{"id":12510,"date":"2016-02-09T11:06:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T16:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=12510"},"modified":"2016-02-09T11:06:45","modified_gmt":"2016-02-09T16:06:45","slug":"asking-the-hard-questions-src-tracking-and-registration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/asking-the-hard-questions-src-tracking-and-registration\/","title":{"rendered":"Asking the Hard Questions: SRC Tracking and Registration"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may remember my post from last month<\/a>\u00a0about my library tossing\u00a0the traditional approach to our Summer Reading Club. \u00a0We’ve had a few brainstorming sessions and it’s already feeling really different. \u00a0Our conversations about it\u00a0feel lighter, more exciting, more engaging. While we’re not total<\/strong> renegades, we have<\/em> decided to completely do away with registration for the reading portion. \u00a0And we’re still ramping up our programming, but we’re really looking at how and why to track participants’ reading progress. \u00a0For years, I’ve battled the dastardly demons\u00a0of registration and tracking.<\/p>\n

Should we register and track online? \u00a0Should we go old school and do paper logs? \u00a0Family registrations? \u00a0Should we track hours or titles? \u00a0Should we ask for addresses? \u00a0Should participants have to create usernames and passwords? \u00a0Should we offer incentives? \u00a0Cheap trinkets or gift certificates? \u00a0A grand prize?<\/p>\n

The registration part\u00a0is really\u00a0there for us the librarians and our obsession with numbers. And those numbers are usually needed to\u00a0satisfy state reports (and that’s a whole separate\u00a0blog post: What SRC Stats Do States Track and Why AND<\/strong> How Has That Data Gathering Shaped And Limited Our SRCs?)<\/em> \u00a0 State reports are\u00a0just not enough reason to keep doing it the same way every year. \u00a0Sorry Pennsylvania!<\/p>\n

I get that tracking can be beneficial and motivating. \u00a0And perhaps for many of our patrons it is. \u00a0But I (and many others) would argue that the model we’ve been using is\u00a0inherently designed for motivated readers. Would\u00a0those kids read without your program?\u00a0 I know as a kid, I was thrilled to be anywhere (my bedroom, the beach, the pool, the park) with a good book (and I was never part of a library program). \u00a0But there are plenty\u00a0of kids where that’s not the case. \u00a0So how can we support\u00a0(easily, simply and effectively) our dear motivated readers and<\/em> more importantly, how can we support the kids where books aren’t one of summertime’s allures? \u00a0How can we make summer super-simple and energizing, full of learning and brain-expansion? \u00a0Is the\u00a0current SRC structure reaching the kids who need us the most?<\/p>\n

These are the questions I ‘m putting front and center as we start planning our summer program.\u00a0I don’t know if our new approach will change the answers, but I think it’s worth mixing\u00a0it up to see what happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may remember my post from last month\u00a0about my library tossing\u00a0the traditional approach to our Summer Reading Club. \u00a0We’ve had a few brainstorming sessions and it’s already feeling really different. \u00a0Our conversations about it\u00a0feel lighter, more exciting, more engaging. While we’re not total renegades, we have decided to completely do away with registration for the reading portion. \u00a0And we’re still ramping up our programming, but we’re really looking at how and why to track participants’ reading progress. \u00a0For years, I’ve battled the dastardly demons\u00a0of registration and tracking. Should we register and track online? \u00a0Should we go old school and do paper logs? \u00a0Family registrations? \u00a0Should we track hours or titles? \u00a0Should we ask for addresses? \u00a0Should participants have to create usernames and passwords? \u00a0Should we offer incentives? \u00a0Cheap trinkets or gift certificates? \u00a0A grand prize? The registration part\u00a0is really\u00a0there for us the librarians and our obsession with numbers. And those…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"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":[99,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-kelley-beeson","category-summer-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12510","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\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}