Where in the Library is Stevie?

Monday just seemed like a normal day. The sun was shining and the squirrels were eating food that college kids “accidentally” dropped on the ground. But then English class was scheduled in a different room than what was usual. As we sat down, we were shocked to hear that our beloved mascot, Stevie Pointer, had been kidnapped and he was somewhere in the library.. The culprit had left behind clues and we were given instructions that we needed to find Stevie before it was too late. We had to use the clues to find where the culprit left behind letters to Stevie’s location and we needed to take pictures of each clue spot.

To find our first letter, we had to travel to the second floor from our starting point on the third floor. We found stairs that guided us down to the second floor. On the second floor, we had to find where our student newspaper, which is named after Stevie, is kept. We searched until we came to rows of newspapers. We found where our student newspaper was kept and by that we found the letter ‘E.”

First Letter by Newspaper-Source:My iPhone (Letter is supposed to be E)

After we discovered our first letter, we had to journey to the first floor. On the first floor we found a shark that is hanging on the ceiling in front of the Museum of Natural History. On the wall to the right of shark was a clue. The clue said we had to go into the museum to receive our next letter. In the museum, we had to go to the Schoenebeck bird egg collection. There were hundreds of eggs in this collection and we had to scan the collection until we found the egg for the Pacific Golden Plover. Our letter was the first letter of this bird’s home state which was “A” for Alaska.

Egg Collection-Source:My iPhone

Our next clue was also on the first floor. We had to locate the reference room which was almost diagonal from the Museum of Natural History. When we got to the reference room, we had to find a book titled Encyclopedia of the Dog. All we had to find the book was the call number SF 422 F64 1995. We found the section for books that had SF and then we worked our way down the bookcase until we found the book that matched this call number. When we had the book, we had to find in the book a description for the English Pointer which is the breed of dog that Stevie Pointer is! We took this to the Reference Librarian so we could get our next letter. The letter was “V.”

Encyclopedia Clue-Source:My iPhone

Our next clue said that we had to go to the Instructional Materials Center or otherwise known as the IMC. We were not sure where this was located so we asked a very friendly librarian who told us that it was on the third floor. We climbed the stairs all the way up the third floor and found the IMC. When we got to the IMC, we had to locate the CD collection. The CD collection was right across our starting spot which was LRC 316. On the side of the filing cabinet for the CDs was a sign telling us the call number we needed. The call number for the CD was M 1630.18 R64. On the front of each cabinet, it told us what range of numbers that they contained. We found the drawer that would have the number 1630 and we followed the order of the letters until we found “R.” We found the CD with the correct call number! The band for the CD was The Rolling Stones. The clue said we had to ignore “the” and that the letter we needed was the first letter of the first word. Our next letter was “R.”

CD of The Rolling Stone-Source:My iPhone

After we found the clue on The Rolling Stones CD, we found a man who claimed to have heard some corny jokes about Stevie and some grunts coming from the area. Our next clue instructed us to find a book with the code PN2287. C5  Because it was between A and PQ, we knew it was on the fourth floor. We took the stairs up and looked on the sides of the bookcases to find the PN section and located the book. Many books read Charlie Chaplin who was also the subject. This comedian  happened to have been seen in the library around the time of the crime.

Charlie Chaplin Books-Source: My iPhone

Now we had a lead and began to ask around if anyone had seen this Charlie Chaplin. According to our clue, this meant that our next letter was a "C." A man had claimed to have seen him on the fifth floor with Miss. Oterzalie arguing over a book from the Medicine and Agriculture section. Our next clue claimed that in that area in a carrel was a hostage. There was only one person that it could be. Fearing the we may be too late, we rushed to the fifth floor looking on the sides of the green book cases. We quickly found the poster marked medicine and agriculture. As we ran up to the first carrel there was a red stain just inside the little opening and we heard some groaning coming from inside the carrel.  We leapt inside to discover a college student studying for a test with tomato juice in her hand. After telling her to get a janitor to clean up this mess we moved to the next carrel. We quickly peeped inside to discover it was empty. With fear and worry in our hearts questioning if we were in the right place, we slunk up to the third carrel and half heartedly eased our way around the corner. In the chair tied up and gagged was Miss Oterzalie. Joyfully, we removed the rope binding her to the chair and the gage from her mouth. She was not very happy but she was able to tell us that Charlie had been asking about Su Docs from the Smithsonian before he had attacked her. He had also left a letter "H" with her.

Letter from the Otter-Source: My iPhone

Our next clue said to look for the letter for Su docs from the Smithsonian, so we needed to go to the sixth floor. As we headed up once more to the sixth floor, we knew that one way or another this whole thing was driving to a close. Silently, we crept to the book cases and found the Smithsonian poster, the letters for them were S,I  and we began to put two and two together.

Smithsonian Poster-Source: My iPhone 

We spied a hint on the bottom of the page written very tiny so you could barely see it, "Go to the elevator and use the LRC directory." We went back to the elevator and quickly found what we were looking for, an LRC directory. We had the letters EAVRCHSI. Scanning the directory, I suddenly yelled out "I have it!" We rushed to the 5th floor and ran to the Archives. As we rushed in, Charlie was nowhere to be seen. There were several cardboard boxes on the tables in the room and a hallway leading to more rooms in the back. We were about to start opening the boxes when one box jumped and let out a howl. We rushed over and opened the box. Inside was Stevie! He was strapped in a exploding vest with a timer counting down. We had five minutes to find Charlie. But we had been to every floor and in every room. Where could he be?

Stevie in the Archives-Source: My iPhone

There was only one place left in the library that a comedian would be at so we headed down to the first floor and turned left at the doors and there he was doing stand up comedy in the library cafeteria. We arrested him and demanded to know what the combination to the vest on Stevie was. Laughing evilly, he asked, "haven't you guessed it already?" He smiled and said, "it's a seven digit combination." What could it be?There was only half a minute left! Then it came to us, all the floors we had been to on the chase of the clues, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6. The vest fell off of Stevie who jumped in joy and began to kiss us! During this, Charlie tried to sneak away, but the crowd was not about to let him go. We arrested him for several crimes including kidnaping and telling such corny jokes. As we led him away, he turned back to Stevie and yelled, "this is not over yet!"

Authors: Kyle Kleinschmidt and Jordan Sorenson