INDIANAPOLIS — More than 27,000 kids, teens, and adults took part in The Indianapolis Public Library’s 104th Summer Reading Program, which ended on July 29. Readers devoted 22,073,465 minutes to reading while earning prizes generously donated by community sponsors, far surpassing the goal of 16 million minutes read.
Throughout the summer reading program, kids and families dropped off new and gently used books at book donation bins at each Library location. This allowed participants to give back to the community by donating over 2,000 books to Brightlane Learning, a local organization that fights homelessness with the transformative power of education.
More than 12,100 of this year’s summer reading program participants signed up as part of a group and read alongside their friends in local summer schools and summer camps. For the fourth consecutive year, kids kept track of the amount of time spent reading instead of the number of books read. This allowed participants of all reading levels to have an equal opportunity to earn prizes. Participants were entered into drawings for grand prizes including one of two $529 CollegeChoice CD savings accounts.
The Adult Summer Reading Program joined in the fun by tracking minutes read this year and contributed 35% (5.69 million) to the reading goal of 16 million minutes read. The Adult Summer Reading Program also experienced a 60% registration increase and a 143% increase in participation. The Library had 1,554 participants complete activities such as visit a seed library, attend a CBLC program, or listen to an episode of our new podcast, “More Than a Place.” All the activities focused on bringing patrons back into the branches or experiencing a service The Library provides.