{"id":11289,"date":"2015-08-04T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T04:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=11289"},"modified":"2015-07-30T21:45:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T01:45:00","slug":"on-debriefing-the-summer-reading-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/on-debriefing-the-summer-reading-club\/","title":{"rendered":"On Debriefing the Summer Reading Club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe you are lucky like me and your Summer Reading Club is finished or winding down, or maybe you still have some weeks to go. Either way, let&#8217;s talk about debriefing after the Summer Reading Club is over.<\/p>\n<p>I always dedicate our early August\/late July department meeting to discussing the Summer Reading Club. We talk about what worked and what didn&#8217;t. We make notes for what we should change or keep for next year. We go ahead and pencil in\u00a0dates so that we&#8217;re all clear about our schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some things we did this summer that we had discussed last summer:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11296\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11296\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cart.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11296\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cart-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photo by Abby Johnson\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cart-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Cart.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11296\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Abby Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our prize cart was decorated and we always pushed it out on one side of our desk (the side without shelving carts) because last year we had some confusion about which books were prize books. This worked really well for us this summer and having a special, decorated cart got the kids even more excited about choosing a free book.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, we had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/do-drop-in\/\">a huge issue with registration for programs<\/a>. We decided to try out having NO REGISTERED PROGRAMS this summer and it went smashingly. The only programs we had capacity issues with were our large performers where we give out tickets to ensure we&#8217;re staying within the fire code. And it was amazing the amount of work it saved us in not having to sign up kids for all those programs. That was a benefit we hadn&#8217;t even really considered, but it was huge.<\/p>\n<p>And here are some things we discussed this year and that you should consider as you&#8217;re winding down your program and making notes for next year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is the registration and\/or logging process easy for patrons and staff? If not, how can we make it easier?<\/li>\n<li>Do the prizes given out encourage kids to read and are they easy for staff to manage?<\/li>\n<li>How was your program attendance? If it was low, how could you bolster it? If it was unmanageable, how can you make it easier for staff to handle?<\/li>\n<li>What great programs did you offer that you might like to repeat? What programs would be good to repeat with some changes?<\/li>\n<li>How did you feel at the end of the summer? If you felt like you wanted to die, what made the summer so hard? Is there anything you can change to make it easier?<\/li>\n<li>How did your Summer Reading Club affect other departments? Is there anything you can change to make it easier for Circulation, Pages, IT, Marketing, etc.?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do you meet to debrief about the Summer Reading Club? What items do you make sure to discuss?<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Abby Johnson, Youth Services Manager<br \/>\nNew Albany-Floyd County Public Library<br \/>\nNew Albany, IN<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.abbythelibrarian.com\">http:\/\/www.abbythelibrarian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe you are lucky like me and your Summer Reading Club is finished or winding down, or maybe you still have some weeks to go. Either way, let&#8217;s talk about debriefing after the Summer Reading Club is over. I always dedicate our early August\/late July department meeting to discussing the Summer Reading Club. We talk about what worked and what didn&#8217;t. We make notes for what we should change or keep for next year. We go ahead and pencil in\u00a0dates so that we&#8217;re all clear about our schedule. Here are some things we did this summer that we had discussed last summer: Our prize cart was decorated and we always pushed it out on one side of our desk (the side without shelving carts) because last year we had some confusion about which books were prize books. This worked really well for us this summer and having a special, decorated&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[101,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alsc-blogger-abby-johnson","category-summer-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}