Summer Reading Program & More!

Kate Gove of West Newbury shared her successful use of the Evanced program this past summer. She had some 246 online registrations with over 3000 books logged. She found kids who were away and on vacation used the program to stay connected and engaged in the program. She did everything to make it easy for the patron to use. She found the simpler the requirements the better. Some folks still wanted paper and she was able to provide but always mentioned sponsorship of Waste Management!

Cathy DeWitt of Georgetown faced the challenge of being in temporary quarters and then closed and then moving! Her kids just logged hours. Out of some 140 registrations, 62 were online. She created a bookmark to give out with clear instructions of how to log on. The kids really liked having their own web page!

In North Reading, Kate used the program with her teens. It was a huge help for both herself and the circulation staff. Teens loved the online-ness, don’t really like paper!

Boxford used the program with children, teens, and adults. It was popular with the teens, this being only the third summer reading program. Participation for the teens was 44, up from 10 the previous summer! The teens were required to use the online program. It wasn’t heavily promoted with the kids. It was very useful to folks who went away for the summer. All in all, a nice option to offer folks. The adults were a more stable participant. The framework of their program took the form of BINGO. They were required to read 4 genres plus one other. They liked the reviews component.

JoAnne in Danvers had 53 in all registered online (included teens). 150 paper logs were passed out.

In Amesbury 54 teens signed up. Prizes were raffled off at the end of the program. Margie used the email function as a way to reach out and promote. An easy way to communicate. She didn’t get responses.

Noelle in Tewksbury used the program very successfully. She had 563 registrations on line! She promoted it by talking it up in the schools, PR, newspaper articles. A laptop was set up in the Children’s Room dedicated to the online registration. Patrons were offered the option of online or paper registration. Noelle was surprised by how many opted for online! She did not use the Reviews component, thinking to keep it simple the first summer. She used prize intervals. Other library staff loved the program! Noelle gave a demo at a staff meeting so folks got comfortable with it. The look up function in the program was easy and very useful to all staff.

Joanna reported that Burlington had a different approach to using the program. Youth who read more than 24 hours could continue reporting online instead of paper! Out of 133 kids who selected this option, 73 achieved the 50 hour prize of having their name in the paper! The kids loved writing reviews. In approving the reviews, Joanna did connect the book to the online catalog. This is an option you can do when you are approving the review. Every 3 days or so, she had about 20 reviews to go through.

In Littleton, Diann reported use of the program by children, teens, and adults! There were 3 computers set up with the program. Staff did enter names of children. Diann is thinking that she could use it more with the older kids and wants to try that. The teen program was all online. The adult program had genres as a focus with raffles at the end. The email function did work! Reminders of events were sent out and attendees attributed it to receiving the email reminder.

Kathy in Methuen talked it up in the schools and provided a step by step guide. She offered it as an option. 180 did register online and read some 1500 books! She offers no prizes. She is already planning collaborating with the schools on a one log, one community program!

Cindy in Hamilton-Wenham reported that while it was not used much during the summer, it is already in use right now! See her review program for all ages! She turned logging and prize options off. Registration is bare minimum - she wanted this to be as easy as possible! There are 3 different age groups - children, teens, and adults. All have some active participation! She is currently figuring out a way the online program can help with a book program where the book will collect peoples’ names - not people collecting book names!

Ideas to Use it during the Year:

• Create a Reading Log program so parents / kids could track reading through the year. Information on this could be passed out along with a new library card
• Book Review club - kids can participate in an afterschool program whether they can actually attend or not
• One Town One Book use
• Children’s Book Week in November
• Library Festival - collaboration with school
• MA Children’s Book Award
• Creative Writing class
• Book discussion group
• Turn off TV week

Some comments: seemed to centralize program registration in one place rather than in several locations in the library. Good benefit to the staff.

Regarding the ReadsinMa web site, not used by the librarians present. It seemed to be two extra clicks which weren’t necessary. It was suggested that the web site could tune into all the national programs, ie, Book Week, Teen week, etc. Just hook into the ALA calendar!