Are you having trouble finishing your college essay? Do you need another pair of eyes to edit what you’ve written? We will be holding two workshops at the Mattapan branch.

Please bring either a print out of your essay or upload your essay on to GoogleDocs. You will need a Gmail account in order to use GoogleDocs; it is recommended that you create an account before coming to the workshops as we will be using GoogleDocs to write the essays.

What’s GoogleDocs? It’s a word processor but unlike the ones you use at home or school the information you enter is kept in what is called “the cloud” so you can retrieve your essay from any computer without having to save it on to a flash drive or on to the computer.  Still confused? Just ask the Teen Librarian for help.

The workshops will be offered on:

January 19, 2012 5:oo – 8:00PM

January 26, 2012 5:00 – 8:00PM

Wyclef Murat, Djosir Jor and Chedelyn Alexandre

The Checkers Tournament over at Mattapan was last night! Did you miss it? Don’t worry, we’ll be sure to have another one in the coming months!

But let’s congratulate Chedelyn Alexandre for being the grand prize winner of a new iPod shuffle!  Wyclef Murat and Djosir Jor came in close and managed to place in second and third place, respectively.

We want to thank all the other teens who also competed:

Christ, Kayden, Antonio, Ramsey Julmice, Enrique Espino, Johnae Johnson, Duckerson Pierre, Guy, Kepler, Maico Maisonneuve, Neida, Rosa Rodriguez, Zykeya Briddell, Abigale Parry, Rajai Edwards, Cristian Beato, Ricky Spiff, and Stanley Elie.

Make sure to keep practicing and be on the look out for the next tournament!

Are you a fan of checkers? Are you also a competitive player?

Then join the teens at the Mattapan branch for the first ever Checkers Tournament.

When: Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Time: 5:00 – 7:30 P.M.

Prizes will be handed out to the top three players; the grand prize will be an iPod shuffle!

Refreshments will also be served, so come on down and play or cheer on your friends.

Minimum Qualifications:

• A master’s degree in library science from an accredited library school
• Two years of pertinent professional experience or any equivalent combination of education, experience and training sufficient to indicate ability to do the work
• Extensive knowledge of young adults’ literature and work; demonstrated knowledge of the techniques of programming for young adults; demonstrated interest in young adults and in library work with young adults
• Must be a resident of the City of Boston upon first day of hire
• Must successfully clear a Criminal Offenders Record Information (CORI) check with the City of Boston

Complete job description and application available here or through the Boston City job center.

Deadline for application: January 31, 2011

In compliance with Federal and State Equal Employment Laws, Equal opportunity will be afforded to all applicants regardless of race, color, sex, age, religious creed, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, marital status, ex-offender status, prior psychiatric treatment or military status.

Last meeting we discussed a bunch of festivals and trips members would like to do. Today there was some brainstorming about ways to fund these programs, and we also thought of some additional cool things to do.  Ideas thought up included:

• Design customized T-shirts (and possibly sell them)
• Have an art showing of work from club members
• Get sponsorship of somekind from within BPL
• Host a game day
• Prepare and market teen specialist led Anime/Manga presentations to other libraries, schools, and clubs
• Partner with the Friends of the Mattapan Branch – give them some labor in exchange for some fiscal support

There was a lot of talk about food and it was decided to have a special party at the July 12 meeting (that will include food). We’ll plan the party at our next meeting, June 21.

Some Anime titles were discussed and there was a fair amount of interest in the following: School Rumble (wondering if there is a third season – there isn’t, just a couple episodes past the second season – see this well notated article for details); Medabots; and Sailor Moon. There was also general agreement that it would be really cool if Kingdom Hearts was animated.

We had a discussion of the top Manga Titles that are still being published that library’s should make sure to get every new issue. Here’s the list that was created as a result of that conversation:

• Naruto
• Bleach
• One Peace
• Hitman Reborn
• Full Metal Alchemist
• Air Gear
• Keshi (?)
• Sara No Otsumo (?)
• Fairy Tail
• Ultimo

The meeting then had fun watching Soul Eater.  See everyone on June 21st at the next meeting!

Things the club would like to do in the future:

• Go on trips to Museums, like the MFA, the Science Museum, and the ICA
• Go to Cons like Anime Boston and the JUMP festival
• Conduct a Cosplay workshop and teach each other how to make cool costumes of our favorite characters
• Bring in a Japanese Speaker and have a language workshop
• Have a manga/graphic novel storytelling workshop
• Have an Otaku workshop and share the wide world of Anime & Manga with everyone and increase everyone’s awareness of just how much cool stuff is out there
• Have an art exhibition of locally created art

The second half of every club meeting is dedicated to watching anime. Today we discussed our favorites and agreed that a goal for future meetings will be to watch an episode or two from as many as possible. We want to provide exposure to new stuff that people are into, so people can decide for themselves if they want to watch more on their own time. Here’s the list of favorites from today’s group:

• Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
• Cowboy Bebop
• Ghost in the Shell
• FLCL
• Air Gear
• Hitman Reborn
• Death Note
• Code Geass
• Soul Eater
• School Rumble
• Baka to Test
• Elemental Glade
• Chrono Crusade
• Clannad
• Trigun
• Full Metal Alchemist
• Hunter x Hunter
• Tora Dora
• Claymore
• To Love Ru
• Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple
• Peacemaker
• Boondocks
• Tsubasa
• Sakura
• Afro Samurai
• One Piece
• My bride is a mermaid
• Outlaw Star
• Case Closed