This year's Summer Reading Program is turning out to be a big, popular success. Last year's experiment in online-only registration kinda fizzled, but this summer, from the beginning, the enthusiasm of previous years is back in full force -- and then some.
Some possible reasons for the upsurge:
- Paper sign-up sheets and reading logs. This option hit people's happy buttons in several ways. The forms are simple -- just put pen to paper and write, no signing in, no passwords, no clicking around. They work even for people who are generally uncomfortable with computers, and with their colorful format they seem less like a form-filling chore (at one time doing it online might have seemed like play, but now there are too many online business forms for that view). And then there is the ever-important aspect of human contact. A human librarian takes your filled-in list of books -- an acknowledgement of your achievement -- maybe even notices the titles you've read, and hands you your prize. For a moment, the reader is center stage.
- Pre-registration. Especially useful in a large city with more than one school district, and therefore more than one ending date for the school year. There was a bit of confusion because this just applied to the online registration option, with the program "officially" beginning later, but it did ease the hectic crowding of the opening day.
- Having the adult program concurrent with the children's and teens'. This proved to be a real boost for the Adult Reading Program, usually held in midwinter. It benefited from the high publicity of the kids' programs, and in many families summer reading became a multi-generational activity.
