Welcome to Reading: Amp Up Your Services for Beginning Readers

In this presentation, two of the main questions that were asked were:

• What is the public library's role in supporting children who are learning how to read?

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• What can we do differently or better to serve patrons with children learning to read?

This topic was especially interesting to me since I am one of the new selectors of the Beginning Reader easy books (along with Megan). One thing in particular that they mentioned is that it can be helpful to develop relationships with the schools and teachers so you can hear what their and their students' needs are. The kids who are in early elementary grades are really important to reach because there is a high percentage of kids (more than 80%!) that don't reach the benchmark of being reading proficient by 3rd grade (being proficient by that grade is a big predictor of academic success later).

Multnomah County Libraries conducted research before developing a pilot program so that they could revamp their beginning readers collection and services for beginning readers. Some important findings that they heard directly from the teachers: 

• Teachers find it difficult to provide materials to support early reading (1st & 3rd grade teachers struggle the most in finding ways to support the parents in helping their kids)
• Teachers want the guidance, and libraries are crucial in reaching parents
• But only 1 in 10 of the teachers had used a librarian for help 
• Teachers want the libraries to participate in school events like open houses, back to school night, etc. 
• Teachers sould like to see a winter reading program (see the benefits already of SRP)
• also would like downloadable leveled booklists 
• Beginning reader sets 
• 95% of teachers said library had the "unique role of making reading fun"

Other things that the librarians noted were that parents coming into the library looking for books for their children had difficulty because of the way the books were arranged. This is definitely something that I see at the reference desk because a lot of parents expect to be able to go directly to the shelf with all the "level 1.9 AR books," and are dismayed to find the Beginning Readers section has all of the levels intermingled and arranged by author. It can also be frustrating for them because different publishers have their own criteria in determining what they might call a Level 1 book, vs. what another publisher will call a Level 1.

Multnomah County Library ended up developing a couple different programs to try out. One was called the Books 2 U program, where they made multiple site visits to the schools and brought books and gave book talks to encourage reading for pleasure. It was originally done with grades 3-6, but they modified it to work with 2nd grade, with great success. They also experimented with giving the teachers "booktalk scripts" to talk up the books, instead of the librarians coming in person, but both the teachers and students preferred the in-person book talks (allowed for a "special guest" librarian to come and create excitement). 

Another successful program they implemented was the Golden Ticket program. They distributed 1600 golden tickets to all the 2nd graders (through the teachers) at 2 elementary schools, which were actually invitations to come to the library and receive a free book. Parents would also be entered in a drawing to win a family smartphone. They ended up having about a 17% response rate, and got a fair number of students coming in who had never been to the library before. The tickets also included tips for parents to help create strong readers. Because of the success of the program, they ended up expanding it the following year to include distribution to 1st graders at all of the schools in the county!

Changes in library service needed to happen as well. 124 staff members received training (90 min workshops, recorded and archived) in how children learn to read, along with monthly mini workshops for Youth services staff on special topics. 

Another thing they did was level the beginning reader books with a color coded system to make them easier to find for the parents and children. 

I thought the display with the sample pages was great because the parents could see more easily what the different "levels" looked like, so they could begin to distinguish for themselves what a "blue" book would look like vs. an "orange" book. 

"Welcome to Reading" kits were another idea that they implemented, which are book bags similar to our current Storypacks, except they are filled with beginning reader books all at the same reading level, along with tips and recommended reading for parents. They started out with a small number of them, but now have over 1250 bags in circulation throughout their branches. Each of the colored bags corresponds to a different reading level based on their color coded system, so it is easy for patrons to pick out the correct ones. Some of the bags are based on one theme, and others are called "Five to Try," which is a mixture of different themed books all at the same level. I could see something similar to this being popular, since the Storypacks are already so popular!

Overall I felt this session gave a lot of great info on how to make things easier and more accessible for beginning readers and their parents. One thing in particular that stuck with me that they said was that it is our job to make things easier for our patrons, not necessarily easier for us. So something like leveling the beginning readers might seem like a very cumbersome project at first, but if it could help get the correctly leveled book in a child's hand at the right time, then it's all worth it. There is such a small window of time to really make a difference for beginning readers, so it is important to do all we can.