IT HAS BEGUN! And here comes your first BADGE DROP of 2014!

@jmock you want to search for the word indicated in the catalog. Then when you bring up the list of items that include the word - click on each item and try to locate the GAME CODE (it will be listed on the left side of the item's record below the publishing, and subject information). Once you find an item record that has the hidden game code click on the code itself to redeem it or copy/paste it into your player account after you click the "I have a game code" button. You may have to look through several items to locate the code.

Actually, there's an error in there (Eli! Help!). The clue describes him as "The first person who even found footprints of bigfoot", but searching CIRE NOTPIHS's name in the catalog doesn't get you there. Luckily, the additional Hint for the code is enough to clarify.

#4 on proDUCTivity didn't make a whole lot of sense to me and I found the hint unhelpful, but if you search for "duct tape" and one other keyword from the clue (in plural form), then the you'll find the code on one of the books that comes up.

One of the small frustrations of this game is that the catalog search engine isn't really very smart compared with Google. It doesn't do stemming, so searching for "dog" and "dogs" will get you completely different results. It doesn't fix spelling mistakes, so if you aren't finding things, check your spelling. And every now and then I fail to find things because I didn't notice it was set to search for "authors" or "titles" instead of "keywords". None of this is really bad, but you have to get to know its quirks to really be successful.

@ jmock:This is the best I can do without giving it away, but just look for ____ downloads

I don't think the badges are harder.

One thing I've noticed, which I appreciate very much, is that there hasn't been much of the thing where you have to click through hundreds of catalog entries to find a game code. So far there have always been enough clues to narrow your search down to a fairly small number of pages.

General advice: The catalog search box has controls under it that can narrow the search to "books" or "movies" or "music" or "downloads". If the clue tells you what kind of thing you are looking for, you should take advantage of that. Furthermore, after you do the search, there are some "Refine Your Result" controls in the right-hand margin. If you are looking for a "youth book" then after you search in "books" then you can select "age group" and "youth" in the right-hand margin. Then there will often be a bit of odd wording in the clue that is actually a hint for the particular title that you are looking for, so scan down the list of titles for something that matches before you start exhaustively checking each item for a game code.

I was stuck on Waterloo #5 for a while. I found out that the waterslides in San Dimas were part of the Raging Waters Water Park and I already knew that the island Napoleon died on was St Helena. Neither these pieces of information has anything at all to do with the answer. The last sentence is a fairly direct reference to something. Find that thing.

@Lmd3577, I struggled for quite a while with that one. It turned out this is a case of less is more.

For Terrific Terrariums three, you seem to be on the right track. Oddly the old name for terrariums does not link to the wikipedia article about that name, but you can find it anyway.

@cherylo - I'm loving the color scheme, too. I'm excited for the terrariums around town. :) So fun. :) I had a great time looking for all the mochimochi stuff last year and am looking forward to the terrariums.

Oh, never mind - I just found it! I see, it was a more generalized term that what I was thinking of. :-)

jmock: San Dimas has a waterpark. Find the wikipedia article about it and read the end of it.

Thanks for mentioning that , @Zhengyang1022; sounds intriguing.

BTW, I mentioned this to Mariah @ TOP tonight, but just repeating so any issue if it exists can be addressed: I was unable to get text submission of codes to work for me tonight. I neither got a response from the texting server/bot nor were the codes I sent credited on my account until I later entered them in the web form. I will persist and find another way when a technical issue arises, but I don't want any other players to get discouraged by one. Thanks for looking into it! I am happy to provide more detail if it would be helpful; just let me know.

@Lmd3577
I found a page that provided a few versions of who killed Orion. One key I noticed was "He" (two of the options were a female). Additionally, it seemed to me that there are three different ways a person might spell the search term. Use the one that ends in "s".

@Lmd3577: Notice that it specifies a lot about tails. "Orion met his end at the hands (well, tail) of another nightsky denizen. He and Orion stay so far away from each other that that deadly tail..."

Yah, I found quite a few typos as well

I have the same problem. There are quite a few codes that are expired from all three years. For example, badge Apps in Space (2013), the last code expired.

@imracom: No, the badge clues are found by clicking on the badge. It'll bring up a pop-up screen with the clues. You then use Wikipedia & Google to find the proper search term for searching the AADL catalog. When searching, pay attention to the clue. Sometimes it'll tell you to specifically look for a book or a movie. That will help narrow your choices down. Check out the items listed in the search results. Game Codes are found underneath the "Tags" section on the left hand side of the item page.

There are different codes at the branches that get you different points. Sometimes there's a badge attached, like the "Branch Explorer" badge but not usually. However, depending on how many codes have been placed around the buildings, you can really rack up extra points that way.

I hope that helps!

Zhengyang1022:

For Terrific Terrariums #3, the original name is in "See also" of Wikipedia. It was hard for me to figure out what they were looking for with " find a book about the very first place those eager botanists sent their.....whatever it was called back then". The key is where the first one was sent to. Then search for the full name of that place in the catalog.

Zhengyang1022:

For Meeting Your Waterloo #4, I found the group by searching for "pop group" and the country name. Then, the relevant song was clear when I read the last paragraph of their Wikipedia page introduction (before the contents).

Hi KarinaKangas,
Send in a "Contact Us" (bottom of the left-hand navigation bar) with the name on your child's account, and we should be able to link the two. Thanks!
-[http://aadl.org/mariah|mariah]

For the 'Backwards in the Backwoods' badge, find NOSRETTAP NILMIG backwards, and use wikipedia to find the film with the person in the _____ suit. (It should be in the first paragraph)

@KarinaKangas, I'm really happy I could help. :D

Hi yourself, Jerry.

Bacon:
You know the author Dan Brown? Think about his most famous book that was also made into a movie. Search for part of the title.

Sorry, I can't - I was stumped on that. I guess you're just supposed to recognize the picture? I don't know...

Try searching for Napoleon Bonaparte comics on google images. That led me to a similar image (albeit B&W), and from there to the name of the book. Good luck!

I got this week's [no travel required] badges! Thanks cherlyo and ilyjtwya! There sure has been a lot of comments this week :) Maybe we should have a summary of all the extra hints that have been given up till now?

@estermyer: Well, let's see.

1. What does the title say not to do to him? Got it.

2. What's the reverse of that? (I'm guessing this is what's confusing you.) Well, what does "reverse" mean? Consider the context of the previous clues.

Think DRAWCKAB.

@ Latitude - just like year's past there will be a badge drop every week of the summer on Friday nights!

@sara - If you have Google Chrome (I'm not sure about the other browsers), you can right click on the image and search for it directly.

If you scroll up a few comments, you will see what rainbow cupcake told me, and you can do it on the regular google.

Ok so I didn't find this one myself; someone helped me with this one. But they told me to search "ABBA" in the catalog, and it will be one of the items that comes up. (only 38 items come up)

Latitude,
New badges are posted at 5 pm on Friday.
No need to stay up late.

@Lmd3577: First you have to find the different (Native American) name for TOOFGIB, and then search it in the catalog.

It encourages you do do more in the catalog or go to more events...

@ijweintraub - I actually had some issues with that as well. When I first found the guy's name and searched for it, I came up empty. But then I went back to where I found the name, and the name had changed. I searched again and found it. So my advice is if you're searching for what might be a nickname or shortening of a name, change it to the longer form instead.

@agthomas thanks, but I actually already got the badge ;) thanks though! :)

Hi everyone,
Ok in trying to fix what's going on with downloads I found out today that right now the only aspect of earning points through downloading from our collection is if you download MUSIC - I changed the language in the original blog post to reflect this. So if you want to explore our download collections and earn some points download some [http://www.aadl.org/downloads#music|music]! Thanks for playing!

@agthomas actually, you find it in the catalog :) the person you search for in the catalog, his first name is two letters long if that helps....I don't really want to give the whole thing away as that takes away the fun :) and his last name is six letters..hope that helps!