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Reading incentives
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From: Nancy Silverrod <nsilverrod>
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 11:53:37 -0700
I think you will always have a lot kids who will read regardless of incentives, and even those younger kids who like prizes are usually satisfied with stickers or bookmarks or buttons. Lots of kids are happy just to see their names posted on a bulletin board, or getting a booklet stamped, showing their achievement.
Corporate sponsorship does seem to be the trend, particularly as more and more libraries are struggling with funding in the current poor economy. Our teen summer readers have had the choice of paperback books or a $5 Borders gift certificate, and these have been very popular prizes. They also have a party and raffle at the end of the summer.
It would be interesting to find out how much participation would drop if kids didn't get some kind of physical incentive.
One of the best summer reading programs I participated in had an oceans theme, and the local businesses funded the "adoption" of a whale for each child who met his or her reading goal. The kids received a picture of "their" whale, and information on protection and conservation that their reading had helped to fund.
Nancy Silverrod, Librarian
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Message----From: julie michaud [mailto:juliem10ca at yahoo.ca] Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 5:37 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] Reading incentives
I am finding the current discussion on how children choose books quite provocative and helpful for research that I am presently undertaking for coursework in my MLIS program. I am interested in summer reading games that are presented in public l ibraries and how the incentives of prizes affect children's reading. I would like to know more about the kinds of REAL incentives that would affect children who already love books - I mean they don't really need the incentives of prizes, contests, et c. that summer reading games provide ... The current public library that I work at has been finding that the participation of avid readers isn't there in recent years. Perhaps that isn't the real concern and purpose of such reading adventure program s however ...
I am actually very curious how to incite and excite kids who don't realize that there are good books ... and the children who are disadvantaged, and are affected by illiteracy in the home, and in their world - and who come to the library just to rent movies ... What kinds of intrinsic incentives can the public library extend towards these children in terms of presenting reading programs?
I believe this is linked to the public libraries' outreach mandate, so that if we really want to reach and affect children and their ability to read, we should be going out there where the need is ... So that brings us back to the question - what&nbs p;kinds of incentives would interest those who need it the most?
A related issue is the types of sponsorships that public libraries and provincial/state library organizations are presently taking on to "up the ante" of incentives for summer reading games (and deal with shrinking dollars). Bringing on the big bucks helps provide "better" prizes - but is this where we should be going? Are there aspects of this that we should be examining quite carefully? I know that the naming of programs after the corporate sponsor is a dicey issue in terms of the
"public spac e/free for all" mandate of public libraries. Do you have any ideas or experiences from your own libraries that relate to how to approach this and associated issues?
I would also like to assure anyone that if there are ideas that come up in the discussions that are useful for my research I will be providing correct citation of authorship.
Julie
Julie Michaud M.L.I.S. Candidate School of Library, Archival and Information Studies The University of British Columbia
(306)24987
_____
Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals
Received on Thu 14 Oct 2004 01:53:37 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 11:53:37 -0700
I think you will always have a lot kids who will read regardless of incentives, and even those younger kids who like prizes are usually satisfied with stickers or bookmarks or buttons. Lots of kids are happy just to see their names posted on a bulletin board, or getting a booklet stamped, showing their achievement.
Corporate sponsorship does seem to be the trend, particularly as more and more libraries are struggling with funding in the current poor economy. Our teen summer readers have had the choice of paperback books or a $5 Borders gift certificate, and these have been very popular prizes. They also have a party and raffle at the end of the summer.
It would be interesting to find out how much participation would drop if kids didn't get some kind of physical incentive.
One of the best summer reading programs I participated in had an oceans theme, and the local businesses funded the "adoption" of a whale for each child who met his or her reading goal. The kids received a picture of "their" whale, and information on protection and conservation that their reading had helped to fund.
Nancy Silverrod, Librarian
San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Message----From: julie michaud [mailto:juliem10ca at yahoo.ca] Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 5:37 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] Reading incentives
I am finding the current discussion on how children choose books quite provocative and helpful for research that I am presently undertaking for coursework in my MLIS program. I am interested in summer reading games that are presented in public l ibraries and how the incentives of prizes affect children's reading. I would like to know more about the kinds of REAL incentives that would affect children who already love books - I mean they don't really need the incentives of prizes, contests, et c. that summer reading games provide ... The current public library that I work at has been finding that the participation of avid readers isn't there in recent years. Perhaps that isn't the real concern and purpose of such reading adventure program s however ...
I am actually very curious how to incite and excite kids who don't realize that there are good books ... and the children who are disadvantaged, and are affected by illiteracy in the home, and in their world - and who come to the library just to rent movies ... What kinds of intrinsic incentives can the public library extend towards these children in terms of presenting reading programs?
I believe this is linked to the public libraries' outreach mandate, so that if we really want to reach and affect children and their ability to read, we should be going out there where the need is ... So that brings us back to the question - what&nbs p;kinds of incentives would interest those who need it the most?
A related issue is the types of sponsorships that public libraries and provincial/state library organizations are presently taking on to "up the ante" of incentives for summer reading games (and deal with shrinking dollars). Bringing on the big bucks helps provide "better" prizes - but is this where we should be going? Are there aspects of this that we should be examining quite carefully? I know that the naming of programs after the corporate sponsor is a dicey issue in terms of the
"public spac e/free for all" mandate of public libraries. Do you have any ideas or experiences from your own libraries that relate to how to approach this and associated issues?
I would also like to assure anyone that if there are ideas that come up in the discussions that are useful for my research I will be providing correct citation of authorship.
Julie
Julie Michaud M.L.I.S. Candidate School of Library, Archival and Information Studies The University of British Columbia
(306)24987
_____
Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals
Received on Thu 14 Oct 2004 01:53:37 PM CDT
