As the summer reading club season comes to a close I marvel at the variety of programs my colleagues have developed to motivate patrons to read and visit the library. Our library created a multi-faceted program that provided something for every patron who came to visit the library over the summer. And, we have always offered full reading club participation on our bookmobile.
But what of those members of the community who could not access our library? How could we reach them?
Our community has over 45 home daycare, early childhood centers and preschools. Mindful of the reality that most of these facilities could not bring their children to us, we thought we would bring the club to them.
Our goal was to design a simple program that would include this special population in our summer reading club. A reading club outpost was created to encourage and applaud summer learning and play-based activities while adding a reading component to the children’s day. Fourteen home daycare and child care centers with 575 kids participated in the program. Each classroom received a poster to track their progress, a teacher letter, family letters, a starter kit with five free books for the classroom and a book bag containing curated age-appropriate materials checked out from the library. We started in June and went back in mid-July to switch out the book bag with new materials and check on their progress. In August we returned to celebrate their achievements with a book, a dance party and a special VIP guest (Curious George), perfect for our Camp Curiosity-themed summer reading program.
Please share how you reached the special populations in your community this summer.