Alaska State Library Summer Reading Program

Sponsorship

The Alaska State Library cooperates with the Alaska Library Association each year to sponsor a statewide summer reading program theme. The State Library provides a basic starter kit of materials and a program manual to Alaska’s public libraries. The materials are developed in a cooperative with 47 other states and the District of Columbia as part of the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP).

This Year's Themes

2009 Children’s Program: Be Creative @ Your LibraryThe artist for this year’s program is David Catrow.

Express Yourself @ Your Library 2009 Teen Summer Reading
Designed for readers in 6th grade and up, the teen program has a separate manual and this year’s art for the Express Yourself theme is Brad Sneed.

Materials

Manual and Participation Forms

All public libraries receive one free manual from the Alaska State Library as well as a participation form AND an order form for summer reading materials from the Upstart/Highsmith Company, the contracted vendor for CSLP. If your library did not receive a manual, please contact Sue Sherif at the Alaska State Library. Please note the deadlines on the Alaska State Library participation form and the Upstart/Highsmith in order to ensure timely delivery. This year’s deadline for receiving materials from the Alaska State Library is November 17, 2008. If you are reading this after the deadline, please contact the Alaska State Library Anchorage office at 800.776.6566 and ask for Priscilla.

Participation forms and manuals are sent to each public library in Alaska in October every year. If you did not receive a participation form, please use the one above.

Clip Art and Reproducible Forms

Clip art is available in color and black and white on a CD-ROM included in the 2009 manual. Clip art is also available in the manual in black and white for photocopying. There are also reproducible forms and handouts included in the CD-ROM.

Other Materials

Each library that is interested in participating and fills out a participation form or emails the Anchorage Office of the Alaska State Library will get a starter kit of materials for 25 or 50 participants. If you have fewer children in your summer reading program, you can indicate that on your interest form and we’ll send you a smaller pack. If you have a larger population or you want to order additional reading incentives and other materials that you don't receive from the State Library, you may order more or different materials from the CSLP site.

You can also make your own supplementary materials if you prefer and adapt the program to your community’s needs by using the materials, clip art, and digital art that come with the manual and the accompanying CD.

Planning Your Summer Reading Program

Evaluation and Reports

If you receive summer reading materials for your library, the Alaska State Library would like to have some feedback. The State Library will send you a report form and an evaluation of the materials. Be sure that you keep statistics of participants and volunteers during the summer reading program so that you will be prepared to report back. You will be asked to report the number of children, teens, and volunteers in your program and be given an opportunity to provide feedback about how the program worked for you. This report will be due in September of 2009.

For More Information

Contact Sue Sherif, Alaska State Library, via email or at 800.776.6566.

If you would like to read more about planning a summer reading program, the Alaska State Library has the following titles, which you can borrow through interlibrary loan:

The State Library also has a file of manuals for past summer reading programs in other states. If you would like to use a different theme for your library’s summer reading program, let us know. We would be glad to send you some of these manuals to help start you on your way to planning.

Advocating for the Summer Reading Program

In addition to consulting some of the print resources above, you may also want to check these resources if you want to explain why your summer reading program needs community financial support:

Promoting Your Program

To hear and download radio public service announcements for the 2009 summer reading programs for children and teens, visit CSLP public service announcement page (If your community doesn’t have a local radio station, perhaps your school would play them on the morning announcements). These are usually available online in the spring before the summer reading program begins.

Also available at this site are video spots and tips about how to use these announcements to promote your library’s programs. If you have a library website, you might want to run these on your web page. The Anchorage Office of the Alaska State Library will have a limited number of these video spots in Betamax, VHS, VHS continuous loop, and DVD for you to borrow.

Other tips for publicizing your summer reading program for maximum participation are available in this year’s manual.

Adult Summer Reading Program

This year for the first time the CSLP is offering an adult summer reading program with the theme Master the Art of Reading. The Alaska State Library will not be supplying materials for this program, but you will find ideas for launching such a program at your library in the manual and can order materials for this program directly from Upstart/Highsmith.