NCompass Live: Community Literacy Treasure Hunt: The Fun Way to Increase Literacy!

Good morning and welcome everyone to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host, Krista Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Uh Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning, but if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do record the show as we are doing today and it will be available for you to watch later at your convenience. Um everyone who is uh attending today's show and registered for today's show will get an email from me letting you know when the recording is ready. For For those of you who are not from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries. So, similar to your whatever state library. So, we provide uh training and resources and databases and grants and consulting to all types of libraries in the state. So, you will find shows on Encompass Live for all types, uh public, academic, K-12, corrections, museums, historical societies, blah blah blah blah blah. Really, um our only criteria is it something to do with libraries. Uh we have Nebraska Library Commission staff that sometimes do presentations about programs or resources or services we offer through our agency, but we also bring in guest speakers and that is what we have today. Um joining us today is Let me get my page here. Uh Lisa Kipe, who is from the Marie Ellison Memorial Library in Del Rio, Tennessee. Good morning, Lisa. >> Morning. >> Hi. >> [laughter] >> And uh she is going to tell us about this really fun program. I've been following it on your um web pages or on your Facebook uh pages and things there. Um a really fun program that got a community community literacy treasure hunt. Um making literacy fun. So, I will uh hand it over to you, Lisa, to tell us a little about what you've been doing at your library there. >> All right. It's a It's a mouthful. It community community Now, I can't even say it today. Uh community literacy treasure hunt. Um What really started this was the We have four libraries in our county. We're a library system, but we are not branch libraries. It's It's a complicated situation. But, we all do summer reading and we each have our own programs. We have always tried to schedule it so that um each each library is doing a different day of the week. So, you can travel the entire county and get to four different programs. Over the years, we've added things like lunch programs as well as this so you can have lunch and do the program, um participate, whatever you're going to do. Now, one of the things that we did notice over the years is that um we had to make some changes. We had certain families who were always reading the most, getting the most minutes, depending on how we're doing it that year, number of books or minutes. And they were winning all the prizes. >> Mhm. >> All the libraries. Of course, that's discouraging. So, we made changes to that where it became a um a raffle system. And so that you read a certain number of books, certain number of minutes, you got a raffle ticket. And once you won, if you won a big prize at one library, you could not win it at any other library. >> Mhm. >> Then we had to the point where we were doing all kinds of little prizes and this type of thing. We had some parents come to us and say, "Please stop with the little plastic garbage." >> [laughter] >> Uh it's really fun and great at the time, but as a parent myself, I understand that at certain point, there's just all this little stuff you don't need anymore. So, we moved on to trying for experiences. And uh so we got tickets for the aquarium, for the zoo, for a bunch of different different things. Most of them were donated, some of them we paid a little bit for. It was really nice. But again, it still didn't seem to help. And then right about that time, this was about 20 22. Um we were presented with the literacy numbers for the state of Tennessee. And we're knowing that this is post COVID, but the the testing on the TCAP was low for third graders especially. And this became an issue to us because libraries are definitely about literacy. So we started to try and figure out a way to to do things. And one of the first things we would do is ask kids, you know, "What What was your book about?" But you know, sometimes you could say they they wouldn't know. They've picked out They've checked out 25 or so books for the week, but they can't tell you what a single book was about. I mean, to the point where we started thinking that maybe they're doing this. Oh, I read a book. >> [laughter] >> Okay, what did you read? What was the book? So we started trying to figure out a way to not only get the community involved in increasing literacy, but help for us to help get literacy. So we started with the idea of you have to write book reviews. Now, some are reading all the rounds for 4 weeks out here. Um so that would be four book reviews. So you only have to read four books all summer long, but you have to write a book review. And the reward for writing a book review was the idea that you could go out into the community with a list uh that you got for that week. Each book review you turned in got you a list of of participating businesses and offices for for the week. Uh and you can go to each business and get a brand new book. So that worked out pretty well, but >> [snorts] >> it has been working for us, but it was a hard hard road to get to it. Uh my first year the first year, I'm afraid I was a little uh overly ver- verbose. So, I wrote a letter going into great detail what our plan was and it turned out being a page and a half letter. And I don't know that businesses were were reading it. And it was a very a lot of legwork. Uh we are a small county. We have about 40,000 people in the county and we're fairly spread out. It's a rural farming community. So, there was a lot of legwork going to them business to business to say, "Would you do this?" Especially the first year. Now, by the second year it got a lot easier, but as some people might know, we actually were uh victims of Hurricane Helene. So, that hurt our county heavily and so some of the businesses couldn't participate um the second year and there was a lot of things that change and just like anything the business it changes on a regular basis. The third year, which is this year, got even easier. Um in some cases, we didn't even have to go to the business. We just called them up and said, "Hey, are you interested?" Or they contacted us and said, "Hey, are we doing this again this year?" We tried fit uh at a cap of about we said decided the cap would be 35 uh businesses or offices in the community because after that it starts to become a little bit burdensome on the family to go out there. But this is 35 new books per family. Some of our families are very large. Uh so, we thought that would be also burden on the parents cuz now you've got six copies of the same book in your house. So, per per family seemed to be the way to do it. So, uh a little bit more about how we got to it. It was just um I went to a a young lady in town here. Her name is Jennifer Ellison. She runs uh agency called Cradle to Career Coalition, Cocke County Cradle to Career Coalition. Uh Cradle to Career is nationwide. Um she runs the local office and we said, "How can we do this?" Uh her suggestion of course at it was become a Scholastic Literacy Partner. And by being in a partnership, that gets you discounted books for very low price. And their only agreement is that you give these books away for free. So, that worked out because we were able to uh go to the businesses, especially post-flood, and you know, they put a lot of money out for these things and go "All we're asking is a small amount of money." We found that averages out to be about $40 to buy books. Uh we also jokingly call ourselves the uh book dealers because for some reticent companies um and businesses, we'd say "Well, we're interested, but we don't know if we can afford it." Okay, how about we give you the first year's book for free? So, we reached into our budgets and uh Jennifer did has a little bit more budget than we do, so she was able to do this more than us. Uh and we did uh supply them with their first year's book for free. And in most cases, they've come back and bought their own book for the next year. So, um here's what we narrowed it down to uh to make it a little bit easier. This is a letter that we started going out to the uh the community with. Three points, simple, easy, how you how this benefits you as business as an office. It gets people out in the parts of the community that they might not normally go to. >> Mhm. >> People involved um with the local kids. It gets them involved in reading. This really helps a lot of the newer businesses, but it helps some of the older business too, especially some of the offices. We've got a lot of government offices in the county seat. Um the mayor's office. Kids don't know anything about the mayor's office. Now you do because you've been there because you went and got your book. Um this is a lot better than the uh page and a half letter that I wrote [laughter] or just talked about. This makes it a little bit easier. And if anybody's willing, um I'm willing to share this. Uh it's a Canva thing. You can adjust it, put your own name, phone numbers in there. Uh so anything that I put out here, you're able to uh fix it yourself. And I just realized I didn't ever spell county right on that form, didn't I? >> [laughter] >> Just looking at it going, "Oh no, I did it wrong." >> Uh yeah, and I will mention since you're talking about being uh sharing this and and when I being Canva that yes, these the slides here that Lisa's offering will using will also be available to you to watch to use later. Um we should do it we usually do include that when we do a recording. So she'll either send me a link or will or like PDF version of this. We'll figure that out. So you will have access to all these slides afterwards with the recording as well. >> Right. So this is a a lot nicer. You also work on your elevator speech so that you can walk into the business and go, "Hi, my name is I'm representing my county's my library my county's libraries. This is what we want to do to help promote literacy. This is what you do. This is how it benefits you." and things like that. Now some of the larger libraries already have partnerships with businesses and such and I'm sure that's going to be very easy just contact them and say, "Hey, we want to get you involved in this." Um for more rural counties, it it is going to be legwork. The legwork does get easier. Like I said, by this year I was able to just call people up and say, "Hey, do you want to do this again?" And some we have business changes. We have run up against a couple problems. This year one of our businesses had to close their doors. So they have moved their books. They still want to participate. They moved their books down to the library in their town. Um last Saturday we had um a heavy flash flood here in my town and one of the businesses here cannot continue. I will take her books on and continue for her. She wants to continue but her business got a couple feet of water in it and she'll be closed for about a week or so. They'll clean up and and start back up again. And we can all say that things like that happen. There's nothing you can do about it." So, we also simplified it for the community with this flyer. And, that way we were able to hand it in to families in the weeks and months beforehand. We were able to post it as on social media. It's very simple, very basic. Read a book, fill out your book review, turn it in to your library, use your passport, and go out to participating businesses. And, they give you more books. Which really is very popular with the kids. They think this is a great program. Some of the businesses decided to do a little bit more than just the book. Uh, they give out other things. Some businesses, one of our bookstores, uh, gives out five books. And, that's that's very nice. She lets them choose the books that they want. Other cases, we do uh, the books that we have here. Uh, myself this year, we're you we're doing the sour grape. So. >> [laughter] >> And, we do try and make it because we open this up for for uh, little kids, toddlers through eighth grade. So, we are trying to make sure that we're hitting books for every age range, so and each business does pick the books that they want. Some of them go out and order them themselves. Others come through us. Uh, they'll say, "I want a book about" Well, this year, of course, literature the summer reading was dinosaurs. >> Yeah, the dinosaurs, yep. >> "I want a book about dinosaurs. I want a book for older kids about this topic. I want non-fiction." They tell you what you want. Sometimes they get a very specific title. Which is fine, too. And, we can usually work with that. And, if it's something we can't find, we do go back to the business saying, "We cannot find it." Uh, and they we find a way to do it. Uh, there was one gentleman who asked for um, Animal Farm this year, and we just could not find an affordable version of Animal Farm. So, next year, maybe we'll be able to. Um, the way we actually get this out into the community as well is in February, I go on the radio, the local radio station, and talk with the DJ. That of course helps the radio gets the radio involved because the radio station says, "We're going to do it. Why aren't you?" type of thing. Um again, the local newspaper gets involved. We had a family last year who he has the young man has some some issues speaking to people in public. So, used this as a way to get to speak. She put every time he got a book, they took a picture of it with him in front of the business with the book for that year. And that that helped, too, because we were able to use that in the newspaper and use that as part of our social media and get more businesses involved. To the point where we did have people calling us to say, "Hey, this is a great program. Can we get involved?" So, like I said, the first year is the hardest. It's always going to be the hardest year any type of program. >> Oh, sure. Sure. Changes Changes difficult. New things are difficult for people. >> Exactly. Now, the way we actually do it so that the that businesses know that the children are involved and I should have had this sitting here. We have little notebooks. Initially, we have dinosaurs on them. I have This is one that hasn't been used yet. It would say "Literacy Literacy Passport" on it. I bought notebooks last year. I made notebooks this year. I bought notebooks. Just little little notebooks. We number the pages and then we assign a number to each business. So, when it comes down to it, once we have everybody that's involved, we get a letter out to each business, tell them what week they're going to be in and um what their number is. So, that when the kids bring bring the passport, they open that up, they stamp it, they sticker it, they sign it, however they do it. And then they hand the kid the book. We've never had an issue here with people coming and say, "Well, I didn't get a book." Well, your passport shows whether or not you got a book. If you didn't, well, that's that's okay. The businesses understand that if the passport is not with the child, the child does not get a book. Again, we don't have any real issues with that here. I don't I've never heard anybody complain that somebody's come in and tried to get free books without having done the work. >> [snorts] >> And but it's not a lot of work. We're not asking a huge amount of work. We did split it into three different categories for the readers because you have beginning readers and middle readers and advanced readers. We just really wanted the children to prove that they were reading things. And in doing that, we came up with these forms. And ah, I forgot about this. We do make these signs, too. We are Got County Community Literacy Treasure Hunt participant. People take that sign, put it in their window. This helps them as a business not only so that people can identify that Oh, yeah, I am at the right place. Even though my list says it, my head says my address. Um, some people are still like, am I in the right place? It really seems to be affecting how people treat the business that are not involved because this has become a community thing. Now, you're participating in a uh, something that benefits the community. So, they all Everybody gets this sign put in their window and that stays up in this case until August this year. We did extend it just a little bit so that we can make sure everybody could get out and do the things. So, on to the forms. This is our most basic form that I found. Now, you can use whatever form that you like. The ones that I chose were have rating scales on them. Uh, this one is fun because the kids really like this. This is really good for the little ones. Um, didn't get to scan them in, but you get a lot of times you get the kids read the story and draw a picture and then interpret. This is pretty good. Ranger drew a garden. Um Other times you get things like this. You had an an interpret what that that means. So, there's a lot of fun ones. You never know what you're >> it Looks like they gave it five stars though, whatever they thought about it. >> Right. Um but that's the nice thing. I did tell every We all tell all the librarians tell them it's okay to not like a book. Because you're not going to like every book you read. Now, some books you're going to have to finish reading because they are school assigned. Uh but it's also okay to not like a book, set the book aside, and get a different book. Uh cuz the world is full of books, and life is too short to read books that you don't like. I I have that policy for myself, and I have it for the kids, too. So, this is the very basic one. Uh basically, a lot of pre-readers, kindergarteners, first graders use this form. Uh and a couple of the other libraries in the county have different forms, and that's okay, too. This is the second form. This is the second range of forms, and [snorts] uh I think that's a really good example. He didn't like the book. He wrote about it, but he didn't like the book. And that's okay. That's what we want them to do. It's okay to say I don't like the book. And then in other cases, of course, it was a favorite book. And then this gets a little more detail into it. Uh they have to talk more about the characters, the settings. Not just your favorite part. Get Get more detail into it. And that engage gets them deeper into the reading, and this is something that should be reading at uh third, fourth grade level. But the fifth grade on up, we went with this form. Again, a lot more detailed. You've got to give me more information than than you were before. And we have a few of those. Um Again, it's up to the child how much information. Again, not a favorite book. So. But some of the kids get really creative. This is one of the middle form. They go digital and color [laughter] it. This is young lady has loves Dog Man books and she loves to draw. So she draws them out. So that's the basic form. This is the form they bring back to the library. Once they bring back to the library, they get their list. And it's just a very simple list. This is our week one list. It shows the names to there's different businesses, what number they belong to. And um where they are. And some of the some of the buildings some of them are closer together. We did learn after the first year to please since it's four different towns, please put each town on their own week. It makes it easier on the parents because we did have them kind of split up and spread out and and some of the parents did suggest it might be easier if we can just come out one day and do all of Del Rio or do all of Cosby or all of Parrottsville all of Newport. Now Newport is our county seat so does have a lot more businesses involved so they kind of get stuck in around the rest of list but it's made things a little bit easier on on the people. So that's where we're with that. Um And it does help a lot. People really appreciate it. They do come out. We also have have made it clear to the parents that you do not have to go to all these businesses this week. The books will still be there and this year we've done it through through till August so that if you're on vacation, something happens, um just regular busy life. >> It's the flooding that you just had some of the families are probably dealing with that, too. >> Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And you don't know what what's going on in life, you know. Maybe it's too hot, maybe it's too rainy, maybe everybody's too grumpy to go in the car today. >> [laughter] >> Um maybe it's just, you know, you've hit the you've come on a Monday and businesses aren't open on Monday. Uh you can come on another day. So, we try to make it and make them let them understand that it's it's okay to go different times. You don't have to do it all that week. Um and that way they it makes it a little bit more relaxed. Everybody still gets their free books. And everybody comes away a lot happier with it. I have anything more here. Nope. Uh just this is Jennifer Allison's information. And and some pictures. So, we have Jennifer's information and we have my information as well. And you're welcome to always contact us uh both of us. Jennifer wasn't able to be here today because she's in another seminar for Cradle to Career. So, that's the basics of what it is. It actually is a very fun experience. It helps the libraries that are tight on budgets. >> Mhm. >> Because you are not buying all of these prizes. You're not purely working through prizes. You can focus on programming so that you can put your money into programming. You can have uh like this year we had a gentleman who found a lot of local fossils and Native American items. He was able to come out and talk to us. We could focus on that program and we could put the money into a lunch. We could We could do other things. We're not buying all kinds of little little trinkets uh that everybody has to deal with later on at home. Uh >> [snorts] >> it it seems to focus it. It does affect each library because the number of books that are being checked out over summer reading does drop a little bit. Because you don't have the kids going, "I need to read 300 books over the summer so I can win a prize." They're now focusing more on the reading, and we're happy to say that statewide and countywide, our numbers are coming up on literacy. >> And so I was wondering, do you How has this actually affected the testing? Do we Do we know yet? Um >> It It It has I mean it has a small part. I can't say that it has We We have not gone and tested exactly um how many. We don't always keep track of how many families are involved. I mean, that is something that you can do if you choose to. Um but we don't go in in depth like that because we don't see a a real reason to do that. Uh we want to make it fun, but we want to make sure everybody's reading. I think it takes the pressure off the children quite a bit because they're not trying to go, "I need to read 20 minutes a day." Which they should still be doing, but uh they're not feeling the pressure to be constantly in a book when they're at home. >> So, that was that was that They're not going for quantity, they're going for quality. >> We're going for quality, definitely. So, we're getting the comprehension, we're getting them by using these forms, we're we're getting it clear that they are reading the book, that they are understanding what they're reading. So, I can tell when they come in and I ask them, "So, what was your book about?" They can actually tell me what the book was about. And they can tell me, "Hey, I really liked this book. Do you have more of this author?" >> Mhm. >> And And that doesn't always happen when you're going for mass quantity of books. Um it does make it a little easier on the librarians, too, because we're not under buried under a pile of of books. If you're a solo librarian like myself, the children's books uh before could get um you could be checking in a couple hundred books a day. >> Mhm. >> Because the kids are then just trying to pop their numbers up. Now, it's just uh it's made it a more relaxed. It's made summer funner, but it's also gotten reading quite a bit. >> Yeah. So, this is the second year of the program, correct? >> This is the third year. We're on our third year. >> Oh, wow. Okay. Cool. All right. >> So, like I said, each year gets a little bit easier. It is you're going to have to put in the work the first year. Uh you're going to have to put in work the second year. And And you want to maybe you don't maybe you don't have a good experience with a business. We have had a case of that where we didn't have a good experience with the business or or I should say patrons did not have a good experience with the business. We've chosen not to ask them to participate again. >> Mhm. >> And And you learn those things. And of course businesses come and go. It's a real benefit to a new business because it gets people in their door. >> Oh, yeah. >> They're like, "Oh, we haven't had time to come over to here, but now we're here because my kids want this book." And they take a few minutes to look around. They might do some shopping and they do go back >> Mhm. >> later on. So, that helps the newer businesses. It helps the businesses that are out in in farther flung parts of the county that people don't always go to. Um Newport is being like I said, our county seat. A lot of things get seen in Newport, but >> Sure. >> maybe not out here or maybe not out in Cosby. So, that helps a helps a lot with those businesses, too. >> Yeah. So, my next question is about cuz you're talking about sometimes having the the each each community being a different week. How far is the distance between each of the >> Um miles I mean I mean we can go by miles, but you also have to go by the fact that we are in in the mountain we're in mountain communities. >> Yeah. >> Uh I would go by time. It takes me 20 minutes to get from Del Rio to Newport. It takes me an hour to get to Cosby cuz there is no direct route that you can go through. You have to go back through Newport and go back over. >> Mhm. >> So, there's a fair amount of distance. I mean it takes me 20 25 minutes to get to to Parrottsville. So, people that are in Cosby they're doing the same thing because you have to drive down through the county seat and back over. It's just part of the mountain town structure. way the mountains are. >> Make you go. Absolutely. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Um Uh All right. And what else do you have? Is Is that uh are we >> That's pretty much what I have. Do you have any questions from anybody about how to manage >> We have some that did come in, but I didn't want to cut off your, you know, presentation. >> No, I've I've said what I said what I've had to say, so I'm happy to answer questions. >> Yeah, thank you. I think This is a This is a great program. I think this is so fun. Um definitely doing something different in just in general is always a good idea just to mix things up. Um and it's about the passport program. We have a some We have a passport program here in the state of Nebraska about just visiting businesses that the state does. It's just about traveling to visit new communities and you get your passport stamped kind of thing. Um and so it's like what you're saying, you get the these businesses or locations that have participated in it get the get the walk-in people more. And um I know my husband and I visited a couple places here just in Lincoln that we hadn't gone to before just to get that passport on our >> [laughter] >> uh stamped up, got some nice coffee at a coffee shop, and yeah. Um so yeah, if anybody does have any questions, type into your question section any more. I've got a few here that I am going to ask. Um but >> [clears throat] >> we have plenty of time here to ask any questions that you want or anything you all want to share about what you're doing in your libraries possibly for um summer reading or these kind of literacy um programs here. Um someone does have a question about um the the book report versus book review that uh I know your form for older the older kids was called a book review, the middle one was book report. And I just want to do do kids think of it as like if it's a book report that they like, oh, it's like school work. >> [laughter] >> I haven't heard anybody say that. I think we kind of use the term interchangeably, and I think the local schools do, too. A book review book report. I know the So yeah, like I said some of the forms we say book report, some say book review. What does the little the little one says book review. >> Mhm. I think there's not been any like oh I don't want to do school work during summer. >> No. No, we also have a very large home schooling community here. So a lot of kids that do participate at least for Del Rio our home schooling. And same with Parisville. Parisville is right on the edge of Greenville County. And so there's they get a lot of people from Greenville that come over and participate. And we don't limit them. We don't say that you have to be you don't have to live in in our county to be part of this. If they want to come and and participate we let them. >> Sure. >> So we're kind of reaching out a little bit to other other counties too just passively that way. So. >> Yeah, your users are whoever walks in the door. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um. Uh someone has a question about the budget for this. I know you said the first year that you purchased the books to get started. Um does So how what how what was the budget for that? How much do you have >> So numbers on the cost of the running the program? >> The budget is um non-existent. It actually uh the first year I I we did buy a few books for a few people. Um I wish I had Jennifer's numbers. Um because she works with Save the Children as well. They give her a little bit of budget for for helping the libraries and she uses that. I would say uh mostly we're putting the the money on to the the businesses. So that we it's not also not coming out of our budgets. So we go to the business and say hey, would you like to participate? This is how much it's going to cost to get this type of book. Um we say what kind of book, we go through the list and go back to them and say is is this book good? This is what it's going to cost. And then write us a check or hand us cash. Some of them Some people just went, "Yeah, give me this kind of book." Handed me cash right there. >> [laughter] >> And others, you know, they want want a an invoice. They want want it to, you know, do it a little bit differently. And and it's a little bit more casual in a in a rural area. Uh and some businesses are just a little more casual about it. But the cost is mainly on those businesses. This year I spent about uh $25 to buy a box of of uh 500 of these notebooks. >> Mhm. >> And uh thank you, Teemu. Uh but uh uh I think more it's the cost of time. I would say the very first year I put in close to 100 physical hours going out and about. That's driving time, talking to people, getting the books, delivering it back out. Uh now that we're getting it a little bit more streamlined, I probably spent an hour on the phone talking to people. Um and then going out to the businesses. Uh the other libraries also do we can we kind of use the town library as a central drop-off. I would drop off and and they'd take it out to businesses there. So, I think total maybe this year we put in 10 physical hours. And now that, of course, is going to be um I would if if you are allowed if your library allows you you bill that back to your library. You put that down as part of your payroll hours. And that's all going to depend on what your salary is, of course. I can't say what that budget's exactly going to be, but it's not uh a lot of money. Now, when we had bought books uh the very first year I had gone to a conference online conference and I won a $500 Scholastic gift card. So, I used a lot of that and I still have some piles of books from that. So, that's uh helped helped with that. So, I would say your initial investment is probably going to be just a few hundred dollars. >> Yeah. >> And then once it becomes >> and then it's time. Most of it's time. >> Of course. Of course, yeah. And just some of those businesses you're talking about the different ways they pay. Um, this is something they could consider as like a donation or something for taxes. So, some of them may need some sort of a um, paperwork for that. >> You just uh you can do a sheet on a letterhead and saying that such and so made a donation to our business and of course you know, we're not allowed to fill in the amount, they fill in their amount and deal with it on their end. But, we can definitely hand them off a sheet like that if they choose to do it. Others I think just kind of write it off as a business expense. And uh put it in however they however they do their their taxes. So, of course again that's individual. Others like I said want an invoice saying that this is what they paid for. So, and you just work with each each business as as they need. >> Right, absolutely. Um, I like totally forgot what I was going to say there. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Oh, of course. Um, all right. So, we do have another question here. Um, and I was wondering about this too cuz I know this is in typically summer reading programs and things like are are and some are are geared towards kids. But, there is um, even through the um, the collaborative summer reading program that's doing the unearth uh story, there is adult um, summer reading as well that some places do. And someone wants to know, um, curious if you have a sense of reaching reluctant or low literacy adult readers. >> That is something we've been talking about. Uh, actually working on an adult program next year as well. Now that we've [clears throat] gotten the uh children's program fairly well established, people know what it is, they've heard it on the radio, they've seen it in the newspaper. It's uh other news agencies have picked up on it a little bit. Um, now reaching out to the adult reading program. We really have never had an adult reading program in this county cuz we are small. Um, but yeah, I think that would be be great to be able to try and do that. I think it would be very effective in large counties if you can get businesses involved and willing to do this, um give out, you know, you could even split it out of the uh here's a cozy reading book. Here is the non-fiction books. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Some people are really into the history. Um you could just really split it out or just make it uh a library book program. The ones that I've ever been participated in before I basically have gotten a one a cup. I still have my cup. But um you know, they're they're a little bit different. They require a little bit less reading time. But I can see adapting this to do adult programs and getting businesses who are willing to buy books for the adults and and handing them out on the same general basis that we would do with the children's. Yeah. >> Sure. I think it would usually be and now I'm I'm miss and you could also uh then you might have more um a this is going to sound bad. I don't mean I was going to say adult businesses. That's not what I mean. Like bars or restaurants or coffee shops or places that adults would frequent more than that children. >> Right. Yeah. That's something we do not put in right now. We do have smoke shops. We do have uh uh adult adult like I said, adult geared businesses. We uh do not put them on at this point. >> Uh but if we had an adult program, we definitely could put them on there. So. But we got everything from medical centers to county county court clerk's office to a um I'm going to call it an art Yeah, a couple art stores. One's an art studio that you can go in and take classes. The other one is a consignment art uh antique malls, restaurants. Basically, just you just ask everybody. >> [laughter] >> That's what it comes down to. Sometimes you just walk down the street and hit every business. >> I just go to every door. Cuz you're saying businesses, but yeah, it doesn't have to be a business. Just be someone who wants to participate and like you said, the the hospital or um >> Exactly. >> the local uh >> [clears throat] >> I don't know what we have here. We have mini golf uh place, too. I mean, things like that could be uh yeah, anywhere that you'd want to get people coming into, yeah. >> And then we've been asked is it allowed to hand out extras and that's up to you. That's the the main the the minimum is you hand out a book. If you want to, like you said, mini golf, you want to hand out a coupon as well. Um the city hall uh in Newport gave out backpacks the first year full of full of goodies and such. Um other res- other places, like I said, the one bookstore gives out five books. Um it's just your your your total choice of how you want to do it. The minimum participation is your name is on the list, you hand the book, and of course the business is polite to the families when they come in. >> Right. Um and that [clears throat] gets one of the you did talk about you wanted to do more things that were experiences and like this treasure hunt is an experience, but >> Definitely. >> I know some libraries do do do have that their prizes rather than being, like you said, little trinkets that the kids are excited about for 5 minutes and then you step on all over the living [laughter] room. >> They're on the floor in the living room. >> Coupons for like the ice cream shop or going to the children's museum or things like that were the actual prizes, yeah. >> Yeah, and we've done those in the past, too, the bowling alley, ice cream, things like that. And some of them got used, some of them didn't. Our big experiential ones were of course the bigger prizes. But and now we've it's made our lives easier because all almost all of us are solo librarians out here. So you are wearing every hat that you could possibly have including that one. >> [laughter] >> Um you're doing everything. So if you don't have to do some things, but still have a real make a a good experience for the kids, uh that's where you go. Make your life easier but promote literacy at the same time. And it's really I know it I say it I make it easier, but then I talked about how many hours we put in to doing this. It is something that after you get established does get easier and easier to do. >> Yeah. >> So. >> Any new program you're going to do is going to have those growing pains in figuring out how are we going to do this? What's going to work? What's not going to work? Um [snorts] and you just get Yeah, gets to be you get it down to a science and figure out Yep, this is how we do it now this year. Yeah. >> And communication is key. I mean, we've had to be flexible this year with that one business closing. We We just made an a local announcement saying they're still participating. This is where you can pick up the book. Uh and they'll take care of your book. Um same thing we made the announcement after after the flooding here that they can't do it, we'll take care of it. So, we're still continuing. It's just a little bit of flexibility. >> Of course. >> Because because we have to. There's you never know what's going to happen. And even if you chose to run this say we run it during the summer, maybe it's something you ran over winter break. Now you've got to factor in, you know, winter weather depending where you're in Nebraska. Uh you've got to factor in those giant snowstorms that shut the whole day down and things like that. So, I'm from Colorado myself, so I understand. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we do have that. Um and yeah, some libraries have I know I have heard about your winter reading challenges that libraries are doing to continue you know, not just be a summer event. Um absolutely, yeah. And then people can do their Christmas shopping when they visit or their holiday shopping when they visit one of the businesses or something. >> [laughter] >> So. >> Um >> And of course, every library does participate. We have the four libraries. All of us are participants in this too. So, you have to come here. And it helps people that don't always know that there are libraries in other communities too. So, I and hearing less and less of I didn't know a library was here to Hey, I've never visited this one before. So, that's >> Mhm. >> That's good because that that helps us as libraries, too, because that's getting people in our doors that might not come in the door otherwise. >> Absolutely. Yeah, works for It's best for good for everybody, yeah. Um All right. So, uh does anybody have any other questions about the program or what they're doing at Lisa's library here? Type in the I've grabbed all the ones that I saw so far. Um but if you have anything else, you can ask. We did have one just uh one concern. I was wondering, um is your library okay? Is that library okay related to the flooding? >> Yes, actually we are. Um we did have uh the water was so heavy that of course it's literally just running down hill sides, and of course all the creeks and streams run out. Um I don't know who built the who where they got the doors for this library. This is not the first time we've had water run up against these doors, but they seal so perfectly >> Wow. >> that when I I could see all the mud and stuff that was up up against the door. When I opened the door, I came over on Sunday to check it. I opened the door, reached inside, and touched the carpet. Bone dry. >> Wow. >> So, we are perfectly bone dry. We also happen to be in a good spot where it does drain off fairly quickly, but um we're also we're not very close to the creek or the river, so we've been able to avoid this, I would say. So, well, water running through, that's just going to happen. And we've been we're fine. Yeah, we're good. >> Good. Good good to hear, yeah. Cuz you've been mentioning the flooding that just happened, and of course people were concerned and like, "Oh, no." >> Oh, no. No, we uh the the library in town in Newport did get a little bit of water in. Um and that again was water running down the hill. Um and it was easily mopped up. And they put a sandbag so that no more water would come in. And uh it was flash flooding, so it was here and and gone fairly quickly. So. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. Well, that's good to know. All right. >> [laughter] >> Um okay, does anybody what other questions do you all have for Lisa? Um, any thoughts, any ideas, um, anything more you want to know about or see what they were doing there at their um, library? Um, we have um, still more time left if you do want to. Um, do you have anything you want to ask about? Um, but this is this is a great program. I'm so glad we were able to get you on uh, the show here uh, to talk about this and share with everyone what you're doing there. It sounds like a a very creative, not something that I've heard of ever of a library doing before. Um, and so but it's we're always libraries always looking for new ideas and new ways to do things and we do like to share and uh, duplicate uh, copy what other libraries are doing. So, um, >> And we don't know how long this will last. Um, and when we're done with this program we'll come with something new. But we'd like to be able to share it so that other libraries can can give it a try and and see what's going on and and maybe help their communities. I think it works very well for a small library. I can see it working very well for a large library, too. >> Yeah. >> And it makes things a little bit easier on all of us. Um, and like I said, it gets people in the library who might not always come into the library. They used to get more kids into the summer reading programs. And um, it just relieves a burden off of everybody. We don't have parents having to carry these giant armloads full of books. We don't have kids feeling pressured to read, you know. >> It's a lot of pressure. Pages and pages. Got to keep going. Got to keep going. Yeah. >> Exactly. And and we don't want them to keep reading, but we want to really focus on reading for comprehension. >> Mhm. >> And that's that's I think is the biggest point. It's not how much you read, it's how well you read it. >> Mhm. >> So. >> And that literacy connection, that literacy um, is is the you know, the whole initiative, you know, thing that initiated this whole thing. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um, so yeah, so if you're on other communities, if you have some sort of literacy group, that would be someone to work with as well on this to help you with some of the work possibly as well the same way they did in Del Rio here. >> And you can always put this off on the friends of the library and have them do the leg work. >> There you go. Yeah. >> We don't currently have a friend so it would came down to us to do the leg work. But I would think this would be a perfect project for friends of the library to go out and do and that the library is going to be the focus point. You are going to be the arranging of it but you can send the team of friends out and they can go out to all the different businesses. They can get on radio. They can go to Kiwanis or whatever organizations you have in the community and get support. It is a low cost but high time for the first few years and then it just becomes easier and more relaxed the further on you go. >> And now that the businesses know about it they are as long as they want to keep participating, they they start coming to you. >> Exactly. Exactly. That's been very helpful to to both both Jennifer and myself. They've had people reach out and said, "Hey, we've heard about this." Jennifer's in in town more than I am. So people do tend to contact her a little bit more when they see her. They know who she is and go, "Oh hey, we want to get involved." Great, let's get you involved. It doesn't take much to sign get somebody to sign up to do it. They just have to have you know and we just do perfectly verbal agreements. It's you agree to do this. We're going to help you get support. We bring you a book. We tell you what day that you're what week you're going to be. You start on the list what your number is and you go from there. So Yeah, it it spreads the work out among the whole community instead of putting it on all on the librarians. >> Yeah. Awesome. Sounds good. All right. Well, I don't see any other desperate questions that came in while we were just chatting here. So I think maybe we could wrap things up if nobody has anything they want to ask about. Yeah. Um thank you so much Lisa. This is a cool, fun program. I hope more other libraries do um uh try and do the same thing and maybe reach out to you uh for if they want to check out what you're doing. Um, like I said, the slides will be available with the recording. Um but if you do want copies of any of like your like you said your uh the Canva um book reports uh forms and things, you can reach out to Lisa at her email or phone number right there and she will be happy to share it with you all. >> Yes. Yes, no problem. >> Yeah, lots of thank yous coming in. Thank you. Great great programs. Lots of comments coming in, so yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much for having me and uh I hope other people find this interesting. We're talking about it now. This gives you a whole almost a year to do >> Yeah, think about it for next year's uh for your next >> Exactly. It's good for next year and gives you time to think about what you want to do. >> Yeah, awesome. All right, thank you. I'm going to pull presenter control to my screen here now so that I can do my wrap-up. All right, so thank you Lisa for being with us today. Thank you everybody for uh joining us. Um, as I said, the show's recorded and um will be posted soon. Um, if you use whatever is your search engine of choice and type in the name of our show and compass live, you'll find our main um show page and our archive page. But here is our main um page for the um compass live with our upcoming sessions. But right underneath that is also a link to our archive shows. So, uh the most recent one is at the top of the page here. Excuse [clears throat] me. Um, so today's will be there should be there by the end of the day tomorrow as long as um GoToWebinar and YouTube cooperate with me. Uh recordings go up onto the Nebraska Library Commission's YouTube channel. So, um that's where the recording goes and then the slides are well, however the people send them to me. Um everyone who attended today's show as I said and registered today's show will get an email from me letting you know when it's available when it's ready. We also push out onto our social media. We do have a Facebook page for Encompass Live. If you like to use Facebook, give us a like over there. We promote about our show. Here's a reminder to log in today's show, meet our presenters. We do promotion and then when the recordings are available, we also announce about that. Use a little hashtag Encomp Live, an abbreviation for our show name. We also put out onto um the Library Commission has an Instagram. I'm putting it out onto my um LinkedIn. Um here in Nebraska, we have mailing lists. Uh so we we push out on there. Um you may also see um notices about our show on other states uh mailing lists or websites because as I said at the beginning, we are free and open to anyone wants to to um attend. Uh while we're on our archives here, I'll show you there is a search feature here if you want to see if we've done a show on a particular topic of interest to you. You can search the full show archives or just most recent 12 months if you want to limit it to just something very current. And that is because this is our full show archives and I'm not going to scroll all the way down, but as you can see here, the little scroll bar, this is a giant list >> [laughter] >> of every show we've done going back to when Encompass Live first premiered, which was in January 2009. So this year, 2026, is the 18th year of our show and we've been here pretty much almost every week, uh few weeks off here and there throughout the years. But uh do so do pay attention if you are watching any of our older shows to the original broadcast date. Um everything has a date of when it first went live, so you'll know when it actually happened. Um but do be aware things may have changed since the show happened. Uh links might be broken, resources may have changed or no longer exist anymore. People may work in different um libraries than when they presented for us or different institutions. Programming programs they're talking about maybe totally different now. So, I just pay attention to that those individual broadcast dates. But, this is something that we do in libraries. We sometimes keep things for historical purposes and as long as we have somewhere to keep them, which right now is our Library Commission's YouTube channel, we will always have our full archive available for you all. All right. Uh continuing education credits, I will mention that. You'll see here I do mention about if you watch an archive show for Nebraska libraries, I know a lot of people watch these online webinars across the country to earn continuing education hours or credit. If you are watching the show live, you'll get an automatic email from our GoToWebinar system that will let you say this is your proof of attending. If you watch an archive show, you will have to work with whoever is your CE granting body to ask them how do I get credit for watching an archive. We don't know who watches the shows. We can't track who's actually watching a recording. But, you so you'll have to work that out on yours. But, for the live, everyone will get an email that you can use to prove to whoever you need to that you did watch today's a particular show live. All right. So, that wraps it up for today. We got our upcoming shows here July and even getting into August. So, next week we'll talking about National Book Festival. Some of you may know of the National Book Festival at the Library of Congress does in Washington, D.C. They have a program they started I think they started it last year. The Festival Near You where states can do local programming related to the Book Festival. And Tessa Temporal, who is our Communications Coordinator here at the Library Commission, is going to be talking about the what we are going to be doing here in Nebraska for the Festival Near You program Festival Near You programming that is coming up. So, please do join us for that if you're interested in what we're doing there or any of our other upcoming shows. Again, thank you everybody for being here with us today. Thank you, Lisa. Good to see you. Great to hear about the awesome work you're doing there in your library. And I'm hopefully we'll see you all on a future episode of Uncompahgre Live. Bye-bye. >> Bye.