 In the studio here at Davis Media Access, I'm Autumn LaBea Renaud, and today we're talking with some of my favorite people in the world, librarians. We're talking about the summer reading program through the Yolo County Library System, and I have with me today Scott Love and Patty Valdovinos, and welcome to both of you. Thank you, Autumn. So, Mike, three kids went through the summer reading program. We had a blast. We did it for years, and I'm so glad to hear it's going strong, and you're here today to tell us about it. So, when does it start? What can we look forward to this year? We started on May 26, and this year our theme is called Reading by Design, which is about STEAM activities, the science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. And we have weekly programs going on at our library and all the libraries throughout the system. So it's been a while for me. How does it work? What do they get for signing up? What are the incentives? Little kids get a bendable? Yes. Teens get a cube puzzle, which is like a Rubik's cube, or a tote bag. Adults... Well, so there's two incentives depending on this age of the teen. So it's either a cube puzzle, and then tweens get a maze, so the little ball with the little maze, and then they play around with it. And then adults get a tote bag, and we had a whole competition over the design of the tote bag too, so it's specific to this year only. Cool. So obviously we know reading is great, and we want to encourage people to do that. So let's talk about some of the events that are associated that pull people into the library. I know there's always a lot happening at the library in the summer. Well, with Teens, we have a Comic-Con going on in June, and the first big event for the year is a Maker Faire. We'll have for the kids. Cool. So when is that happening? The Maker Faire is in June. Okay. And what else is going on? So we're having a few programs that are adult-focused, but also family-focused, so they're both... We have the Bohart Museum coming doing family night. I can't remember the date on that. And then we have the Aguas Fresca series, which is something that we're just starting. So Aguas Fresca is basically Mexican fruit water, and so the first one is a plant night, so you just come on over and we provide all the supplies. You're basically making a succulent garden, and all the supplies have been donated. And then we also have paint night, which you're just painting a design that we have created for you, or you can do your own. And you'll be served Aguas Fresca, so whichever type there's... We're usually trying to do three, so it's three types of Aguas Fresca, and you come and do your whatever we have planned that day. Okay. Let's mention a website now where people can get the dates for the events and other information. So our events calendar is on the YoloCountyLibrary.org webpage. So if you go on there and you click on the calendar, it should pop up. Not only the Davis Branch events, but also System Wine. Right, because we have how many libraries in the Yolo County System? That's eight. Right. Okay, so you mentioned the STEAM emphasis. Let's talk a little bit more about that. That's a hot topic, you know, in society today. It's a big deal in schools. So how does that play out through a summer reading program? It plays off with the events that we're having. We have a PVC pipe program one time. What's that? We're gonna have a building. What is it, the PVC pipe, yeah? So we did it a bit during one of our like story times, and basically the PVC pipe is just cut into different sizes, and you just build with it, so you're connecting it and basically just building whatever the kids want to. Kind of like connect for on a really big scale. Yeah, so the kids had tons of fun of it, tons of fun during the story time they just built. It was for Women's History Month, and so we were highlighting three different women, and one of them was Rosie the Riveter, and so that was connecting her. Right, so building. Yeah, building. And it was really fun. They had a lot of fun. They were, my brain went ahead and did it, and she just, yeah. So kind of hands-on things to really stimulate learning and curiosity about steam subjects, and you mentioned art in there too, so what's the art component? So the art component can come in different ways. It can be highlighted within like, so the plant making, right, so it's learning how to basically create a succulent garden and what goes in it, right? So that's like the science-y part, and also the art is creating it, right, making it hands-on and making it the way you want it to create and then paint the cans that it comes in in or things like that. So walk me through coming in and signing up for the program. What do I need to do, and how, is there a cut-off date by which I need to sign up? That kind of stuff. Like it starts on May 26, actually on that date, we're going to be at the RiverCats game and doing sign up there, so anyone can come to that. We're selling tickets through this Tuesday, coming Tuesday, if anyone wants to buy tickets, they can just go on our website and find the link to that. And the program will run through August 19, but you can essentially sign up anytime during that time period. So if I come in as an adult, most days I am, if I come in as an adult and I sign up, I say, okay, that sounds good, I want to participate, what am I committing to? Reading a certain number of books, reading a certain number of pages, can I use e-readers? You can read anything you want, you can read a book you have at home. We'd like you to come in and use a book at the library or read off of one of our e-books that you can download from home. Everything is timed reading this year, so instead of reading a number of pages, because we have slow readers and we have fast readers, I personally am a slow reader, so we're doing timed reading every 15 minutes, like with the kids, they get credit for that and for every five hours, they get prizes. Okay, that's actually really consistent with how the schools do reading logs if my memory serves correctly for elementary school. All right, so I come in and I'm a reader anyway and I use the library, so I might as well sign up, I can get some benefit out of that, right? Exactly. All right, and for kids, obviously we want to encourage them to be regular readers and to check out big stacks of books from the library. Well, yeah, one of the important things with the kids, you know, realize when they're in their school years is that they lose about two months of reading skills over the summer. Right. If instead they're reading during the summer, they'd read just a few books, they tend to gain about a month of reading skills. So it makes about a three month difference. Right. If you think of that through kindergarten through even sixth grade, they can be a few grade levels behind if they don't read during the summer. Yeah, and I know that our branch here in library, they're married to Stephen's branch, the kids area is so engaging. I mean, it's a really enriched environment. There's a lot of visual stimulation, there's a lot of great titles and the librarians are super nice. They even help lost adults speaking for a friend. Okay, so what else can you tell us about the summer program that will entice people to, you know, come on in and check out the library this summer? I do want to add that audiobooks also count as a way to read, listen. You are processing the same way as if you were reading a book. So that's really cool. We have audiobooks located on Overdrive App through the library as well. But yeah, audiobooks don't get mentioned as much and that also counts. So if you haven't related question, if you haven't used the e-readers or the audiobooks through the library before, is there a separate process you need to sign up for or a tutorial or anything? There are tutorials online. It's fairly simple to do, but we're also there. You want to give us a call and tell us what device you have. But you just go onto the library website and there's a link called Overdrive. OK, and does it work for nooks and kindles and iPads and everything? Basically about everything. All right, cool. It's interesting to hear about the audiobooks because people do learn in different ways or they're visually impaired and they can't read. So that's a really great option. All right, your website once again is Yolo County Library dot org. And also I've gotten there by just going to Yolo County dot org. And there's a click right at the top for for a library. So either way, we'll get you there. Let's see if we can hold up one of these flyers for a second. You can go ahead and hold it, Patty, and just look at the camera. Maybe they can zoom in on it and tells a little bit. So OK, so today we've been talking about the summer reading program through the Yolo County Library. And I want to thank Scott and Patty for being with us here today. And if people have any questions, what's a general number for the library to? 5304-757-5593. Great. Thanks so much. So you've been watching in the studio and get out there and read or listen.