Welcome to Friday Debate, a feature on cup of tea with that book, please, where every Friday a question will be posted that tantalize the brain and expands our horizons. For this week’s question:
Our summer reading program kicked off yesterday. Similar events have occurred in most public libraries across the country. Summer reading programs in libraries are ways for the public to participate in not only reading, but free programs and activities, all summer long.
As a librarian, I could honestly tell you that holding and running summer reading programs are a huge pain, so I am going to be a little bias towards the program. We are always told how it was a huge success it was in the end and how many people benefit from it. But honestly, I feel that the numbers don’t reflect the truth. I am not saying that people don’t care about it. I just thing the supposed interest from the public is over hyped and really doesn’t match the public’s excitement.
I never participated in one when I was young, so I really can’t speak from experience. But maybe some of you have, which leads me to ask these two question for this week’s debate:
Please post any comments you have below.
Discover more from cup of tea with that book, please
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
I also worked in a library that had both summer and winter reading programs. It seemed like an awful lot of effort (top pushing down) for minimal outcome. I think if there had been better incentives / prizes, people might stick with it, but they just didn’t. Patrons would come in on those first couple of days, rabid to sign up and get their booklets. But they didn’t REALLY care that much about it by the time August came around.
That is the same at the library I work at. We hand out free incentives and giveaways and they are excited at first but then as the summer progresses they start to care less.