Hosting a Library Mystery: A Programming Guide

by Elizabeth M. Karle

Whether it's solving the morning crossword puzzle, working out whodunit in a best-selling thriller, or participating in the library's mystery book club, everyone loves a mystery! In Hosting a Library Mystery , Elizabeth Karle capitalizes on our delight of the genre through this unique, interactive programming guide. Karle's innovative and interactive ideas will coax children on a quest to learn about pirates, college students to uncover the research tools needed for class, or new patrons to discover the riches of the library's collection. Hosting a Library Mystery contains five example mystery scripts, each targeted to a different audience, but all original, expertly created, and thoroughly researched. These scripts serve as an excellent starting point for you to acquaint users with a wide variety of your library services as well as library personnel, special collections, and research skills. In addition, this book provides With a one-of-a-kind book filled with creative ways to bring the community into the library and give them an incentive to stay, the only mystery will be why Hosting a Library Mystery wasn't in your collection sooner!

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jackie McGuire · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't a bad book; however, I wish that more adaptations were given for use in public libraries.

[Kathleen Brunnett]

Trolling for ideas for next school year. Happy to report I grabbed a few ideas

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I am hosting a mystery more in the middle school realm, this book was very practical and helpful. There were some templates and charts that would be useful to anyone hosting a library mystery, as well as rationales and situations. While I doubt that too many libraries will be hosting Belle Starr mysteries, the example and the detail shared would make it easy to adapt.

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quick read and overview of hosting a mystery event. Karle covers a variety of audiences and topics. Librarians of all levels should be able to get some ideas from this text. Karle appears to come from public and school libraries. The bulk of the book orients towards younger library visitors. There is a single chapter at the college level.

At roughly 100 pages this book does not go into much detail or too many examples. Public, school, academic, orientation, dinner mystery, and "tweens" constitute the examples. As one of the few resources I found on the topic I am a little disappointed at the overall dearth of material. The value in this book is to help librarians get started. Karle offers a basic framework from which to fill in the pieces. Note, this is not a step-by-step manual; but rather an introduction to an alternate form of instruction.

[Holli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great starting point!

[J. S. Seebauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great material if you want to write a mystery program; the books provides great step-by-step details of various methods and rationales for mysteries.

Something I need to put on my shelf for another day, another moment when I am ready to tackle script writing.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had some really helpful templates and ideas for almost ready library mysteries. It also had suggestions for specific occasions. Excellent resource.

[Larissa Distler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found some useful tips for planning a mystery program. Many of the program plans in this book are geared more toward school libraries or large scale fundraising.