#athlib

Minions, Mayors and Mayhem in the Library

This year once again Westmeath Libraries took part in the Summer Reading Star programme to encourage children to keep up their reading habit during the school summer holidays.  It has been noted by educationalists in the past that children who don’t read during the summer months tend to lag behind in their school work. For this reason a summer reading programme has become a key element of national public library policy.

This summer over 1,000 children in Athlone signed up to be part of the Summer Reading Star Programme during the course of which they received various incentives such as pencils, bookmarks, fridge-magnets and wrist bands.   Each week there was a special draw for a Summer Reading Star library bag.  The object of the Summer Reading Star Programme was that the children would strive to fill up a card detailing the titles of the books which they had read.

The Library service greatly acknowledges the support of the teachers in our local schools who encouraged the children to take part in the programme.  However a special tribute should also be paid to parents (and grand-parents) who decided to support family reading over the summer months.  The children themselves were eager participants and for many of them weekly visits to the library were the order of the day, some even came to the library on a daily basis. During the course of the three months of the summer the children in Athlone Library read in excess of 21,000 books between them. This is a record number of issues of books borrowed by children in Athlone Library for that period and augurs very well for the standards of literacy in Athlone.

In a special awards ceremony the Mayor of Athlone, Cllr Aengus O’Rourke, presented medals to over 170 children who were able to attend on the night.  The Library was thronged with enthusiastic children, parents and other family members.  The Mayor had great words of encouragement for all those who took part.  As he remarked “It’s a wonderful initiative and anything that encourages children to read more (and put down the devices) gets my fullest support”. 

The Mayor was joined at the presentation by some special guests who included The Queen of Hearts, Cruella Deville and a very special Minion who engaged with their audience resulting in gales of laughter and smiles all around.