How many Xs in a Y?

March 8, 2007 10:20 AM

SillyGamesFilter: how many Xs in a Y (library-related)?

I'm in charge of games for our annual staff picnic (academic research library, 125 employees, give or take). We're planning a team spelling bee (like reference vs business office, or mail room vs computer guys), a pub trivia game, and others. We also want to have some old-fashioned backyard carnival type games that folks can play while they chat, eat, etc. I'd like to have one of those "how many jelly beans in the jar?" kind of contests, but with a library twist.

Any suggestions for what I can put into a jar that folks could count? The best suggestion I've had so far (aside from M&Ms or gummy worms, to be renamed "book worms") is the keys off computer keyboards, which I can see making a very cool display.

O creative hivemind, suggestions please - and thanks

posted by crepeMyrtle to sports, hobbies, & recreation (20 comments total)

It probably wouldn't look so hot in a jar, but it would be kinda cool if you could get a stack of old catalog cards to count.
posted by stefanie at 10:31 AM on March 8, 2007

Pages in a (taped closed) book, duh!
posted by DU at 10:33 AM on March 8, 2007

Why not a pile of books? "How many pages in this pile?"
posted by Plutor at 10:34 AM on March 8, 2007

Yeah, see, it's a good idea.
posted by Plutor at 10:34 AM on March 8, 2007

Plutor, yes, that is a good idea. We have a lot of books donated to us which often end up in the book sale instead of our collection and I'm sure I could grab enough to form a tower for our contest. I don't think that many of us will be toting laptops to a 2-hour picnic right outside the building, so I don't have to worry about anyone doing a quick check of the record for each book and adding up the pages!
posted by crepeMyrtle at 10:39 AM on March 8, 2007

Pages in a book?

Little plastic guys in a round bowl [Deweys in a decimal]?

Magnetic letters in a jar?

Rubber bands in a massive rubber band ball?

Due date cards in a stack [do you even use due date cards?]?

Ounces of hand sanitizer in a huge bottle [no, wait, that's my public library...]?
posted by starbaby at 10:42 AM on March 8, 2007

Sorry, should have previewed.
posted by starbaby at 10:43 AM on March 8, 2007

A library I use has lots of golf pencils around for jotting down catalog numbers. Golf pencils?
posted by amtho at 10:59 AM on March 8, 2007

From one librarian to another: I'd be REAL specific about what you count as a "page". Catalogers have been known to cut people for less.

Do you count end papers as pages? Forewords? Appendices? All you need is for your catalogers and your rare book people to rumble over the definition of a page to ruin the picnic for everyone.*

I'd go with something bigger, like "How many Library of Congresses are there in Wikipedia?" but that lacks the physicality of the stack of books, which is clearly the best answer.

*yes, this is meant as a joke. sort of.
posted by griffey at 11:00 AM on March 8, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

It wouldn't provide a display but it could be interesting and challenging: the number of books on the library's shelves in a given LC range. (Say, all books in BF or between HX 806--811.)
posted by yz at 11:02 AM on March 8, 2007

Actually, for my suggestion above: you would probably want to choose a number of ranges in order to minimize the likelihood that you could be inadvertently giving one person with special experience in one or a few areas of the library an advantage.
posted by yz at 11:14 AM on March 8, 2007

griffey - I see your point - we'd have to have our standards posted. I'm thinking "total of numbered pages" or the like.

amtho: yes, we do have golf pencils at the ref desk, and I was thinking of those. we might do that too

starbaby: love the Deweys in a Decimal, but we're Library of Congress here :o). We do have plenty of old card catalog cards, and I hope to find a game for them (maybe using the catalog drawer rods in a 'thread the needle' game?)

yz: that's a good idea for an indoor game, but I think too easy to get the answer to by using the online catalog.

these are all great suggestions so far - thanks - it's not over yet - the picnic isn't until May!
posted by crepeMyrtle at 11:14 AM on March 8, 2007

yz: that's a good idea for an indoor game, but I think too easy to get the answer to by using the online catalog.

I was assuming that people would be predicating their estimates on memory and on certain assumptions about the ranges themselves and the library's holdings. (You did say that you weren't expecting anyone to be accessing online records at the picnic.)
posted by yz at 11:30 AM on March 8, 2007

yz - right, I don't expect folks to be wired at the picnic. And my comment about folks using the catalog to check for answers was based on the idea of this (your suggestion about books in a range) for an indoor game, where we are all wired. Sorry for the confusion. and thanks for playing :o)
posted by crepeMyrtle at 12:19 PM on March 8, 2007

Textbook Shot Put/Discuss (both standing and running!)

Card catalog slip hat toss (like tossing playing cards cards)

Rolled Magazine Egg Race (roll the magazine/journal, secure it with a rubber band, balance an egg on one end, balance other end in your palm, race)

Spine Label Killer (each person gets a target and some spine labels/extra tags/whatever and has to tag their target without their target noticing. If successful, move on to target's target. Winner is the person with the most processing kills!)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:26 PM on March 8, 2007

Oh, and as for "X-in-Y" counting stuff, some things to consider:

- Paper clips on a string
- Bookplates pasted to a ball
- Number of due date stamps performed from a single inking
- Weight of a given LC call number range
- Linear feet of material in a call number ranges, measured as if material was laid top to bottom rather than spine to spine
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:36 PM on March 8, 2007

n^thing the book. Also, instead of pages, you could do how many words, or how many letters. Of course that would require knowing how many words or letters there are. Words shouldn't be that hard to look up though. And, as stated above, make sure you're clear about where the counting starts - arabic numeral pages only, arabic and roman numeral pages, every single word even the title page etc.

You could also do "how many books does the New York/Harvard/Oxford/some other notable library have?" Of course then that's more something they have to know than something they have to guesstimate. Maybe for the pub trivia.
posted by gauchodaspampas at 2:12 PM on March 8, 2007

I thought of golf pencils, too, but You could vary it up by putting lots of different writing utensils of all types in a jar, plus things that might get mistaken for a writing utensil (compasses, folded up, certain types of silverware, knitting needs, etc) to add a layer of difficulty.

I like the stack of books/pages idea best of the ones above. It has a really nice thematic and graphic punch.

You could also write excuses why someone's books are overdue or damaged or lost on small pieces of brightly colored card stock, fold them in half, and then fill the jar with a bunch of those.
posted by julen at 4:28 PM on March 8, 2007

Thanks to everyone for such creative suggestions. I'm *definitely* going to create a gift book tower and ask "how many total numbered pages?". I'll probably use some of the other suggestions too, like the ones using catalog cards and textbooks as throwing implements :o). If I can, I'll try to follow up with photos. Again, thanks - you'll make a successful library games coordinator of me yet!
posted by crepeMyrtle at 5:50 AM on March 9, 2007

crepeMyrtle: "griffey - I see your point - we'd have to have our standards posted. I'm thinking "total of numbered pages" or the like."

I was actually thinking that to keep the "estimate by eye" theme, your standard should be "number of physical pieces of paper", numbered, unnumbered, intentionally blank, whatever. Including or not including the cover, your choice. That'll also prevent people from being able to cheat on their cell phones. Amazon et al list numbered pages, I think. Granted, this makes your job harder (you'll have to go through each book and count the number of non-numbered pages), but it's still easier than counting a billion jelly beans.

You could also display them on a bookshelf (maybe a full bookshelf!) with their pages out (spines in) so as to reduce the cheat-factor, also. And a strict "no touching" rule!
posted by Plutor at 7:00 AM on March 9, 2007