Profiles in Collaboration: Tyngsborough Homecoming By Kristine Nazzaro, Library Teacher, Tyngsborough High School

October is the traditional time that Tyngsborough celebrates Homecoming. Homecoming consists of a week long series of activities. There are contests between the classes,--scavenger hunts, group challenges, silly gym games, fundraising activities and of course the crowning of Homecoming King and Queen during the weekend football and soccer games.

The Library also sees October as the month to celebrate libraries and all that they offer. So, the English Department, the High School Librarian and the Public Library Director, Randy Robertshaw joined forces to incorporate library challenges into the homecoming festivities.

The goal was to make sure that each and every student owned a public library card. The challenge was that the first class to demonstrate that each class member had a library card would win points towards their Homecoming total. To get credit, they could either have to show their library card to the Librarian or they needed to complete an application to get a library card.

The Juniors won with 100% participation and were the first to compete the task. The seniors came in second with 100% participation but were a bit slower than the juniors. The sophomores had 87% participation and the freshman a mere 50 % participation.

The students were excited to get their new cards. Interestingly enough, many students had lost their cards or some never even had their own card.

Together the Public Library personnel and myself registered over 400 new patrons! Daily, the students are on the computers at school looking for materials to borrow from the MVLC and or using the databases. Finally, they are discovering databases and not relying on Google.