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No lazy summer for Indian Prairie Library
Updated: October 7, 2012 6:32AM
DARIEN — For many, summer is a time to relax and take it easy. Not at the Indian Prairie Public Library.
“It was very, very busy this summer,” said Jane Hartney of the library’s teen services department.
While schools were closed this summer, the library was bustling with summer reading programs and special events, not to mention families looking for a good summer read or just a cool place to relax on a hot summer day.
A main event for the library was its summer reading program — an annual program that encourages kids, teens and adults to spend at least part of their summer reading a good book or two.
Children went way beyond a book or two, said Head of Youth Services Monica Dzierzbicki. She said 403 teen participants read 2,704 books. Sixteen won prizes for having read 20 or more hours reading.
The 1,480 participants in the children’s program logged 19,448 hours of reading between June and August. Among adults, there were 270 participants in the summer reading program, turning the pages on 2,564 books. They also listened and watched more than 1,200 DVDs and CDs.
Hartney and the rest of the library staff held many summer events to entice people of all ages to visit the library. More than 100 teen volunteers, known by the library as VolunTEENS, gave their time and energy to see that all of this summer’s events ran smoothly.
“Summer is the time when people have time to come to the library,” Hartney said, which makes the hottest months of the year among the busiest for the library.
And that is fine with Hartney and the rest of the staff.
“We try to attract people to the library all year,” she said. ~.
