Library Bingo: 144 Squares for a Visit, a Summer or a Book Club: how it works
Library bingo is marked, never called: a reader crosses off a square after finding the shelf, using the service or finishing the book. These 144 squares cover all three, and none names a book, an author or a series.
One visit, a summer or a book club
The list runs in six blocks of 24. For a one-visit card, keep only the first 48 lines of Word list, one per line, Find the large-print shelf to Thank a library worker. For book bingo for adults at a book club, delete those 48 instead. For summer book bingo, keep only the last 24, Set at the beach to Set somewhere freezing: every reader gets the same prompts in a new order.
Librarian bingo: a card your branch hands out
Type the branch into Title on the cards, then add lines only you have: the seed library, the local history room, the 3D printer. How many cards goes to 60, no two alike. One card prints per page, leaving room to write a title in each square.
Tips
Eight find squares print a Dewey number, so no catalog is needed: 641 food and drink, 598 birds, 398 folklore.
The free center reads Reader's choice, so any book counts there and a slow reader can still make a line.
One book fills one square. Say so on day one, or a single beach mystery in translation claims three.
Questions and answers
How do you run library bingo as an adult reading challenge?
Give each reader a different card and a deadline. They mark squares on the honor system and hand the card in at the desk. One line suits a month; blackout, all 24 squares and the center, suits a whole summer or one reader's year.
Can I make a staff card for National Library Week?
Yes, from your own list: these squares are written for patrons. Press Empty the list and type 24 or more kind moments from the desk: the printer again, a patron who remembers only the cover color. In 2027 the week runs April 11 to 17.
What is a call number, and how do I look one up?
A call number is a book's address on the shelf. Search the catalog for a title and copy the number beside it. Dewey files nonfiction from 000 to 999, while large academic and research libraries widely use Library of Congress letters instead.
Does an audiobook or an e-book count?
Yes. Listen to an audiobook and Borrow an e-book are squares of their own, and no square asks for paper. A club that wants print only should say so before the first square is marked.
Scavenger Hunt Ideas, Lists and Clues32 tools: A scavenger hunt needs three things: a list, a boundary and a finish time. The list is the slow part, so…
Find a bird guide (598)598 is Aves, the birds, in the Dewey Decimal Classification.
Find a book not in English
Find a book of folktales (398)398 is Folklore in the Dewey Decimal Classification.
Find a book older than youThe year is on the copyright page, the back of the title page.
Find a book on the stars (520)520 is Astronomy.
Find a color in a title
Find a cookbook (641)641 is Food and drink in the Dewey Decimal Classification.
Find a gardening book (635)635 is Garden crops, or horticulture.
Find a magazine on a new hobbyA hobby you do not have yet.
Find a one-word title
Find a scientist's biography920 is Biography and genealogy in Dewey. Some libraries give life stories a section of their own: ask at the desk.
Find a title with a number
Find a travel guide (910s)910 is Geography and travel; 914 is travel in Europe and 917 travel in North America.
Find an atlas (912)912 covers maps and other graphic representations of the surface of the Earth.
Find the audiobooks
Find the biggest dictionary
Find the book return slot
Find the graphic novels
Find the large-print shelfLarge print is typically 18 point type or bigger; ordinary print is about 12 point.
Find the local history shelf
Find the new arrivals shelf
Find the poetry shelf (811)811 is American poetry in English; the rest of the 800s hold other literatures.
Find the staff picks display
Find today's newspaper
Show all 144 squares (120 more)
Use the library 24
Ask staff for a recommendation
Attend a library event
Borrow a movie or an album
Borrow a non-book itemCollections differ: ask what your branch lends besides books.
Borrow an e-book
Bring a friend along
Browse an aisle new to you
Help someone get a card
Learn a staff member's name
Look up a call numberA call number is essentially a book's address: it says where the item sits on the shelves.
Place a hold
Print, copy or scan a page
Read here for 20 minutes
Read the community board
Renew an item
Request an interlibrary loanInterlibrary loan lets patrons of one library borrow materials held by another library.
Return everything on time
Search a research databaseAsk at the desk which databases your card opens from home.
Suggest a purchase
Thank a library worker
Use a library computer
Use the self-checkout
Visit a different branch
Write a one-line reviewOne line on a slip of paper for the next reader, or in the catalog if yours takes reviews.
Read a genre or a format 24
Listen to an audiobook
Read a book in translation
Read a book of essays
Read a book of letters
Read a classic you skipped
Read a cookbook cover to cover
Read a detective novel
Read a graphic novel or memoir
Read a historical novel
Read a history of one objectOne thing followed through the centuries: a food, a color, a tool.
Read a memoir
Read a novel in verse
Read a play or a screenplay
Read a poetry collection
Read a popular science book
Read a romance
Read a science fiction novel
Read a short story collection
Read a spy or legal thriller
Read a western
Read a young adult novel
Read epic fantasy
Read narrative nonfictionA true story told scene by scene, the way a novel is.
Reread a childhood favorite
Read by setting and date 24
Published in your birth yearTry filtering a catalog search by publication year.
Published over 100 years ago
Published this year
Set at sea
Set before 1900
Set in a big city
Set in a country new to youA country you have never visited.
Set in a desert
Set in a library or a bookshop
Set in a school or a college
Set in a small town
Set in ancient times
Set in the 1920s
Set in the future
Set in the mountains
Set in the southern hemisphere
Set in wartime
Set in winter
Set on a train, ship or plane
Set on an island
Set on another planet
Set where you live
Spans three generations
Takes place in a single day
Read by where the book came from 24
A friend's all-time favorite
A new arrival at your branch
A staff pick
An author's first book
An older relative's favorite
Borrowed from a friend
By a local author
By an author new to you
Came by interlibrary loan
Chosen for its cover alone
Found on the returns cart
From a neighborhood book boxA take-one, leave-one box on a sidewalk or in a cafe.
From a used book sale
From the bottom shelf
Given to you as a gift
Heard about it on the radio
Later made into a film
Owned for years, never read
Picked by your book club
Pulled from a shelf at random
Recommended by a librarian
Recommended by a teenager
Won a major book award
You waited on hold for it
Summer reading 24
A book about a sport
A road trip story
A travel memoir
A vacation that goes wrong
A yellow cover
About an ocean or a river
About bugs, birds or stars
An audiobook on a walk
Buddy read with a friendTwo readers, one book, the same week.
Finished in one weekend
Over 500 pages
Read before breakfast
Read in a park
Read on a journey
Read outdoors
Set at a summer camp
Set at the beach
Set during a heat wave
Set in a garden or on a farm
Set somewhere freezingThe contrarian pick for the hottest week.
Set where you'd love to go
Takes place over one summer
Under 200 pages
Water on the cover
How this list was compiled: Own work by the editors: 144 squares written for this page, 24 in each of six groups, in blocks, so that any one group alone fills a 5 x 5 card with a free center. The first 48 are about using a library (24 things to find on the shelves, 24 services to use); the next 72 are reading prompts for adult readers and book clubs (genres and formats, settings and dates, where the book came from); the last 24 are summer reading prompts that still read true in any month. No square names a book, an author, a series, a publisher, an app or a product, and the list was screened against the site blocklist (nothing sexual, no alcohol or drugs, no self-harm, no strangers, no risky food, nothing illegal). Published in your birth year appears once, in the settings group. No square repeats a line of this site's scavenger hunt bingo. Facts beside the squares were checked on 2026-09-19: Dewey numbers and their names (398 Folklore, 520 Astronomy, 598 Aves, 635 Garden crops, 641 Food and drink, 811 American poetry in English, 910 Geography and travel, 912 maps, 914 and 917 travel, 920 Biography) against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dewey_Decimal_classes; large print at 18 point or bigger against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-print; the interlibrary loan line against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlibrary_loan; the call number line (a book's address) and the use of Library of Congress Classification in large academic and research libraries against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_classification. National Library Week dates on the page (April 11 to 17, 2027, with National Library Workers Day on the Tuesday) were checked against https://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek on 2026-09-19, and the line, four corners and blackout finish lines against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bingo_(American_version) on the same day. Every other line beside a square is the editors' what-counts rule, not a fact. Licence: own work