keeping track. 

February Totals for U-City

Books: 87
Pages: 30,047

Participants: 14

St. Charles City-County Library District!!

108 Books

34,121 Pages
18 Participants

Wherever you go and whatever you do,
May the luck of the Irish be there with you.

February totals

Marshall Libraries United (corrected):

Books: 60

Pages: 15,738

Time: 137 hours, 15 minutes

Participants: 9 

coup de grâce by U-City

coup de grâce by U-City

February Totals

Joplin Public Library

73 Books, 22,364 pages, 13 participants

When the Director Reads...

Linda has become accustomed to certain "perks" at the library. Luckily, she lives nearby so it should not be difficult to continue this level of service after she retires.

Missouri State Library January Statistics

For January, the book bloggers at the Missouri State Library read:

• 33 books
• 11,616 pages
• and had 12 participants.

St. Charles City-County Library District

One of my co-workers wanted to see our name up on this blog.  So here are our stats for January.  I think we did pretty well, since this was all pulled together 1 week before the New Year. :)

TEAM TOTALS
Books: 70
Pages: 21,836

Question?

Is there any way to show how many people participated each month. Smaller libraries won't stand a chance against the bigger libraries. Plus, what about each library maybe posting the person with the most books or pages read?

The QuickWitlitniks of Springfield-Greene

Total books read: 150

Total pages read: 45,883


Is that Queen we hear playing in the background?

Librarian Celebrities - this is how it should be

Changes afoot at UCPL.  Our little place is getting some press!

http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/metro/life/article_8ad33115-d9b6-5967-b8fb-dc9e822866a7.html

Joplin Public Library

January Totals

94 Books Read

19,217 pages

University City Public Library

January Team Totals

Books: 89
Pages: 26,182

Winner for favorite post is Nate for his take on Scott Pilgrim

Marshall Libraries United

January 2011

Team Totals
Books: 55
Pages: 17,267
Time: 136 hours, 57 minutes

(amended on Feb. 3 when I had reason to double-check my figures. Sorry!)

Introducing Team UCPL Captain Annie!

Annie is our sweetest librarian. She is helpful to all and friendly to a fault. Her favorite reads usually include zombies, vampires and serial killers. She is our team captain this year. Last year, recruiting could be difficult for the UCPL Book Challenge. Here is a typical interaction:

Annie has taken a whole new direction when it comes to recruiting. Here’s how it goes now:

I figured people would have a harder time telling her “no” but I didn’t imagine that “no” would never even come up. Annie really knows how to motivate people! I think she will take our team to a whole new level. Also, welcome to the team Andrew. I sure hope you meet the goals Annie set for you.

So many teams but still room for more

Wow, look at us go!  The competitive instinct is alive and well in libraries around the state.  As I write this, 11 teams are aggressively blogging for the fame and glory which will inevitably be bestowed on the winners.  When we are leg wrestling (or other tie breaking method that you can vote for or suggest in our scoring survey) to break the fated tie at the end of the year, we will be sure to charge admission…money that will be added to the final winnings.

So, are you lurking on the sidelines?  Time to join up.  How can you miss out on these good times? You can get a team together faster than a flash mob (and how long have I been waiting for an excuse to use “flash mob” in a sentence?).  Even the aged among us haven’t forgotten what we have read so far in 2011.  Unless, of course, you are too scared of the competition.  Are your library employees/coworkers not displaying the mettle needed to be a part of this?  Don’t let fear rule your year…follow us into the fray.