Not Just For Kids: Local Libraries Target Summer Reading For Adults Too

By Christine Benedetti, Aspen Daily News Time Out Staff Writer

Summer reading programs aren’t new. They’re a pillar of library programming targeted at kids in an effort to bridge that learning-loss gap between school years known as the “summer slide.”

Children keep track of their reading, turn in their results consistently throughout the summer, and are eligible for prizes at the end of it, along with a roster of special events along the way.

But, two years ago Garfield County Libraries — Carbondale, Rifle, Glenwood Springs, Rifle, New Castle and Silt — added an adult summer reading program and it’s starting to take off.

“It’s popular,” says Sue Schnitzer, branch manager at the Glenwood Springs Library. “It started off with adults saying, ‘There’s a summer reading program for adults?’ and now parents are signing up at the same time as the kids.”

Last year, more than 1,800 adults participated across the six libraries reading a combined 101,100 minutes.

Participants are increasingly patrons of the library and already reading, says Schnitzer. Adults, like the kids, log each 20-minute interval they read, and every time they’ve accrued five segments they turn in their results for Book Bucks, as well as entry in a bi-weekly drawing for restaurant gift certificates. The Book Bucks can be used for things like paying off fines and buying used books at the library’s book sale. At the end of the summer, every participant is entered into a larger drawing, held at each library, for a Kindle Fire.

“Adults say ‘I don’t need to be rewarded for reading,’” says Schnitzer. “And then they hear there’s a Kindle drawing.”

The libraries don't put rules on the reading; it can be online, newspapers, reading books to children, and of course, the ubiquitous summer beach book. The point is to get adults reading, just like the community’s kids.

To complement the reading program, the libraries offer special events too. To showcase this year’s theme, “Escape the Ordinary,” the Glenwood Springs Library presents a weekly event. It starts June 4 with African dance, hula-hooping and tango lessons in order to help “escape your ordinary workout.” Two weeks later, author Bill Cooke will present his book about a thru-hike of the Colorado Trail.

Schnitzer says that even though adults read year-round, this is a way to involve them more in their communities and libraries.

Read the full article from the Aspen Daily News.

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