GOAL: 16 million minutes read

CURRENT NUMBER OF MINUTES READ: 8,419,996 minutes read

Let’s be honest, 16 million is a huge number. But, a goal is meant to be challenging, right? And we aren’t working alone. There are about 870 thousand people in the Metro area. Imagine the minutes we could get if each person read just 20 minutes– that would be over a million minutes above and beyond our goal! And if those same people read 20 minutes for each of the 22 days remaining in the summer reading program – that would be over 300 million minutes above and beyond our goal!

So far, this summer we have managed to read about 15 years’ worth of minutes! – that’s an incredible accomplishment. But as we embark on the last 22 days of the program, let’s continue to strive to reach our goal of 16 million.

Each library may have their own technique of tackling this, but if it helps, break down the numbers. If you sign one person up and they read just 20 minutes a day for the last 22 days of the program – that’s 440 minutes toward our goal!

Follow our Progress [1]

Meanwhile, your organizational development team is developing a way to reward the library with the most minutes in this final stretch – so your efforts will not go unnoticed. And, while not all our metro family works directly with the public, we can all encourage family and friends to participate in the program and we can all support our member services staff family in their endeavors to grow our numbers.

Ideas from our Member Services Superstars

• Offer to log time for members.
• Make sure reading time for groups gets logged!
• Remind participants that all kinds of reading counts-- digital, audio, internet, everything!
• Encourage active members to sign up and manage accounts for everyone in their family.
• When day cares visit for programs, ask them if their group is signed up for Summer Reading.
• Promote Read it Forward. Members might not log time for their own rewards, but knowing their reading will help others might be the encouragement they need!
• Most importantly, LOG your reading and your families reading!
• “One thing that Meghan has done was create a prominent display, that highlights summer reading and has many books that focus on building a better world. It has gotten great response and we have to add new titles every day.” – Debbie, Midwest City
• “At ED we encourage parents/kids to log time however possible and hand out the paper logs. They can hand the logs to our Teen Volunteers at the Celebration Station when they visit and the teens will put their time into Beanstack for them!” -Bridget, Edmond
• “I've heard MC Access staff on numerous occasions engage members in conversation about Summer Reading, including asking if they've been logging their minutes.” -Meghan, Midwest City