Sunday Reflections: If Ranganathan wrote a list about the SRP

2. Every reader his [or her] material.

3. Every item its reader.

These stay largely the same; everything that we read is useful in its own way. As my pre-reader points to words over my shoulder in my novel asking, “does that say bed?” my early reader sounds out the words on the back of her cereal box and her older friend reads Rainbow Fairies to her. One teen takes the summer to dive into books by her favorite comedians in hopes of improving her performance in forensics, and another rediscovers his little brother’s Goosebumps and takes a walk down memory lane, while yet another has had her interest sparked by the Fault In Our Stars fervor and is devouring all of the contemporary YA and fanfic she can get her eyes on. None of it is better or more worthwhile. It’s serving the purposes, stages, and interests of the reader and it counts. 

4. Save the enthusiasm of the reader.

Did I tell my daughter to march back upstairs and erase the marks she’s made because they didn’t accurately reflect her reading? No way. She was THRILLED to have read so much; and thrilled to be reading for the first time in ages. SRP shouldn’t discourage enthusiastic reading, and that certainly would have. If she were another child, one who is an avid reader, or has a better grasp of time (don’t get me started on this — asking kids who can’t tell time to track minutes or hours… just makes no sense to me), I might treat this differently. For some, the prizes are a great motivator to read. Others will be content with just getting their name on the big board of participants. Some will read voraciously all summer long. Others will do exactly and only what they need to do to meet the requirements, others will register and never turn in their logs. Though it doesn’t jive with our need to document success through statistics, I really believe it doesn’t matter.

5. The SRP is different things to different people.

And this is the crux of it all. Just like the library means different things to different people, so does the SRP. For some, it’s a chance to read as many books as possible. For others, an invitation to dive into some books they’ve been waiting for. For another, it might be a way to get a pass to a museum or a free food coupon. Still others might really like getting little prizes along the way. Some use it as a way to structure their week and remind themselves to visit the library.  And others just might not care, and for that we should not judge them. It’s ok. We’re glad they came to the library and are using it for what they need and want. 

What the SRP isn’t to any of our patrons: an opportunity to gather statistics. Let’s keep that in mind as we work to make our SRPs bigger each year with numbers that reflect that. My hunch is that if we keep the focus on the people, the numbers will work themselves out.

-Heather