RPL’s Summer Reading Program Is 1,000 Times Cooler These Days

Rockford Public Library's Summer Reading Program isn't just for kids, adults can earn prizes this summer as well. 

Emily Klonicki from the Rockford Public Library joined the show this morning. She's a repeat guest to the morning show and one of our favorites. Emily had all the details on the summer reading program that starts June 1st and it sounds pretty cool.

I remember the summer reading program of my youth and it wasn't anything like this. I vaguely remember a chart drawn on brown butcher paper that hung in the corner of North Surburban Library. You basically got one paper "book" that was put up in your column for every book you read over the summer.

I think there was some sort of pizza from Pizza Hut as a prize if you read "x" amount of books and I'm pretty sure there was a prize for the kid who read the most. That was the part that bothered me as a kid. A book was a book was a book. It didn't matter it if was 50 pages or 500 pages, they all counted as one.

Then this kid down the street from me, who I will not name, gamed the system by reading about 300 Archie comics over the summer. I wasn't pleased.

Well, a young Joe Dredge would be thrilled at the new system the library is implementing this year.

First of all, there's an app. That makes everything cooler. It's called the Beanstack app and it's how the whole system works. Instead of rewarding merit on the number of books someone reads, you keep track of how long you read through the app. There's no reporting or anything else you need to do. The library keeps track of it all through the app.

There are 3 "divisions" for the summer reading program.

• Children (Up to 12 years old)
• Young Adults (12-18 years old)
• Adults (18+)

The benchmarks are basically the same for each age group. The goal is 500 minutes a month which works out to 15-20 minutes a day. You get a prize for every 500 minutes you record and get a free book after 1,500 minutes. They also will give daily prizes to a random person that logged on that day to read.

All the details on the summer reading program and information about their new Meet Me At The Mural Tuesdays can be found here.