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2008 MHLS Summer Reading Program
Catch the Reading Bug in Your Community

Everybody wins! Here's a great way to promote your summer reading program while benefiting local businesses. Your summer reading program gets some good publicity outside the library, local businesses get increased traffic and partnerships are formed that will benefit both groups in the future.

How Program Works

Determine how many weeks project will run; identify business for each week, trying to vary choices
Contact local businesses for approval to place displays with them for a week. Give them letter outlining how project will work and their responsibilities. (Think about varied businesses families might not frequent--i.e., florist, new shops, out-of-the-way places, etc.)
Buy stand-up display from Highsmith (children's and/or teen theme) or you could hide something else related to the theme
Solicit prizes from local businesses (gift certificates, movie or fun park tickets, car wash, floral arrangements, bakery goods, etc.) and/or get funds from Friends/library budget to purchase grand prize (Wallkill bought iPod Shuffle first year.)
Do publicity about Catch the Bug program--flyers, posters around community & in participating businesses
Decide if families who participate must first register for summer reading program
Make form available for families to get signed by business staff to indicate family found display in their store
Create box at library where families place signed forms. (Get teens to help; maybe make it bug-related w/beehive, wasp nest, ant hill look?)
Create clue handouts for each business which will be available each Monday morning at library for families to pick up
Have drawing for all prizes at end of summer program; do weekly drawings for lesser prizes, if you wish
Track number of people visiting each business so you can report this number back to businesses. Helps emphasize how partnering with the library brought them more foot traffic and publicity.
**MHLS will create these forms; check back.

What to Tell Businesses

Please place display somewhere in the store where families have to come in to find it--not in window. Families will then talk to store staff, see what store offers, possibly make purchase, get form signed, etc.
Host the display for one week in the summer.
Please hand out or make available flyers and poster about project to help promote summer reading.

Other helpful hints

Take lots of pictures (families/owners at businesses w/Bug, winners @ library, etc); post pictures in library AND send to local papers. (Great pr for all!)
After project ends, post list of all participating businesses in library & families who won prizes
Write thank-you to businesses and one to local paper thanking them
Let businesses know number of families who visited their stores & include numbers in press releases
Create participation certificate on brightly-colored paper for each business to put in store window after program finishes
Be prepared to be asked by businesses if they can take part next year!

Who Wins? Everyone!

Families have fun exploring their community and its businesses.
Businesses get more traffic, exposure.
Library forms good partnerships with community businesses--increases good will at library budget vote time, creates partners for next project & places to solicit support for future events

Thanks to Mary Lou Carolan, Director of the Wallkill Public Library (RCLS), for sharing this idea with us.