Promoting reading 1
The research literature on summer reading program
mes often deals with the extent to which the programmes have managed to counteract Summer Learning Loss. A large number of articles have been written on this subject. For example, in the article Summer reading and the ethnic achievement gap published in the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, Kim (2004) argues that reading 4–5 books over the summer is enough in itself to decisively counteract the losses otherwise incurred over the summer break. Among a number of larger studies that have investigated the effects of summer reading programmes, a doctoral thesis, The Effectiveness of Summer Reading Programs in Public Libraries in the United States, is worth mentioning (Locke 1988). Deshommes (2013) investigated the effects of participation in summer reading programmes on primary school students’s grades. Another doctoral thesis worth mentioning is Building a nation of readers: multiple perspectives on public library summer reading programs (De Groot, 2009). This study took a broad approach to summer reading programmes and tried to answer the question of how children, parents and library staff experience such programmes. There are a few larger studies that have investigated the effects of summer reading programmes on students’ grades in school. Barbara Heyns’ Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling (1978) has long been regarded as the definitive study on the subject, and still today is often cited by librarians as a source of arguments for summer reading programmes. A more recent study is The Dominican study: public library summer reading programs close the reading gap (Roman et al. 2010). The study was the result of a multi-annual research project at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, and aimed to answer the question of whether public library summer reading programmes improved the grades of socially disadvantaged students, in particular in third and fourth grade in primary school. It reported a number of positive results, including that the children who participated performed better on tests that measure reading ability than children who did not participate. On the whole, this study is evidence for summer reading programmes being able to play a significant role in bridging reading gaps and argues that public libraries have a vital role to play. A useful handbook on summer reading programmes that takes up everything from research to planning and evaluation is Fiore’s Summer Library Reading Program Handbook (Fiore 2005). Its proposals for best practice for summer reading programmes include well-defined target groups, effective marketing strategies and evaluation methods, and experienced staff. The literature on summer reading programmes also points to the importance of effective marketing of the programmes to parents with children of school age, where libraries should be stressing the educational benefits of summer reading programmes to parents. Furthermore, summer reading programmes should be characterised by effective collaboration with schools. For example, the Summer Reading Challenge is a programme that works best when libraries, schools and local authorities all work together. The school can identify groups of children and their families to offer practical support, so that they can participate, and monitor the progress students make in relation to the programme. In addition, the school can make personal contacts with parents, and encourage siblings, older friends, and reading buddies to accompany younger readers to the library. The school can also connect the students’ summer reading to the autumn 82