Friday Focus: Graphic Novels part 2

I talked about Graphic Novels and my feelings on them here. Jessica from I Read to Relax suggested Library Wars. So I read the first two and here are my thoughts:

The government has decided that books are dangerous. The libraries decide to fight the censorship (Perfect reading for Banned Book Week).  The local government helps by creating a military group to defend the freedom of reading.

Ever since Iku Kasahara had an incident with the government over reading and a young man rescued her book, she's dreamed of joining the force. Now, she's in training, but she's finding it hard to fit in and to stay out of trouble.

My Thoughts: I really liked these books, although I confess at times, I had trouble figuring out the different characters - especially the boy characters. I love the idea of fighting for the freedom to read. As a librarian, how could I not? Even though the characters took some getting used to and figuring out, I really enjoyed reading them and I'll keep reading.

Thanks Jessica for the recommendation! 

Friday Focus: Summer Reading Programs

With Summer Reading Programs in the news (here and here) and the wrap-up happening in so many libraries, I thought I would talk about that. Here's my post about the READING part of it. 

The programming part is different. This summer, I had to cancel most of my programs.  The library placed a rule in effect last August where  if there were not 5 teens at a program, the program would be canceled. There were a few bigger programs mixed in with small programs like movies or craft programs from leftover supplies.

Still it hurts turning away teens. After a while, the teens became frustrated and stopping coming. And I understand why. 

The kick-off program where we made monster brownies was very well received, as was monster marshmallows, and the finale party where teens had a chance to win prizes with raffle tickets earned by reading also had a good turnout. Everything else - not so much.

I had a few passive programs that four or five teens took advantage of - and won some small gift cards. I had a mix of movies, craft programs, and food programs - mostly with a monster/zombie theme.  Most of the programs were found from pinterest and seemed fun to me....so what gives?

Were the programs terrible?

I thought they were cool. I ran them by three teen interns during the school year and they thought they were cool too. 

Did they not know about the programs? We had a video PSA running at the schools for a least a week. I had at least a dozen kids ask me if I was that lady from the video in the first week of summer.

Were they too busy or the library not cool enough? Could be.

Could it be something else?

I'm at a loss here. Obviously next year, it's going to be revamped. I'm thinking about a kick-off and a finale program. AND THAT'S IT.  I just don't know what else to do and while I would hate not offering programs, I hate turning away teens even more.

Friday Focus: Summer Reading

With Summer Reading Programs in the news (here and here) and the wrap-up happening in so many libraries, I thought I would talk about that.

I love the idea of summer reading because it allows teens (and kids) to read something for fun. 

This year, 107 teens signed up at the library and read 704 books in 6 weeks. They were required to write a mini review in order to log their books.  These are the reviews you see featured on Teen Thursday Review, next week will be the last one.

I love seeing them come into the library and leave with a huge stack of books. I love talking with them about books and offering suggestions. It's awesome when they come back looking for more. I LOVE that so much reading happens.

Then there are the rewards. I have mixed thoughts on rewards. Are they necessary? Will teens read without them? Maybe, but they won't let you know it. After switching to online software, my numbers jumped. I had 3 times as many teens reading and reviewing for prizes. It was also the first year that we had money to spend on prizes and didn't rely on donations. Coincidence? I think not. I'm not crazy about reading incentives, but they do seem to work. My teens really enjoyed them

The candy is always a big hit. This year rolls of duct tape made lots of them happy. 

As for the prizes - I've changed things up over the years. It used to be weekly raffles. Then it was a store. And for the past two years, it's been a tier system.  The tiers have worked out great. The first tier is a box of candy you would take to the movies. The second is a smallish prize, $5 or less. The third tier is book. The fourth, fifth, six, and seventh tier is a choice between a book or raffle tickets.  The raffle tickets are used at the finale event for bigger prizes. This year, for the first time, we had a finale prize of the Blu-ray player. Plus we had several smaller prize packages with books, posters, and gift cards. The cost for this year was roughly $500 - not including the books. All of the books were donated by me (books that I get because of this blog), books from BEA, or some gently used books donated by the public. If the prizes were not taken, I use them throughout the year for other programs or save them for next year.

While at the finale, one person can take home the majority of prizes, but everyone goes home with something. I bake goodies, buy candy, and throw a small party. It's fun and the teens who attended loved it!

The Reading portion for the summer was a complete success - teens read lots of books, which is my goal. It's nice where there are a lot of teens reading. I had less teens reading this year, but more teens reaching the end goal of the program. So the teens who liked reading, read several books and some read a small amount. I count both as a win. The teens who read had to come into the library to get their prizes, many of whom aren't the normal teens who come into the library in the school year. They get to see the teen room, which is great. 

Mostly, I love seeing teens reading and books in their hands.True, it's a very small portion of teens participating when looking at the numbers from the schools. Does that diminish the success of it? Not in my eyes. Teens reading = awesome. And if it takes a few prizes, I'm willing to figure all that out. 

(Summer Programming is a different story - up next week)

Friday Focus: E-ARCs

After reading this post: Requesting ARCs - I thought I should talk about my feelings on E-ARCs. It's not exactly collection development, but I do use ARCs as a means of deciding to purchase books for the library...so it is relevant.

While I understand the cost of printing ARCs and using E-Galleys, I'm not just that targeted audience.

At first I thought I could read them. I even bought a kindle after years of refusing. And...of course I barely use it. I've read less than a dozen books on it since purchasing at least two years ago.

Reasons Why I Don't Read on my Kindle:
1. There never seems to be a battery charge (This could be because I rarely use it)
2. I much more prefer holding the physical book.
3. I forget about the books on it when looking for the next book to read and head right for my bookshelf

While there are great books on Netgalley, I've found myself not using their servcies. I used to feel bad about this because there were books I wanted to read so desperately...but then I wouldn't. Or I would start them, but wait until the book came out to finish. Recently I've come to terms with the fact that ebooks just aren't for me.  I no longer feel bad about waiting for the book to be published before reading it.

There are always going to be books I'm waiting to read - it's part of the fun.

Thoughts? Am I alone in this?