Library targets adults for summer reading program

If you head straight for the mystery section or flip to shows like CSI on television, let your sleuthing instincts lead you to the Elmira library this summer.

Library staff are expanding the summer reading club beyond the children’s section and starting the “Summer of Mystery 2009” for adults.

There will be two parts to the program, starting the week of July 6.

The first is a weekly series of trivia questions drawing on patrons’ knowledge of TV shows like Bones, NCIS or CSI. Answers will be posted the following week, and one correct answer will be pulled from a draw for a weekly prize.

The other part is a mystery that patrons have to solve using weekly clues. A new clue will be revealed every week, directing people to a literary reference, historical fact or an item to be found in the library. The other way to solve the mystery is by completing weekly puzzle sheets. The clues will add up to answer the question “What’s brewing at the library?”

Answers to the mystery have to be submitted before August 15, when the solution will be revealed and one correct guesser will receive a prize pack.

Sheryl Tilley, supervisor of the Elmira branch, brought the idea with her from Wellesley, where she was posted before moving to Woolwich. Last summer, library staff ran a series of trivia questions for adults based on TV comedy shows.

Tilley chuckled remembering how the answer to one question lay in the theme song from “Gilligan’s Island,” and patrons serenaded the children’s librarian all day, trying to figure it out.

“We just want to make this fun,” she said. “We’re just hoping to engage people in the library as a community place to come that’s fun – and we’ve got more than just books. Although books are great too.”