Submitted by Valetta Cannon
Fort Scott Public Library
Youth Librarian & Assistant Director
End of Summer Statistics
From the end of May through the middle of August, 112 Fort Scott children and teens read a combined total of 2,984 books, 204 chapters, 28,562 minutes, and 4,688 pages as a part of the library’s summer reading program. Additionally, 33 children and teens took the 1,000 Minute Reading Challenge from August 1 – 31 and read a combined total of 29,867 minutes. Seventeen local volunteers, most of whom were retired or current educators, read or demonstrated craft projects for live and pre-recorded videos, which were shared with the community. Nine local restaurants and grocery stores donated gift certificates or coupons for free food and goods. The library won a $500 grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and a $250 grant from the Walmart Community Grant program. Hammond United Methodist Church also supported the summer reading program with a $25 check. Thank you to our amazing community for their commitment to literacy, our library, and local families!
Weekly Virtual Storytimes:
Join Miss Val on Facebook or YouTube at 10 am on Tuesday mornings for Virtual Storytime! The library offers storytime packets filled with craft supplies and pre-packaged snacks, and those may be picked up through their curbside service. Email Miss Val at [email protected] to schedule a storytime packet pickup.
Weekly Teen & Tween Program:
Teens and Tweens, meet with Miss Val weekly on Zoom – Wednesdays at 4:20 pm! Meetings include book discussions, online games, crafts, virtual escape rooms, and other educational activities. The library provides curbside pickup at least once monthly of supplies for teen program participants. These include craft supplies, pre-packaged snacks, games, and paper activities. To participate or to order supplies email Miss Val at [email protected]. You’ll also need to email her for the Zoom password. The Zoom link is:
Teens may take the ongoing reading challenge and earn prizes for every 200 minutes or pages they read. For more information, contact the library.
1,000 Books Before Kindergarten
Join the library’s free early literacy program and help steer your child toward academic success! To sign up, email Miss Val at [email protected]. Tell her your child’s name and age (children from birth to Kindergarten qualify), the parent’s name, and contact information. Then keep track of your child’s reading. Every 100 books read earn a free book, sticker, and printout of your child’s photo. The library currently offers program rewards through its curbside service. Participants may send a photo of their child to the library for each 100 book milestone reached, and choose from a list of reward books. Then they may schedule a pickup time for their goodies. Photos are posted to the library’s Facebook page (with parental permission).
Book Lending Services
Wondering what books to choose for your children? Check out a grab bag! Each bag contains 10 books, along with goodies such as stickers or bookmarks. They are a curated assortment of books chosen by Miss Val, according to a topic. To check out a book bag, you must have an active library card in the SEKnFind system with no restrictions, and must call or message the library to reserve the bag, and then set up a day & time to pick it up from the curbside service (or coordinate with someone else to pick it up, using your card). Once you have the bag, you may keep the goodies and the bag itself. The books will be due back in the library’s dropbox in 3 weeks. There is no limit to how many bags you may reserve at one time. Each book bag is created for a specific age range, either Birth – 1st grade or 2nd – 5th grades. When you reserve one, you should specify which topic(s) and age range(s) you want, as well as providing your library card number. Current topics are: Bears, Boys’ or Girls’ General Interest, Cats & Dogs, Character Building, Classics, Community Helpers, Dinosaurs, Disney, Dragons, Fall, Fantasy, Farm, Food, Jungles, LEGO, Magic, Ocean, Pirates, School, Silly Stories, Superheroes, Vehicles, and Zoo Animals.
Looking for books by a specific author but don’t know or want to think up which titles to choose? Let the library staff be your personal book shoppers! Just call 620-223-2882 and tell them you would like to do a 10 book grab. Provide your library card number* and the author’s name, and they will pick out 10 books by the author.**
*Active, unrestricted library account required with Fort Scott or a SEKnFind
library.
**If not enough books are available from FSPL, they may order some from other libraries by that author, choose books by similar authors to make up the difference, or choose as many as possible, up to 10.
For more information on programs and services, visit the library’s website at:
