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Carlsbad Library reports record Summer Reading Adventure: 3,133 participants and 1.5 million minutes logged
Summary
Jennifer Benson said the library’s Summer Reading Adventure drew 3,133 participants (a 20% increase over 2023), logged more than 1.5 million minutes, hosted 13 special events and relied on 82 teen volunteers who contributed 1,417 hours.
Jennifer Benson, co-chair of the Carlsbad Library’s Summer Reading Adventure, told the library board on Sept. 25 that this year’s program recorded 3,133 participants across four age groups and logged more than 1,500,000 minutes of reading.
“The number of participants overall increased by 20% over 2023,” Benson said during the board meeting. She reported participants by category: 437 in the birth–4 group, 1,495 in kindergarten through grade 5, 437 in grades 6–12 and 763 adults.
Benson outlined the program’s reward and outreach structure: registration rewards and one-hour reading rewards, weekly raffles with sustainable prizes, and special events that included author visits and family programs. “We hosted a total of 13 special events,” she said, and the events brought in about 1,300 attendees.
The program used Beanstack to track minutes. Benson credited the Friends of the Carlsbad Library and local businesses for financial support and in-kind donations that supplied rewards. Teen volunteers played a major role: 82 teens contributed a combined 1,417 hours, logging 1,782 interactions in which young readers earned books to keep.
Story walks — temporary picture-book installations in parks — ran at Pine Avenue Community Park, Stagecoach Community Park, Alga Norte Community Park and Hidden Canyon Park. Benson noted the installations were presented in English and Spanish and acknowledged recurring vandalism at the temporary sites: “The temporary install nature of the installation does occasionally present challenges because of vandalism, and we are working with parks and rec to consider a more permanent solution,” she said.
Board members praised the program. The report closes the library’s Summer Reading Adventure presentation for 2024; there was no formal board action attached to the report.
Next steps noted by staff included continuing partnerships with the Friends group and local businesses to support the program and exploring more durable options for story-walk installations.
