ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The staff at Liberal Memorial Library has been keeping extremely busy this summer with its summer reading program activities and events, and the program officially wrapped up last week.
And as the library’s staff tells it, everything ended up very positively.
“I felt like everything went awesome, we had a great summer reading program this year,” Liberal Memorial Library Assistant Director Shannon Moore said. “We had so many different entertainers, way more than we had last year, and that included some who have performed here before and some who haven't performed here before, so it was great having that mix.”
“I feel like we had a pretty amazing year in terms of summer reading. I think each year continues to build and build on itself,” Liberal Memorial Library Director Royce Kitts added. “A particular centerpiece for this year's program was the idea of providing more entertainment options than in the past, so we brought in more entertainers for this year with the jugglers and magicians and storytellers and everyone else we had in. One of the other great aspects of our summer reading program is families never have to worry about any fees or any of that – if there's a program going on, we'll be sure and find a seat for you. Something else that really stood out to me for this year was the number of people who came to all the different programs – we typically have good attendance for what we do here, but this year was just awesome in that regard. When I started here about 10 years ago, if we could get, say, 72 people into the library for an event, we thought that was a big success, and now we're at the point where if 72 people show up, we're all thinking 'ONLY 72 people came?' We've really exceeded all of our expectations for this year with the summer reading program, and we're already getting messages from entertainers and performers about coming and being part of our summer reading fun for next year, which is amazing.”
“From the children's side of everything, and with this being my first year, I thought everything went really well,” Liberal Memorial Library Children’s Librarian Sara Munn said. “We had a lot of children sign up and finish summer reading, and we had a great a great turnout for the finale party. I've been getting to know the children who come into the library a lot more and seeing build those connections, and it's been great.”
The trio agreed this year saw a lot of participation and turnout for the various activities and events that took place.
“Something we always recognize with summer reading is how especially adults and teenagers live such busy lives, and we know it can be difficult for them to finish these types of programs we do, so something we're always thankful for is the number of people who are willing to take part in the overall adventure of summer reading,” Kitts said. “We know on our kickoff day, we had a lot of people come through the library, and that included people who have participated in summer reading in the past along with several new faces, which is great. It's always great seeing everyone sign up, whether it's a younger child, a teenager or a new adult in town, and it's great seeing them as they go through the program and talk about the different performers and maybe what they've read throughout the summer. Something else I was really excited about for this year was coordinating with USD 480, who gave us a large amount of money at the beginning of the summer, and that really helped us with some things. And I've mentioned this before, but when children participate in summer reading, they're way more ready to go back to school than their peers who maybe didn't do as much reading, because they kept their mind fresh and open and kept active. I measure our summer reading program success not just by the number of people who complete their reading logs, but by the number of people who come to our events and programs and seeing the faces of everyone who comes in. My favorite part of the summer is seeing the children come in who normally just come in after school, the summer is when they're here all day, so there's a lot of chances for interaction and asking what they're reading and how they're doing. One of the things I was really excited about for this year was the number of tweens who participated in summer reading and the number of families who came in and played games and read together, which was also great to see.”
“We also want to give a big thank you to the community of Liberal, because they're very generous,” Moore said. “We got so many donations from so many different businesses, and that let us give out some great prizes, which was really exciting. As far as the actual numbers, I feel like our numbers keep growing every year, and almost all of our programs were just about packed, which was just amazing to see. My favorite part was seeing more adults, we had a lot more adults participating in the activities for this year, so that was good to see. We also had a lot of people come in and tell us 'I didn't know you did X too!'”
“And in addition to the children who come in to use the computers and play some of those games, I've had children come up and ask 'Will you color with me?' So I set up a special little area in the children's area for coloring, and I currently have my desk wrapped in coloring projects from children who wanted to give me a picture, and it's been great interacting with those children like that,” Munn added. “And this was my first summer here, so I enjoyed getting to be part of the glow-in-the-dark Bingo, which ended up having a really good turnout.”
And while this year’s program just wrapped up, there are already ideas being shared for next year’s summer reading program fun.
“Something that was really successful for this year was having a performer at our kickoff party, everyone really enjoyed that – in the past, we've saved that for the finale party, so we're thinking for next year, we have an opening performer and then a finale performer,” Kitts said. “We really want to make June all about summer reading because what we noticed for this year is we had great participation in June, but there seemed to be a little fatigue setting in when July rolled around both here in the library and among the community because there was just a lot that went on, so we'll make some adjustments in that regard. There are a bunch of other ideas being suggested for next year, which we're completely open to, but since we did JUST wrap up this year's program, we'll wait a little bit before starting any official planning.”
“We want summer reading to be bigger and better. We want to have more programs here at the library and figure out what we can do for each level,” Moore added.
Overall, the staff agreed, this year’s summer reading ended on a very positive note.
“The library enjoys summer reading so much, it's a great time of connection with the community, and it's a great way to get people into the library so they can check out our materials and expand their minds,” Kitts said. “I also want to give a special shoutout to Connie Vogts, the USD 480 Food Services director, for making the library a summer lunch destination for children in the community because while we want to feed children's minds, she's feeding them physically, so it's a great partnership, and the children are extremely appreciative.”
“I also want to thank the people of Liberal for everything they did to help us make this year's summer reading program so much fun and so successful,” Moore added. “Keep an eye out for next summer, because I’m sure we’ll have something absolutely spectacular.”
