My school is a rarity. We do not participate in any of the electronic reading incentive programs. We encourage reading. We have reading awards, but we don't believe in reading for points. The attitude that I hope you encourage in young people and adults this week is one of enjoyment. Encourage patrons to read for fun. You can have reading records, bookmarks, reading awards, and more. Most of all you and your patrons can have a great time with books.

To make the management of your reading program easy you can have folders for each patron or student. I use a simple 3-ring binder with loose-leaf paper. Each student has a page on which the reading log is kept. You can print up special sheets and encourage children to decorate the boarder.

Decide how you will run your reading program. Do you just want patrons to log the number of minutes they read each day? Are you going to encourage the reading of different genres of literature? How about award winning books? Set a goal for everyone, or allow individual goals to be stated at the beginning.

Create a motivational bulletin board, which will encourage your eager readers. It can be a road trip, gold medals with an Olympic theme, or a clock. What ever fits your program. For a clock you can use brown paper to cut out a simple grandfather clock shape and attach the hands to the center of the board. Staple the clock face in place and add a title. "Reading 'Round the Clock" or "Making Time for Books" are examples.

Encourage patrons along with way with special bookmarks. You can design them yourself and laminate them. You might have the children create their own bookmark. Simple awards at the end of the program encourage all patrons to keep on reading. The children should feel accomplishment from meeting their goal rather than a flashy toy. If you want to gather more tangible incentives many are available from corporate sponsors. Many resources are available for free at various sources on the 'net. Take time to look at the resources for National Library Week. There are great items with an Arthur theme. These logos and bookmarks can easily be incorporated into a reading incentive program.