Let's Hear it For Summer Reading!

I'm going to join the ranks of librarians who are blogging about their Summer Reading Programs. I'm very interested in how other libraries run their programs (read: nosy), and thought I'd share ours. This year's theme for the Texas Reading Program is Dig Up a Good Book.

We started registration for our Summer Reading Program on May 23rd, and so far we've had quite the turn out. In my old system, we kept track of everything on paper, but thankfully one of the the adult librarians here put together a Microsoft Access database for us to use to keep track of statistics and numbers. It has made quite a difference in how smooth the process is for everyone involved!

Mood Pencils

When the children register, they are given a reading log, a bookmark, and a cool mood pencil (they have been a serious selling point this year!). 

The reading log has a box for each week of the program, eight total. The kids keep track of how much they read per week. They can count it in books or hours, and once they pick, they have to stick with it throughout the summer. They bring their logs in the following week, and as long as they've read one book/hour, they get the weekly prize. Our prizes this year are dinosaur shaped cups, silly bands, growing bugs, and others.

For every ten books/hours they read, we give them a raffle ticket for the grand prize. This year it's a Nintendo DSi. I love watching their eyes light up when they hear what the prize is!

Everyone will start reading for the program on Sunday, and so will I. Thanks to Abby Librarian, I will be keeping my own log of books I read during the summer and displaying it for the kids to see.

Stay tuned for next week when we start our summer storytimes and programs!