[yscon] Advice for Making Big SRP Changes

[Margarida, Danielle (DOA)]

Hi everyone,
        We currently support our statewide SRP by purchasing manuals, providing vouchers for the purchase of posters and reading logs, and by paying for each library (71 buildings) to have one children's performer and one teen performer. The whole process of selecting, booking, and paying the performers is a very convoluted process involving applications, a showcase, a booking meeting, and lots and lots of paperwork on my end. I've streamlined the process quite a bit over the past two years, but it is very time consuming and I'm doubtful of the impact it has on the summer reading program. Because we only pay $160 per program we do not get a variety of (nor high quality) performers willing to participate. Attendance numbers for these performances has been steadily declining, and every year I field complaints from directors regarding the performers that are selected. (Directors want performers that can draw/accommodate large crowds, but we can't get these types of performers because of the low $160 rate). The Youth Services Advisory Council is responsible for reviewing applications and selecting performers, however I am the middle man dealing with performers, helping libraries/performers book their programs, and maintaining a calendar of all performances throughout the state.
        I would really like to stop providing the performers showcase and paying for performers. It takes a lot of time to coordinate and prevents me from working on other projects that I think would be more meaningful (such as offering more training on summer learning, building more online SRP resources, etc.) And while I don't make the performer selections, it does appear that our agency is promoting a specific group of performers over another - something I'm not very comfortable with. This year I had to deal with an aggressive performer who was not selected, and we had to involve our legal department.
        All of this is to ask - do you have something you do to support SRP that works really well? I have supervisor support to discontinue the performers showcase, but I need to provide something in its place. I'm getting too wrapped up in my own head and would appreciate hearing what's working for you, or if you have experience in making a big change (the showcase is a decades old institution and I'm a bit nervous about the blowback!) I am planning on sending out surveys and holding a forum to gather input from librarians, too.

Thank you!

Also, we may already be getting an online reading program  through our partnership with our state's grade level reading campaign, so I'm looking for something other than providing a service like Wandoo Reader or Beanstack.

*******************
Danielle Margarida, Youth Services Coordinator
Office of Library & Information Services
Rhode Island Department of Administration
One Capitol Hill | Providence, RI  02908-5803

401.574.9309 (voice) | 401.574.9320 (fax) | www.olis.ri.gov<http://www.olis.ri.gov/>

[veclogo-2018]

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