We tried something different this year, and it was clearly an epic hit.
Every year since the early 1900s, the library has beefed up our programs to encourage reading during the summer break. Research points out the very real effects of the “summer slide” – the deterioration of academic skills between May and August. Not good. Especially for kids from more disadvantaged backgrounds, who can lose as much as 2 months per year, or several years of academic gains over time.
Reading a good book, whether it’s about space aliens or baseball heroes, is enough to keep those academic chops in shape. In fact, reading for pleasure and choosing books that appeal to a child are the best ways to nurture reading as a lifelong habit. So, we encouraged people to log their reading hours, and we provided great programs to keep them coming back throughout the summer.
That worked great for a long time, but in the days of Tik Tok attention spans, we pivoted. This year, we launched the Quest for Knowledge gameboard challenging patrons of all ages to complete literacy missions like listening, exploring, playing, and of course, reading. We handed out nearly 10,000 gameboards and enrolled 4,360 people online.
By inspiring even the most reluctant readers to complete missions such as “reading by flashlight” or “acting out a scene from a book”, we hit big goals. Together, we completed 110,000 literary missions! From fairytale-inspired engineering to dragon wings, mission-fulfilling programs and activities reinforced our “epic adventure” theme. More than 25,288 people attended at least one of our 591 programs offered over the summer. They came to see our favorite colorful chemist, Dr. Al Hazari, or the Hominy Mamas singing folk music. They tried their hands at a little Shakespeare for Kids from the Tennessee Stage Company and got a little abracadabra treatment from magician Michael Messing. Our partners at Zoo Knoxville and The Muse came out to wow participants with snakes and science. Many thanks to Friends of the Library for supporting these programs.
And the rewards flowed! To help remove barriers, we set achievable “Level Up” goals. Patrons could complete as few as five missions to earn a loot box prize, and they could dip back in as often as they could. We were thrilled to hand out 14,564 loot box prizes. Our most avid adventurers completed 25 or more literary missions and earned a community-sponsored reward pack of eats and treats. We awarded 2,800 rewards books worth $150 each. That’s a lot of kids and teens who can go swimming or gain entrance to the Tennessee Valley Fair, go bowling, eat ice cream and pizza. Our community partners made an epic investment in summer reading by providing 27 Knox adventures for a total in-kind investment of nearly $400,000. This community investment augmented grants and support from the Friends of the Library in summer programming, prizes and challenge materials totaling $30,858.
Aside from the impressive stats, the spirit of the summer can be wrapped up in one summer program participant’s declaration, “I always wanted to be a dragon. Today is my chance!” (photos credit Farragut branch library)
Summer Library Adventure Impact Report
