The Big Sandy Public Library is hosting a great race this year. This race will not see its competitors traveling around the world, but rather they will be exploring the world through the pages of books. The race pits the librarians and subs against library patrons to see who can finish reading more books throughout the calendar year. I spoke to Darlene Cline, Big Sandy’s Librarian, on the 6th day of the contest. The librarians held a commanding lead over the patrons 21 to 16. Within the space of a week, more patrons joined the competition, resulting in a bit of a blowout. They have since added the Friends of the Library to the Librarians’ team to even things up a bit. The librarian team, which has 9 members, has finished 58 books, which puts them just ahead of the patrons (around 13 people) who have completed 43 books.
Darlene came up with the idea as an extension of another competition that she was in last year: “Last year, Rachel and I were in a competition with Heather to see how many books we can read. Heather barely has time to read, so she was like ‘Yay! I got 50 books in before the end of the year.’ And we were like ‘Oh wow!’ (Lots of sarcasm!) As horrible friends that we are… by the time February rolled around we were just like ‘We’ve got 60 done each’ so we stopped keeping track because then life happened. We decided this year to tally it and keep a competition going and see how it goes. Really, it’s something fun. This way, the people can compete against the librarians.”
In addition to competing against the library staff, patrons will be competing against each other. “Every quarter, there is going to be a prize and whoever read the most in that quarter will get a prize. We have goodie bags for the winners. We only have our first bag coming together now. We are having a Friends of the Library meeting, so the Friends can help me put this together.”
Thus far, the 13 patrons who are competing are likely to be just the beginning. As word gets out about the contest, Darlene expects a much larger number of people to participate. “The librarians would be the people who work here, like Tavie and her one book (so far).” Tavie proudly chimed in that she had already read a book to help with the effort. The librarian team includes: Jodie Haaland, Rachel Baumgarn, Jeanna Echols, Sarah, Tavie Wortman, and Darlene Cline. They recently added the Friends of the Library as well.
The restrictions regarding the books you can read are fairly loose. “We are not going to be nitpicking, because the idea is just to read. Also the involvement and to give people something to do.” Competitors must be over 18. Books can be print, audio, ebooks, and books on the Libby app. Books completed must be reported by 3pm on Fridays. The quarters will run from January to March, April to June, July to September, and October to December.
The reading contest is one of many ways our local library has encouraged community involvement and fostered reading amounts the population of Big Sandy. Programs for kids run throughout the year. During the summer, the Summer Reading Program encourages children and adults to read and participate in various activities. In addition, a book club meets there Tuesday evenings.
