What are Living Reading Programs?

Second grade science teaches that a “living” thing is anything that grows and develops. Using this definition, living reading programs are those that grow and develop readers.

Using modern technology, any school or library can make their reading programs thrive and adapt around their readers.  They can live.  

Automation isn’t a dirty word

Automation doesn't mean that you have to turn your IT department into your “Reading Program” department with difficult software installation and days of training.

Automation means using modern tools to simplify and improve the process of building reading programs and making those programs easy to adapt to changing needs. 

Automation means using technology to manage the time-consuming tasks involved with good reading programs.

Why is automation important?

The lifeblood of your reading programs is participation. If you can spend precious time analyzing the efficacy of your programs and promoting them, instead of logging data and handling sheets of paper, you will increase participation in your programs. 

For reading program participants, if they can spend less time enrolling and making entries and more time celebrating success, they are more likely to start, and more importantly, finish, a reading program.

In 2021, automation is providing a powerful mobile app as an integral part of your . Today’s parents use their mobile devices to engage with the outside world and if your program isn’t on their device, it won’t get the attention it deserves. 

Two things happen when proper automation occurs:

1. Participation in your reading programs goes up because it's simpler for your families to participate in your reading programs 
2. Your reading programs become more engaging and adaptable because it’s easier for reading program organizers to adjust programs to changing needs and react to how the community is engaging, or not, in reading programs.

Reader Zone has two technology goals:

1. It must take less than ten minutes to create a new reading program that is reader-ready.  Meaning that it can be deployed to your community.
2. It must take less than three minutes to download the Reader Zone app, create an account, join a reading program and make a first reading entry. Daily reading entries take less than 10 seconds and participants can see their progress in real time.

Libraries and schools that adopt Reader Zone typically see a 100 to 200% increase in reading program participation.

Gone are the days when you can hand out a sheet of paper to a patron or a student at the beginning of the month or the beginning of the summer, and hope it comes back filled out.

Your community deserves adaptive reading programs that are easy to join and participate with. Modern tools allow us to deliver real-time reading data to all stakeholders.

More importantly you can see what's working and what's not working, and make immediate adjustments. This is what we call living reading programs that grow and develop. 

If you want your reading program to become living reading programs, set up a free account and try Reader Zone.  Click here for your free account.

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