I Survived The Summer Reading Program

I have mixed feelings this year about the summer program went at my library.  It was great this year, but also very hard.  My father was really ill while I was planning, and then died several days before summer programming began.  It was hard for me to feel motivated in June, but after every program when I saw smiles on children and teens, I couldn't help but smile and be glad that I got up out of bed that morning.  We had several great programs that were popular.  The problem however majority of my children's programs had attendance limits, which effected my programming numbers.  To add to that some of the advertising for my library's programs did not mention that you needed to preregister or the age ranges.  Fortunately for only one program I had deny a couple of families; but I had several programs where the children were too young, but we made it work anyway.

Other than those hick-ups I do feel like I had learned from last year (Lessons Learned).

This year we registered families for programs with Google Drive Forms.  I have mixed reactions to using Forms.  I loved the fact that a staff member from any computer was able to register someone for a program.  However, not everyone at my library has a Google Account so I was not able to share access to the spreadsheet that listed everyone that registered.

I made more copies of the entry forms this year, but for the teens I couldn't print enough!  I am happy that teen participation increased this year.  I think part of it was due to the fact that teens could turn in an entry form just for coming to a library program.  However, we did have a lot of new tweens/teens that were participating and just reading.

 This year it seems that the Internet and word of mouth were my best friends when it came to program attendance.  I had a lot of parents spreading the word about my library programs through Facebook or just talking to other parents!

This year felt really hectic, because of what was going on with me personally.  Honestly I'm glad it's over, and I'm glad to get a break.  But I can't wait for whatever exciting new things I might plan for next summer.