Every year, we face the same challenge and we find the same rewards.
2010 CLSP Summer Reading Program There is a piece of research proving that kids who participate in a Summer Reading Program at their local public library do not experience the “Summer Slump” or decline in reading skills. It is common sense. Reading is a skill that you have to maintain by practice. Not reading for 2 months or more causes you to lose skill. Libraries can help kids keep reading while their schools are closed.
When I was a kid, the library’s summer reading program was basic. We got a reading log. I don't remember if we got bookmarks. Once you listed 10 books on your reading record, you got a dime from the Librarian which would pay for an ice cream cone at the Dairy Queen. The dime was provided by the generosity of the Chamber of Commerce.
I usually read 10 books in two weeks, but each summer I would get ambitious and try to read longer and harder books from the library. I remember struggling with David Copperfield.
2009 CLSP art & theme
Now I am a children’s librarian in a city and a state with an breath-taking rate of illiteracy. Every day I meet parents and kids who have never been in the library before—any library. They do not know that a library card is free. These kids have never borrowed a book from a library. My most important duty is to welcome them and to encourage them to return--often.
This is why I LOVE Summer Reading Program, even though it stresses every fiber in my being for months on end.
We schedule weekly events at the Library. These visiting nature programs, musicians, and storytellers are meant to bring the families in to the library where they can obtain library cards, sign up for SRP, and check out books. We are trying to create the "library habit."
We have regular families attend SRP programs, but my downtown location is notoriously Hard-To-Park near, so they never fill the room. Thus, I round up day camps and day care centers for audience members. Many of them make their first library visit as one of these groups.
Louisiana's SRP theme for 2007
My staff knows that we really need to ask every kid and parent who comes in to sign up for SRP—and we end up signing up several hundred, one at a time. We have a few who have always signed up, but every day we explain the program over and over.
CLSP is a cooperative that provides SRP themes and art to most states.
2010 CLSP Summer Reading Program There is a piece of research proving that kids who participate in a Summer Reading Program at their local public library do not experience the “Summer Slump” or decline in reading skills. It is common sense. Reading is a skill that you have to maintain by practice. Not reading for 2 months or more causes you to lose skill. Libraries can help kids keep reading while their schools are closed.When I was a kid, the library’s summer reading program was basic. We got a reading log. I don't remember if we got bookmarks. Once you listed 10 books on your reading record, you got a dime from the Librarian which would pay for an ice cream cone at the Dairy Queen. The dime was provided by the generosity of the Chamber of Commerce.
I usually read 10 books in two weeks, but each summer I would get ambitious and try to read longer and harder books from the library. I remember struggling with David Copperfield.
2009 CLSP art & themeNow I am a children’s librarian in a city and a state with an breath-taking rate of illiteracy. Every day I meet parents and kids who have never been in the library before—any library. They do not know that a library card is free. These kids have never borrowed a book from a library. My most important duty is to welcome them and to encourage them to return--often.
This is why I LOVE Summer Reading Program, even though it stresses every fiber in my being for months on end.
We schedule weekly events at the Library. These visiting nature programs, musicians, and storytellers are meant to bring the families in to the library where they can obtain library cards, sign up for SRP, and check out books. We are trying to create the "library habit."
We have regular families attend SRP programs, but my downtown location is notoriously Hard-To-Park near, so they never fill the room. Thus, I round up day camps and day care centers for audience members. Many of them make their first library visit as one of these groups.
Louisiana's SRP theme for 2007 My staff knows that we really need to ask every kid and parent who comes in to sign up for SRP—and we end up signing up several hundred, one at a time. We have a few who have always signed up, but every day we explain the program over and over.
SRP rewards have grown to more than a thin dime: coupons for a free Frostie from Wendy’s and a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza, and a certificate with their name on it.
Since 2007, we’ve been able to give kids Audubon Zoo passes, thanks to the generosity of the Zoo.
Always--we give them a big smile and lots of praise. We praise the folks who bring them to the library: the parents, grandmas, aunts, uncles, big brothers, and big sisters. Usually we give the finishers a free book.
2010 Teen Theme →I have been able to be very generous with giveaway books, thanks to a couple of national organizations. First Book and Reading is Fundamental (RIF) have been wonderful to my library. In 2005 through 2006, First Book gave out 5 million books in the Gulf Coast region—truckloads of them through my library. In 2008 and 2009, RIF received grants that meant that Target bought us 30,000 books from Scholastic. This year, I don’t have the benefit of this grant, but I have some other, smaller grants, including one from RIF.
Tomorrow is our 2010 Summer Reading Program Kick-Off Party. Our 2010 budget is modest, but dozens of library staff have been coming up with programs to fill out our schedule.
Wish us luck in averting the “Summer Slump.”
I dunno whose art or the year, but it's CUTE!
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Comments
This is great! A book can make a vast difference in a child's life, as can being able to read, which is why is so infuriating that parents are getting away with choosing whether their children learn to read or not.
Yay!! Good for you :D
I can hardly wait until the day when my son takes an interest in a book for more than ten seconds, and not just for the purpose of chewing on it.
Thank YOU for being there so these kids can read.
Rated and Tink Picked!
Rated and Tink Picked!
As a kid, I looked forward so much to the summer reading program every year. I agree, I don't remember any prizes, except seeing my name advance on the wall chart, but the prizes now are elaborate! You do a crucial and important job as a children's librarian-- I hope it feels that way.
works for adults as well...R
Thanks for doing what you do. I'm curious if the COC is still supporting the summer reading programs.
Thanks--y'all! I don't want to sound like nobody learns to read if I DON'T HELP them, but SRP takes a lot out of me.
Hoop: I don't know what COC is-- a state agency or national?
Hoop: I don't know what COC is-- a state agency or national?
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