Summer Reading Promotion at Schools

1. Summer Reading Promotion at Schools A compendium of ideas Compiled by Robyn E. Vittek, ASCPL With a little (lot of) help from her friends

2. Guest Announcer Go to the schools and do the morning announcements as a guest speaker, and promote the Summer Reading Program in a very animated way! -Tori Berger, Teen Librarian: Firestone Park Branch, ASCPL

3. Lunch-Time Passive (or not-so passive) Program Get permission to sit in the lunchroom during the middle school’s lunches.  I make a quick game like a passive program, guess the movie character, match celebrity names, etc. and then give everyone who completes it candy.  After this lured them in, I’d tell them about the program. -Tori Berger, Teen Librarian Firestone Park Branch, ASCPL

4. Do a Skit! For elementary visits, we almost always come up with a skit that two library staff can take on the road, with props and interactive parts that can be adjusted depending on the size of the group. Last year we used a “Cinderella around the world” concept seen on a listserv, which went over well all the way up through 6th grade. For example, the "fairy godmother" character in the Egyptian version is a falcon and in the Indonesian version is a crocodile.  I'll be telling the story, and when I get to that part, I'll say, "Now, you might think that a fairy godmother appeared to Cinderella, but not in OUR story.  Point to the magical creature you want to have appear to Cinderella."  My assistant and I will hold up the two poster-sized pictures from opposite ends of the presentation space.  The kids will point.  If the majority of kids point to the crocodile, I'll say, "YOU just moved Cinderella to EGYPT!"  I'll point my laser pointer at Egypt on the map I'm projecting on a screen, and continue with the story until the next choice. This idea has the advantages of being international, being participatory, and not involving kids shouting. -Becky O’Neil, Teen Librarian:Westerville Public Library

5. Make the Sacrifice How about the year I promoted summer reading at our high school by having a table in the cafeteria/commons, where I asked for votes:which color should I dye my hair at the end of summer if xx number of teens read at least xx number of books in summer reading? They got to choose pink, purple, blueor green. I had color-changing pencils to give away too, one for each vote. I had photo-shopped pictures of myself with the wild hair, and had them blown up kinda big as a display. It got a lot of attention! Sadly, when I went in to have my hair dyed purple at the end of the summer, they didn't bleach it first, so you could barely tell it was now eggplant. :-( I am a person who has NEVER BEFORE dyed her hair.Ever. So this was kind of a big deal. ;-) -Christina Getrost, Teen Librarian: Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library

6. Make Sure the Parents Know! We do the "Crabby Librarian" visits for kindergarten through fifth grade. Even the tweens totally get into it but they have been seeing this same looney character since they were in kindergarten. There are the YouTube videos now that complement the visits with this being the most recent one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rv5GLWsUow The thing about the YouTube videos is they are really for the kids to show their parents. We feel very strongly that if the parents aren't convinced that summer reading is a good thing, they won't drive their kids to the library. We are not a community that the kids can get to the library independently. So someone with a driver's license must bring them to the library. -Melanie A. Lyttle, Head of Public Services: Madison Public Library

7. Great Giveaway Idea! I use the free earbuds we get with each  new Playaway as giveaways whenever I am trying to draw high school kids to my booth or table or wherever I want to draw them. They make greatgiveaways. -Christina Getrost, Teen Librarian: Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library

8. Don’t Forget the Basics At my branch the children’s librarian and I go to the schools sometime in May (i.e., shortly before SRC starts) and do book talks for all the students (this really works especially well on the elementary school level). During the book talks we also briefly promote SRC (posters, flyers, sample prizes, etc). We’ve got bibliographies available for distribution on the day of the booktalks, and the children’s librarian sets up a display with multiple copies of her titles and keeps it up throughout the summer. the book talks at least expose [teens] to the fact that we do have some really good teen books and we still do have a SRC just for teens (a lot of them aren't aware of that--they think it stops once they leave 6th grade). -Benjamin Murphy, Teen Librarian Dayton Metro Library

9. What works for you? Discuss!