Summer Reading
• Fort Vancouver Regional Library District: Register at www.fvrl.org; at district libraries and bookmobiles.
• Camas Public Library: Register at ci.camas.wa.us/index.php/camaspubliclibrary; at the library, 625 N.E. Fourth Ave., Camas.
Southwest Washington’s most popular library program is getting bigger. Some new participants will be bigger, too.
For the first time, grown-ups can take part in the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District’s summer reading program.
Summer Reading
• Fort Vancouver Regional Library District: Register at <a href="http://www.fvrl.org;">www.fvrl.org;</a> at district libraries and bookmobiles.
• Camas Public Library: Register at ci.camas.wa.us/index.php/camaspubliclibrary; at the library, 625 N.E. Fourth Ave., Camas.
Sue Vanlaanen, regional library spokeswoman, said reasons for the expansion include popular demand. The traditional summer-reading participants have been young children (0-5); children (6-11); and teens (12-19).
“Every year, when parents would come in with their kids to sign up for the summer reading program, we would hear: ‘”Why not adults? How about a program for us?’
“We heard this for years, and tried find a way to make it happen in a busy time of the year,” Vanlaanen said.
The expansion became possible after implementing an online program in 2014. In addition to managing all those summer readers — Fort Vancouver’s biggest annual program — the online package came with a bonus.
“It allows four age groups,” said Amy Scott, program services coordinator.
Adding adults as the fourth group was an easy decision, particularly since summer programs at some neighboring community libraries already included adults, Scott said.
The Camas Public Library has included adults in its summer reading program since 2004.
As Camas Librarian David Zavortink said: “Why should kids have all the fun?”
Camas had a record 2,740 participants in its summer reading programs a year ago, including 226 adults.
“It’s good for kids to see adults reading,” Zavortink said.
“Adult” doesn’t necessarily mean “parent,” Zavortink added. Many Camas summer readers in that age group don’t have children in the house.
“There is a social network component as well,” Zavorotink said. “People are writing reviews, and people who read a review might decide to read that book; there is a sense of community.”
At Fort Vancouver’s Columbia Gorge branches in White Salmon, Stevenson and North Bonneville, library staffers kept hearing that the Hood River County system in Oregon has a summer adult program, Scott said. Which always led to the question: “Why not you?”
The online program helps library staff because summer reading activities involve a lot of, well, bookkeeping.
In its 2014 debut, Fort Vancouver’s online program registered 7,428 children and 1,910 teens. It managed the reading logs that totaled almost 7 million minutes of reading and related activities.
The program also assigned 4,537 reading prizes, handled several random grand-prize drawings, and notified prize winners by email.
(Fort Vancouver and Camas libraries get summer reading funding from community donors, as well as nonprofit foundations and “Friends” groups that support local libraries.)
Families don’t have to use technology to take part in summer reading. Walk-in registrations are welcome, and paper forms are available to log reading totals.
