Some of our locations are showing an increase in the number of participants. Belle Isle, Capitol Hill, Come Read With Me, Jones, and Wright have shown increases ranging in 9% (Belle Isle) to 100% (Jones) for number of registered participants. For those of you at these locations, how have you encouraged participation in the Summer Reading Program?
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Fine Waivers! That's the biggest draw that I'm seeing. Also.....I'm finding that there have been many adults that were not aware they could enter as well.
I'm wondering if anyone is using a visual representation of the goal and our progress toward it in their libraries to encourage members to participate? I'm thinking of a United Way fundraising thermometer-type tool that makes the idea that we're participating in reaching this goal as a community more concrete for both members and staff.
Laura, I've been asking questions about having something similar to what is on https://metrolibrary.beanstack.org/reader365 that would be on metrolibrary.org as well as our Intranet to show our progress. Beanstack is in the developmental stages of creating a widget and it will be available in a future year. We're working on what we can do for this year.
Hello Laura,
Thanks for your comment. You'll notice a new thermometer on our Intranet and on metrolibrary.org to help encourage members to log their reading and help us reach our goals.
Wow, these are awesome!
I know it will help keep our goals top of mind to see that visual every time I pull up the Intranet. I'm wondering if creating a physical version to post at the libraries would be helpful for customers who aren't on the website very often? Might be a fun project for the teen volunteers.
We're going to try Laura's idea and have some teen volunteers work on this tomorrow. We'll report back how it goes!
For adults - I second the fine waivers comment. Talking about the other good things about the program can leave people lukewarm at best, but mention the fine waivers and they're all in. This is especially true for families who already have large fines on their card(s). The opportunity to get those taken care of without spending much, if any, money is what seals the deal.
Also, for kiddos who love to read, they're thrilled at the idea of winning a book.
Something the staff at BI were great at doing was promoting SRP all year long. If a member had a fine, many staff took the opportunity to share information about the summer reading program and fine waivers.
Come Read with Me is typically school age children K-6th grade. We discuss reading 20-30 minutes a day as a basic fundamental. Every day we brush our teeth, take a bath, make the bed, read 20 minutes, etc.
I believe our summer reading table looks a lot cleaner and more inviting than it has in the past, contributing to more members (especially adults) stopping and asking what it's about. It's a simple aesthetic, but we've worked hard to keep clutter off of it and I think it has helped! https://flic.kr/s/aHskZarC64
BI staff visited several school assemblies in April/May to promote summer reading. They also planned a special Summer Reading Story Time and invited community partners and leaders:
- There was a table for attendees to sign up for the summer reading program
- The Rolling Thunder Book Bus came and provided free books to attendees
- Area legislators were invited to the program, and District Rep Cyndi Munson came and challenged attendees to read 20 minutes every day
The event drew about 160 kiddos and parents, and got a lot of members excited for summer reading!