Summer 2015

Summer Reading Program - a ritual so ingrained in our staff member minds that it's jarring when you run in to people who don't know what it is or how to participate in it. This was the case with our State Governor a few years back when he created a program for children to continue to read throughout the summer. Apparently, no one on his staff told him that practically every public library in the nation, let alone Kansas, has a summer reading program.

Our theme this year was "Every Hero Has a Story", and we had visits by heros ranging from firemen and policemen to the Batman!

This year, Hutchinson Public Library had:

1037 children sign up for the program with 601 reading 10 books/10 hours or more! That means in a period of about 10 weeks, over 6,000 books were read!

103 young adults signed up with 65 turning in 5 or more completion forms! There were a grand total of 1035 completion forms turned in (these represent either 1 hour of reading or 1 book read)

 More than 550 children came to the Summer Reading kick-off Celebration, 1136 children attended summer story times, 238 people participated in family time programs, and 395 children came to July craft days.

Summer Reading - Hutchinson Digs It

The Summer Reading Programs are finished, there's nothing left but sweeping up and clearing the bats out of the Children's Department (drop by to see what I'm talking about!)

The great news is that HPL patrons are avid readers - voracious even! Over the past 3 years, we have concentrated on increasing the number of children who finish the reading program. We are definitely headed toward our goal of having nearly every child complete the 10-books-or-10-hours requirement. Here's what happened this year:

• 1,092 - Number of children registered for the program
• 581 - Number of children who turned in completed reading logs
• 1,460 - Number of children attending summer story times
• 440 - Number of children attending the 4 craft days (average 110 per event)
• 120 - Number of Young Adults "Questing for Read-a-lot"

What can we take from this? The main thing is that children in Hutchinson and Reno County read well over 5,810 books or hours during June and July. I think that's pretty fantastic! We've achieved an increase in completion rates of more than 6% over last year - that's also pretty fantastic.

Children need to read - we need to make sure they learn to love reading. It helps in every aspect of their educational lives and provides an avenue to relaxation that can be a life-long pursuit. The fact of the matter is that modern technology is changing the way we learn and the unknown is whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Numerous studies and books have been conducted and written on the effects of the Internet on our attention spans (overview article here). It is important, in my opinion, to re-enforce deep, critical thinking skills and reading whole books can help this.

2013 Summer Celebration Awesomeness!

I am still recovering from being one of the moles in the Whack-a-Mole game, but I can't believe how many people turned out for the big kick-off to our Summer Reading Program this past Friday (June 7)!

Congratulations to our fantastic Hutchinson Public Library staff for their dedication and effort in pulling this off! If you were there, you saw staff from all departments pitching in to help for the morning. And, of course, we had massive support from a small army of volunteers and could never have run all the games and programs without them. Thank you!

We easily surpassed last years' numbers as far as I could tell, there was a non-stop line at our booth. We will have pictures of the event posted on the library's Facebook page and I'll post some here soon.

In the meantime, "Dig in to Reading", pick up a "Groundbreaking Read", or join the "Quest for Readalot" at the Hutchinson Public Library this summer. These are the reading programs for children, adults, and young adults respectively. There's fun and rewards to go along with each and each one gives you the excitement of discovering new worlds through reading!

Summer Reading 2013

Spring has sprung here in Hutchinson and though it seems far away at the moment, the end of school is just around the corner. One of the most important things parents can do for their children during the long summer break is to get them involved in reading. When it's too hot to play out side or some downtime is needed, reading will keep their vocabulary skills honed and their minds sharp heading into the next school year.

Here at the Hutchinson Public Library, we will be digging into reading all summer long! With story time programs for pre-k and elementary-aged children and reading programs for children, young adults AND adults, it shouldn't be hard to keep everyone reading. The articles I've linked above point out the problems and offer many solutions. The main idea though, is that as long as your child remains engaged with books and learning during the summer, losses to grade-level skills will be minimized or eliminated.

Our programs are free to the public, our library cards are free with proof of address, and our services, including a huge array of children's and young adult programming, are too many to list here.

Success! Many Younglings are on the Jedi Path

We had a great turn-out for the first ever Star Wars Reads Day this past Saturday, October 6th.  Somewhere between 55 and 60 younglings from the local systems converged on a Jedi training center here at the Hutchinson Public Library.  They practiced channeling the force using concentration and a steady hand.  After constructing their light sabers, they honed their skills as fledgling Jedi!

There were pictures with Jabba the Hut (only 1,000 Galactic credits per shot) and with a land speeder.  The day wouldn't have been complete without a selection of Star Wars books and videos to check out and wonderful refreshments including "Yoda Juice".  sounded dicey to me, but the younglings loved it!

Special thanks to the wonderful and talented Children's Department staff and to all the volunteers who helped make the program a success.

Phase 1 and an Alien Invasion!

The first phase of our great book shift is progressing.  This is what the second floor looks like as of this morning:

From the Kansas Room door

3 rows of stacks up, ready to assemble the 4th

Down stairs in the Children's Department, preparations for Star Wars Reads Day are nearly complete.  I think that it will be a lot of fun!  Luke's speeder is nearly complete and Jabba is making a killing charging 1,000 credits per picture!

Our program starts at 2pm on the 6th (Saturday).

This photographer is my kind of scum - fearless and inventive!

..."but I was going in to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!"

Star Wars Reads Day pt. 2

Want to practice your Huttese?  If you are elementary school age and like Star Wars, come read a story to Jabba the Hutt on October 6th and take advantage of an opportunity to practice Jedi skills.  Here is Jabba preparing to receive visitors from all over the Outer Rim territories:

Bring me Solo and the Wookie

You may have been a good smuggler [Solo], but now you're Bantha fodder.

Star Wars Reads Day is October 6th.  The program at the Hutchinson Public Library will start at 2pm and run through 4pm.  There will be activities in the Children's Story time room (first floor) and in the Auditorium (second floor).  Call (620)663-5441 x 145 or visit www.hutchpl.org for more information.

Summer Reading Success!

At the Hutchinson Public Library, this year’s Dream Big, READ! children’s summer reading program ended on August 4, with a grand total of 1,147 children and young adults enrolled. Of those signed up, 703 completed the program requirements by reading 10 books, spending at least 10 hours reading, or a combination of both. Children who finished the program earned prizes for their efforts, but the best reward was maintaining reading skills, and enjoying books during summer vacation.

Summer reading isn’t limited to children and teens either. One-hundred-two adults 18 and older signed up for the Between the Covers summer reading program. There weren’t any prizes awarded for reading a certain number of books, but more than 300 book ratings and reviews were submitted in June and July. Ratings slips were entered into a weekly drawing for a chance to win prizes. The reviews were posted on the library web site and used to create a reader’s choice book shelf.

Reading wasn't the only thing going on this summer here either.  Our 32 story time programs were attended by 1,555 children.  That's nearly 50 per program!  Our evening family-time programs went over nearly as well with an average of 40 per night.  It's no wonder that our Children's Department staff look so tired - that's a lot of puppet plays and singing and crafts.

Summer reading for children has been happening at the Hutchinson Public Library for more than 60 years. The program has been responsible for check out of millions of books, thousands of story times, close to 30 years of summer celebrations, and tons of paper, crayons and glue used for craft classes. We hope this effort has accomplished the same goal as Read Kansas Read: to inspire a love of reading for life, and to keep the children of Hutchinson and Reno County reading throughout the summer so they are ready to start school each fall.

Summer Reading 2012

We are into the heart of our annual Summer Reading Program.  This year, all THREE of them are going strong!  Yes, we do have 3 programs running simultaneously.

HPL website

For children, we have the "Dream Big, READ!" program.  This involves preschool through elementary age children in a variety of activities - story times, craft days, family time programs, and of course, reading.  Here's how it works:

• Parents bring their children into the library to register.  The children receive a reading log.
• Children who are registered for the program read 10 books (or have 10 books read to them) OR read for 10 hours between May 25th and August 4th.
• Those children completing the requirements can bring their reading log in to us and receive a prize!
• Regardless of reading program participation, parents can bring their children to one, some, or all of the free programs!

So far this year we have 773 children signed up!  That means if all of them were to complete the program they would read 7,773 book this summer - talk about warding off the "summer slide"!

image credit: Clker

For young adults (ages 12-17), we have a separate reading program.  The program theme this year, chosen by our Young Adult Advisory Board, is "I See Dead People...READING".  Capitalizing on the recent flood of vampire / zombie / other undead-themed books current to YA fiction, it reflects what are by far the most popular YA fiction subjects.  The young adult program works a little differently.  Here's what to do:

• Young Adults can come in and sign up.
• The YA reads.
• For each book completed, the YA is eligible to receive a prize.
• At the end of the summer, we'll have a party to celebrate their achievements!

So far this year, we have 121 young adults signed up which is a big increase for us compared to this time last year.

HPL website

Finally, for adults we have the 'Between the Covers" reading program.  Anyone 18 and up can register for this activity.  As part of the adult reading program, we have a weekly give-away drawing and weekly contests on Facebook.  This program works a little more like the YA program.  Here's what to do:

• Register at either circulation desk (Children's entrance or Main Street entrance)
• For each book read, fill out a rating and review slip (a brief review is wonderful)!
• Turn in the slip for a chance to win a free book in our weekly drawings.
• See your reviews and what other HPL patrons are reading HERE on our website (there are already over 90 rated and/or reviewed books posted!)

The program for adults this year has 82 participants as of June 15th - I am fairly sure our strongest early June total yet.

While some folks in high places might be worried that children aren't reading enough in the summer, I am not worried.  Last year we estimated that over 4,500 books were read during our summer programs.  I think it would be fantastic to break the 5,000-books-read mark.  Want to help us break that barrier, but don't know what to read?  Go HERE and sign up for our Wowbrary! weekly email newsletter and see all the new items we added to the collection during the previous week.  I'm pretty sure you'll find something that strikes your fancy!

Summer Celebration 2012

We dreamed it and it happened!  Friday was the big kick-off for our "Dream Big, Read!" summer reading program and it seemed to be a great success.  The crowd started gathering right at 9am this year and the weather was just beautiful.

Nice shot!

Listening for instructions

We had a great group of volunteers helping us this year!  They ranged from early teen to senior citizen and many of them had helped us in years past.  Thank you!  Thank you!  And once again, our staff worked extra hard to pull all this off - thank you VERY much!  (Especially the Summer Celebration planning group and the Children's Department Staff.)

Unfortunately, I didn't get inside to take pictures this year as I was an "engine" for the bed races for most of the morning.  Did I mention that the weather was nice?  Well, thank goodness it was cool-ish because if it had been hot like last year there might have been fatalities!


I'll add a few more shots from my camera and I'll try to update as more pictures become available from other cameras.

Moon Rock Toss

Yippee - the Moon Walk!

A line for rocket target shooting

Start of summer update

A guitar-playing weasel?  Why not!

Lots of interesting things going on here at HPL to start off the summer.

First, there are our summer reading programs for children, young adults and adults.  We have fun activities planned starting with our huge summer kick-off celebration scheduled for next Friday (June 8) from 9:30 am through 11 am.  There will be games, prizes, treats, and all sorts of fun!  If you click the image to the left, you can find more information about the celebration and the summer reading programs at the library's website.

Second, our coffee bar is opening back up!  Bookworm Brew will be open for business in the next week here in the Hutchinson Public Library.  Stop in and give it a try!

Third, we're getting ramped up to start moving things around.  What?  Moving things around?  In a library?  Yes.  We're going to move the remaining part of the adult non-fiction collection to the second floor in order to arrange the collection more logically AND to make a little space available on the first floor for an interesting project.  We are re-imagining the library technology center.  It will no longer be just a room full of Internet computers.  We envision a place where citizens can come and get technology advice and assistance with their gadgets and electronics and how they work with services the library offers.  It will be a place where there are comfortable places to sit and use our WiFi, borrow our gadgets, or use a traditional desktop computer just like we have now.  There will be printing services and other traditional offerings as well.  Most importantly though, we will help our patrons better understand their tools and our services.

Book Sales Abound

I was reading an article just now about surprisingly strong book sales around the country this holiday season.  The NY Times article quotes several book sellers expressing the wish that both print and ebook formats for books could coexist.  Personally, I think that they can, but only time will tell at this point.

Here at HPL we have 2 sales in December.  One, a Scholastic Book Fair which has just ended netted over $1,000 in credit with Scholastic for books for the Children's Department!  A second sale, which continues until December 23, is a special in-store sale in the Freindshop.  The Friends have 2 entire walls of their store at half-price.  Quite a bargain especially if you have a particularly voracious reader to buy for this year.

Summer Celebration!

We had our kick-off for the "One World, Many Stories" summer reading program Friday morning from 9-11:30am.  While it was hot, it wasn't too windy.  I was responsible for the giant tic-tac-toe game and gave away a few over 200 books to players.  Quite a fun morning and it feels good to know that those 200+ kids each have at least one book to call their own.

Some people don't like bagpipes, but the pipers we had this morning were awesome!  I climb stairs (for exercise) sometimes and often listen to pipe and drum marches.  That aside, these gentlemen from McPherson were very enjoyable.

There was a story teller from Lindsburg whose tales were both entertaining and educational.  She talked about life as a plains settler.  My kids had a tough time coming up with answers to challenges she posed.  Those early settlers had to make many hard decisions about the simplest of issues - such as, "If you had to choose just one thing, what would you bring with you in the wagon on the way to your new home?"  This was a revelation to our kids who are used to bringing all sorts of toys and books on car trips.  They had a hard time coming up with what would be most important to them to bring along.

We now have over 500 young people signed up for the reading program along with more than 70 in the young adult program.  If all of those who signed up actually finish the program that would mean nearly 6000 books will be read over the summer!

Hooray! It's almost here!

June 3 - THIS FRIDAY - is the HPL Summer Celebration.  Our big kick-off for the summer reading program for children.  Sign up and get your passport for "One World, Many Stories".  For each book completed or for each hour of reading, registered children get a stamp in their passport.  Collect 10 stamps and receive a prize.  This program allows children to travel around the world or even into another world through reading.  There are programs available for all age groups, including adults!

2011 Summer Reading at HPL

Sign-up for our Summer Reading Program begins May 27th!  It is hard to believe that we're already on the cusp of another hectic summer season.  I am really excited about the programs this year.  We have a few interesting twists on the usual read-something-get-a-reward format for these kinds of events.  One of those is a weekly trivia contest on we will be conducting on Facebook.  Friend HPL and then check in each week starting June 6 for a new question.  The winner will receive a tasty treat from the Bru Crue Coffee Bar!

The YA (young adult) summer reading theme is "Greek to me".  Sign up for this program also begins on May 27th.  All young adults from ages 12-17 are eligible to participate in the YA activities and reading program.  There will be prizes and fun throughout June and July!

Of course, the summer would not be complete without a summer reading program designed for children.  This year's theme is "One World, Many Stories".  Children can sign up for their passport on May 27th with the goal of reading 10 books or for 10 hours.  After each book, the child will receive a stamp in her or his passport.  When the goal is reached, the child can redeem the passport for a prize.

Finally, don't miss the big kick-off Summer Celebration on June 3rd from 9-11:30am.  There will be games, food, and all sorts of fun celebrating our one world and our many stories.

Read to Rover - Get a Reward!

We're trying something new to go along with our long-standing monthly Read to Rover program.  Starting this month, we will hand out punch cards to children who participate.  If a child brings the card to 3 sessions of Read to Rover, he or she will receive a FREE book!

Read to Rover is held on the 2nd Thursday of each month.  So the next session will be May 12th.  We start at 6 pm, so that there is plenty of time to read.

A little background for those of you who might not be familiar with this concept:  "Reading With Rover" or "Read to Rover" is a program that has been used in schools and libraries all across the country to help foster literacy skill and reading confidence in children.  The dogs used in the programs are the perfect audience for children who may have difficulty reading or who find it intimidating to read to people.  Therapy dogs are patient and very good at listening and seem to get as much out of being read to as the children.  No matter the child's skill level though, it's fun to read a story and spend some quality time with a new furry friend.  Here are some sites for programs around the nation - links here and here.

If you have children who would like to participate - please come and join us!

Early Literacy Stations are in!

These are the new computers in the children's computer area.  The name may not be flashy, but the computers themselves are pretty cool.  They have touchscreens for easy use by younger computer users and are loaded with a huge number of children's software titles that are BOTH fun and educational.  There are several categories for the programs - science, math, reading, etc.  The full title list is here.

Please come in and let your child give them a try!

Here are a couple of pictures:

Colorful, if nothing else!

11 Science Titles

New computers, spaces, and other cool stuff

I am starting to get more excited about the Quiet Reading Room - it is nearly done!  In fact, the space itself is ready for the new furniture.  If you go in there right now and look around a bit, you will see two SAMPLE chairs.  Each is customizable size- and softness-wise.  Please sit down in one and tell me what you think.  They are samples of these:

Bear in mind that we can get the"Reflect" (the chair with arms) with a wider seat, a softer cushion, a higher back and a tablet arm.  Also, we can get the "Cavetto" (the chair on the right) with a firmer seat.

I am of two minds about these chairs.  I liked the Cavetto more than I thought I would when I actually sat in it, but I like the wood-capped arms of the Reflect chair.  For me, I would sit in the Reflect longer.  The Cavetto is nice with the swiveling tablet arm though, and I like the really tall back.  I am a little afraid of dirt and grime accumulating on the fabric though.  No matter the style choice, we will order them with this cool fabric that will not absorb stains or spills and can be cleaned with fairly harsh cleaners.

We are finally getting moving again on a project started in November to rejuvenate the children's computer area.  Three AWE workstations have just arrived and are being prepared for use.  Though more expensive up front than a normal computer that we would add software to, the AWE stations more than make up for their higher price in convenience and lower upkeep.  You see, they have all the software fully installed on the computer's hard drive so there is no need to swap disks to use them.  Also, there is no need to install software after the fact, repair or replace scratched game disks, deal with compatibility issues, update to latest versions, etc.  Their website has a little pop-up video overview you can see here.  Also, you can see the .pdf list of software these computers include here.

These computers will be a nice addition to the department and ease a tremendous burden on our IT staff.  If they are successful, we may purchase more in succeeding years.

Also, we are very grateful to our Friends of the Library for purchasing (among many other things) two of these carts to hold our gaming systems we use for game days!  We will be able to just roll the carts out, plug in the power, and hand the controllers to the first kids in line. 

A look back at 2010

At the start of every year, we in Kansas libraries are required to fill out a report to the State Library of Kansas enumerating our various transactions for the year.  The reporting process has improved tremendously over the past few years, becoming an easily-navigated online exercise in "filling in the blanks".  I have begun to gather information about the past year and some interesting tidbits, not necessarily asked for in the state report, popped out.  While there are lots of number below - I think they are worth a look as they reflect some of the hard work our staff does here.

First, our Children's Outreach program. run single-handedly by one of our GREAT Children's Department staff members had its best year ever.  The original idea for the program was to reach children is preschools and daycare environments who might not otherwise get to the library.  All I can say is that there has been a HUGE demand for the service.  Amy went on 316 storytime trips outside the library with 6,967 attendees!  WOW!

Out of our total collection of DVDs, 1,889 of them were checked out at least once.  In fact, those 1,889 DVDs went out on average nearly 8 times each (14,340 circs).

Using our "Purchase vs. ILL" process we purchased instead of borrowed 665 items requested by our patrons.  To put that in perspective, we process about 14,000 items per year to add to the collection.  So about 5% of those new "things" were added as a direct result of our patrons simply asking.

So how much did we end up borrowing from other libriares on behalf of our patrons?  3,179 items came to us through Inter-Library Loan (ILL).  We loaned other libraries 5,017 items throughout 2010.  The courier service we now use carried 2,790 of the ILL items back to other libraries.

I know that was a long slog, but I think those are interesting numbers.  There are many more for me to look at as I complete the State Report - coffee...must get coffee.

Reading is alive in Hutchinson

While we haven't quite reached the deadline for turning in completed reading logs for the children's program, all the programs this summer were among the best for us in the last 5 years.  We had 1,339 children signed up and 507 of them have turned in completed logs with 2 weeks remaining in the program.  The requirement for completion is 10 books, so that means over 5,000 books were read in June and July!

When you add in the YA (young adult) and adult reading programs, with 550 and 600+ books recorded respectively, HPL readers were reading (in a verifiable way) at a rate of 102.5 books per day during the reading programs.

I know there were many thousands more books checked out during those months, but I am heartened that reading remains such a strong pastime.  Quite a body of research, such as this 3-year study, suggest that simply giving books to children (and allowing them to choose topics that interested them) is less expensive and potentially more effective than summer school.

Imagine all the students who could be helped by combining the forces of the public school systems and the well-established, strong summer programs offered for free at public libraries.  After all, our summer storytimes (there were 32 of them) averaged 55 children per session.