Summer Break Wrap Up

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Summer Break Double Challenges for 2020! We have definitely experienced a number of challenges as a community this summer, but we united together to read more than 6 million minutes! Great job everyone!

Top Five Books Read   

Here are the top 5 books read all summer by our Summer Break readers! Are they what you expected? What were your favorite summer reads?

1. Holy Bible 
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
4. Bayou Magic by Jewell Parker Rhodes 
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Beanstack

For 2020, we were excited to introduce a new Summer Break software tracker: Beanstack. The previous year, we knew we wanted a more user-friendly website to grow the program. Beanstack offered this and more, including flexible options for readers to log as individuals, families, groups, and classes. There’s also an easy-to-use app, Beanstack Tracker. With bright colors and a simple layout, Beanstack made it fun to track your reading time. We hope you enjoyed the redesign and improved experience. Did you know Beanstack works year-round to log books and reading? Yes! And the Library is also planning for future Beanstack challenges! Keep visiting the Library online or in-person when details become available.

Thank you, Summer Break Team!

Did you know Summer Break, the Library’s summer learning initiative, happens due to the coordinated efforts of over 20 dedicated library staff, all of whom do this project aside from their primary library jobs? Summer Break is actually a year-round planning process. We often joke it never ends!

The Summer Break 2020 Team started planning and researching in July of 2019. Even in the midst of the previous Summer Break, the Library is always thinking and planning ahead. From July to September, the team leaders work on recruiting new team members, establishing goals, and preparing for the year to come - all while wrapping up that current summer. In October, the work begins in earnest as the team uses participant and staff feedback from the previous year to improve the program. The team researches ideas and improvements in November and December before making final decisions in January. Spring is when things really heat up! During this time, the team works diligently to select learning activities, create reading lists, identify fun incentives and design new marketing materials.

This year everything was going great until...

The pandemic hit. Our community all but shut down, and the Library closed for an undetermined amount of time for the safety of customers and staff. The team quickly realized that Summer Break 2020 would not look anything like past Summer Break programs.

Decisions would need to be made, and fast. After all, at the beginning of the pandemic, there were only two months until June 1^st and the start of Summer Break. Almost every aspect of the program would have to be reconsidered and adapted in light of the new reality. The team needed to finalize the new Summer Break website with Beanstack and figure out how to transition the program to fit within the community guidelines of the “Stay at Home” order.

During this time, Summer Break team members held almost daily online meetings, wrote late night emails, and brainstormed ideas while keeping tabs on current community recommendations and the Library’s own swiftly changing plans.

Usually, Summer Break activities encourage participants to get out and try new adventures in Mecklenburg County and beyond. But the need to stay in resulted in the June challenge of Summer Break: At Home, where participants were encouraged to do activities at home or participate with the Library virtually. However, the expectation was that the situation would improve later in the summer, so Summer Break: Reading Takes You Everywhere was planned for July 1^st.

At this time, there was only a month left until launch. The team needed to adapt the program to Beanstack’s new platform, design new marketing materials, plan various scenarios for prize distribution, train the Library staff virtually, and prepare for the Library to reopen.  Our amazing Summer Break team did all of these things and more; pivoting the program and pulling out all the stops in record time to ensure that Summer Break could still happen. As the team knows, it would not be possible to do Summer Break without the support of all Library staff. Members of administration volunteered to sort prizes; other staff pitched in to make suggested summer reading lists; and some staff took the first leap to train on a new platform to help customers sign up. All staff embraced training and sharing information with the public at their locations. It’s truly a BIG team effort!

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse behind-the-scenes and the Double Summer Break Challenges of 2020. We look forward to reading with you next year!