We then changed this to walk-up during certain hours, with parents / teens filling out a short sheet at the table so staff could mark them as having picked up their book in the database.Īlthough 2020 summer reading required extra meetings and a lot of on-the-fly re-imaginings and plannings, I believe that everything worked out as well as possible given everything else going on. Initially, the book pick ups were by appointment. We purchased 10 book selections for middle school and 10 book selections for high school and created a list for finishers to pick their book from. We created Web pages where parents and / or teens could input their info when they finished summer reading and enter themselves as completed in the database. This proved to be fortuitous this year and made running summer reading that much easier when the pandemic hit. One of the things that we decided to eliminate was sign-ups, opting to instead just enter kids and teens in our database when they completed summer reading. There was a Youth Services committee formed last year to take a look at summer reading for kids and teens and recommend changes. Most importantly, we were fortunately able to keep summer reading going. I did the drawings every two weeks using a combination of Google spreadsheets and the a random number generator. We did not get as many reviews as we did during a normal summer, but I still had a good pool to draw from and I used some of the good quality reviews to create Bibliocommons booklists using the teens’ own words. Fortunately, we still had the reviews component on the Web site commented out bringing it back during the pandemic was just a matter of commenting it back in and then advertising. We had done this for years but decided to drop it about two years ago to encourage the in-person participation. Due to the reduced amount of programs this summer, I also opted to add a component where they could once again submit book reviews on the Web site and also be entered. During a normal summer, we enter teens in drawings for random gift cards when they attend programs. There were gift certificates for local pizza places for two of them as well as a book store gift card. Our monthly contests proved to be popular – we had submit a food photo, submit a photo reflecting the theme of “Alone,” and submit an illustrated Haiku. I’m pleased to report that the programs were more successful than flop as I look back at the event brochure and remember everything. Some of our more successful programs were doing a Zoom version of the card game “Superfight,” trivia for Percy Jackson / Harry Potter / Warriors / Myths using Kahoot (these were separate programs), Bullet Journaling 101 with a presenter, No bake / no cook snacks, and Kitchen challenge (where teens get to pick the ingredients). The virtual programming was a mixed bag of successes and flops, as you might expect. We did a combination of virtual programming, monthly contests, prize drawings, and book giveaways. This summer was an extremely scaled-down version of the library’s normal Teen Summer Reading program. IAN DUNCANSON AT BEAVERTON PUBLIC LIBRARY If you have any SRP-related questions or suggestions, you can reach out to us, Lisa Elliott (Tigard Public Library) at lisae at and Dena Chaffin (Silver Falls Library) at dena.chaffin at. Please take a look and add your thoughts: Look for Greta Bergquist’s invitation for the meeting on Wednesday, November 3, when we’ll be focusing on debriefing about last year’s program and looking ahead to what’s next! In the meantime, we’ve created a Jamboard to get the conversation started. If you’re not already registered for those lists, you can do so here. The Zoom links for the office hours will come through both the OYAN and Kids-lib listservs. We’ll be meeting monthly, alternating the first Wednesdays and Tuesdays of every month at 1:00. Anyway, it’s fun! Summer Reading is fun, and that’s why we’re excited to launch our monthly, SRP-focused office hours. (See, this is the kind of thing that makes people who work in normal fields think we’re weird.) For many of us, our professional lives revolve around a few hectic, sunny weeks when we blow most of our budgets and energy reserves in an effort to keep young brains from atrophying. It’s October, so naturally it’s time to start thinking about 2022’s Summer Reading Program. Alternating the first Wednesday and Tuesday of every month at 1:00 PM
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