There are so many unusual, interesting, and new things you can find – if you just look around a little bit. And libraries are all about mysteries! So, we are looking at a real-life small mystery each week and bringing some library resources to help add some clarity and some thought.
Join us! Share with your library patrons! Start with our story, and build it for your own library! Or, just enjoy some small mysteries in your life.
This week we have a pirate mystery.
Well…sort of….
A beach area around Crofton, British Columbia recently had mystery signs appearing all over the place. They had “scary” messages warning kids away from digging for hidden treasure, or they would walk the plank.
From the local newspaper: “The signs have different words on them, but apparently one common author.
“There’s a pirate here somewhere,” the first boy says with a smile.
The signs are messages from somebody who says they’re a pirate. They warn people passing that if they start searching for his buried treasure, they’ll end-up walking his ship’s plank.
“I’m so excited,” one of the boys says, before running towards the beach.
The signs have encouraged the kids in Crofton to disregard the potential plank danger and start doing some actual treasure digging.
“What a wonderful idea,” a senior who walks here regularly says. “(The children) are so excited finding the little gems and jewelry.”
“It’s such an awesome thing to do,” one of the moms says, as her son picks up colourful marbles from in the sand and bright beads from behind rocks. “Especially with COVID going on, it’s an activity that everyone can do.”
Okay, yes. It’s adorable.
And, clearly: something you could do in your library!
There are a variety of different strategies you could use to build scavenger hunts for any age of patron in your library. Here are a few resources:
- Redesigning the library scavenger hunt: this is aimed at first year experiences in academic libraries, but would also be good for middle and high school students
- Get to Know Your Library: A Scavenger Hunt for Kids | Brightly: aimed at teeny kids, but it can be scaled up to older kids
- Library Scavenger Hunt: younger and middle school ages
- From the ALSC:
- Scavenger Hunt (K-1)
- Scavenger Hunt (Grades 2-3)
- Scavenger Hunt (Grades 4-5)
- Library Treasure Hunt (Grades 5-8)
- Bookish Virtual Scavenger Hunt Ideas: Social Distancing for Book Lovers “Not every virtual scavenger hunt mission needs to inspire meaningful discussion, but you never know which ones will. When it comes to creating missions, the sky is the limit. To get you started, here are few ideas, from random to meaningful to story-themed missions.”
Build on this week’s mystery treasure hunt, and set up a library treasure hunt for your patrons!