I was really tickled to hear my post on summer reading programs being used as a launching point for commentary by that podcasing fool, Greg, over at Open Stacks. I really appreciated his plumping out the SRP-as-statistics-booster argument for me. I knew that had something to do with it, but he filled me in on it. Greg also contends that he doesn't think that anyone believes that SRP's are an effective literacy tool. I'm not so sure about that, having heard plenty of PR promoting summer reading for exactly that reason.
The one thing Greg did not address was my grumping about the marketing aspect of reading programs--all the merchant coupons, visits from hamburger-shilling clowns, and the like. I do understand that it's supposed to be a mutually beneficial promotion, but I am pretty confident that the businesses come out ahead on those deals. When I see McDonald's handing out promotional material about the library along with every bag of fries, I'll stop my grousing.
If you haven't heard one of Greg's shows, hop on over and have a listen!
