Individual vs. Statewide Summer Reading

Why can’t libraries run their own individual summer reading programs (SRP)?  Most library systems today buy into a single state-wide SRP.  This ensures that patrons who visit libraries throughout the entire state get no individual taste of each individual branch or system they visit.  Don’t we want to be original, to create a buzz about our awesome summer-reading-selves?

This year (2013) the California Library Association (CLA) was unable to gather the funds needed to participate with the international Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) as they have in the past.  For those of us who don’t know, “CSLP is a consortium of states working together to provide high-quality summer reading program materials for children at the lowest cost possible for their public libraries.”  The group started in 1987.

Our golden state has opted to partner with Illinois Reading Enrichment and Development (iREAD) program instead.  This group began in the fall of 1981.  Note: I’m still confused about how or why there are two separate SRP collaboration projects.  Maybe later I’ll investigate.  Maybe there are even more of these types of groups.  I’m also confused by the fact that iRead has an entirely separate theme for California’s reading program.  That’s right.  All other libraries get to participate in a summer reading program theme of “Have Book Will Travel!” – graphics by the Anna Dewdney (author/illustrator of Llama, Llama, Red Pajama).  California’s SRP theme, on the other hand, is “Reading is So Delicious.”

Anywho, CLA says that the revenue made from all the purchases made by California libraries to the iRead Store for SRP prizes will “be used to continue providing libraries with high-quality statewide summer reading resources that are tailored to our state.”  However, most of the themed incentive prizes at the iRead Store are hardly what readers get enthused about, at least the ones for the “Reading is So Delicious” theme.  It is doubtful that CA libraries will be purchasing enough of these prizes to fund many future SRPs.  (See below.)  :-{

From iRead store

Like most Youth Librarians, I appreciate the “canned” 6-inch notebook filled with SRP activities, graphics, and other resources.  (The 2013 notebook costs $25.)  At the same time, experience has taught me that I will ever have time to read and then actually DO much of the SRP stuff.  Here’s something else to consider.  The iRead program says one of the reasons they launched their collaboration efforts was because:

The technology of the early 1980s made it difficult for libraries to print their own materials. To put this into perspective, Kinko’s only had seventy-two stores in the U.S. in 1979. IBM launched its first ever personal computer utilizing Microsoft’s DOS operating system in 1981. The print shops in the various systems around the state were filled with electric typewriters, early word processors, and printing presses. Mass production of materials was costly and time-consuming.

Well, there’s no longer a printing problem.  Librarians are eager and willing to share tips and secrets with colleagues at no charge.  We can access and exchange amazing ideas for free using this thing called the internet.  We can buy cheap prizes at .99 cent stores.  These prizes may or may not support our SRP theme, but they might have a better chance at getting kids excited about reading.