The Garland County Library continued to grow its Summer Reading Program this summer with more than 190 programs during an eight-week period for more than 8,160 attendees.
The number of programs offered surges in the summer as the library is able to schedule events throughout the day for a variety of target readers. The library averages about 50-60 programs per month the rest of the year.
A total of 191 summer reading programs were hosted by the library between June 6 and July 28. A similar total of 194 programs was offered in the summer of 2016, but attendance increased by more than 1,400 this year.
Cori Williams, programming librarian, credited school partnerships for gains made in attendance to children's programs. She said the children's library staff increased their outreach over the last year and readers received extra incentives from their schools.
"It is 100 percent an all hands-on-deck thing," said Erin Baber, public relations coordinator. "Even though (Williams) chooses the programs, you have to have people run them. It is completely a group effort."
Baber said sponsorships from local businesses and funding through the Walmart Foundation's Community Grant Program allowed the library to purchase more prizes. The library held a special party and provided prizes and trophies for more than 100 children who read 100 hours or more during the Summer Reading Program.
"It is becoming easier to log your hours since you can do everything digitally now," Baber said. "You do not ever even have to come in here to get a library card or borrow a book or log your hours."
Children's attendance increased from 6,764 in 2016 to 8,167 this summer for programs developed around the theme, "Build a Better World." The Collaborative Summer Library Program crafts a theme each summer "to provide high-quality summer reading program materials for children, teens and adults at the lowest cost possible for their public libraries."
The CSLP is a consortium of states that work together and combine resources. The consortium now includes representation from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, and the Mariana Islands. All public libraries in member states are included in the membership.
Only a dozen states were involved with the consortium before Arkansas joined in 2002. Texas was the last state to join in 2012. The most recent members are Guam, which joined in 2015, and Bermuda, which joined in 2016.
Participants have access to the same artwork, incentives, publicity materials, programming and promotional items. State and local libraries are encouraged to tailor their own materials and programs based on the overall theme.
The consortium focused on sports, wellness and fitness in 2016 with themes of "On Your Mark, Get Set, READ!" and "Get in the Game," for teenagers and "Exercise Your Mind" for adults. Superheroes were the focus in 2015 with themes of "Every Hero Has a Story" and "Unmask!" for teens and "Escape the Ordinary" for adults.
Attendance decreased this summer for teen and adult programs, but the number of books read by adults increased from 685 to 816 and the number of teens registered at the library increased from 91 to 129. The number of children registered increased from 1,479 to 1,509.
Reading or listening to any type of books or comic books on any type of platform or device was able to count toward each participant's numbers.
"We just want them to read," Williams said.
"Or be read to," Baber said. "Even young, young kids could participate if their parents kept up with how much they read to them."
Children readers logged 33,033 hours, up from 32,634 in 2016, and 106 read more than 100 hours. The library tracked its teen readers for the first time this summer. Teen participants read for 4,876 hours and 20 read at least 100 hours.
"Parents bring their kids in, the kids hit their teenage years and then kind of lose interest in the library," Baber said. "They are gone for a while, they end up having kids and come back to the library."
"As an adult services person, it is really hard to get the 20- to 30-somethings," Williams said. "They are a hard range to hit, because they are busy. They are working and going to school and really they start coming back when they have kids. Then, they go to kids programs."
The library still has success attracting users with 40,122 physical visits in June, almost 13,000 virtual visits and a total circulation of 71,583. More than 500 guests attended the library's Summer Reading Program kickoff party.
Physical visits increased to 40,732 in July. Garland County residents make up more than 91 percent of the library's users. Attendance includes Saline County residents, online users and guests from outside of Garland and Saline counties.
The Garland County Library is the third-most active in the state, behind only the Central Arkansas Library System and the Fayetteville Public Library. The library is also active on social media, which allows families to offer positive feedback and share the benefits of reading programs.
"That is one way we can gauge our effectiveness," Baber said. "It is not just about the numbers on paper. It is about experiences."
The CSLP will focus on music in 2018 with the theme of "Libraries Rock." The theme for 2019 will focus on space to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first man on the moon.
"With such a good summer this year, we definitely have something to strive for next year," Baber said.
"We are always hoping each year will be bigger," Williams said. "It usually is. This year has been really big. Next year, we will hope for at least that number or more."
Local on 08/11/2017