Library bucks trend of summer slump

Life decelerates in the summer for many Mountain Brook residents and businesses. With kids out of school, families either dart for vacations or stick around town to savor the slower pace.

But the dog days of summer don’t exist inside the walls of Emmet O’Neal Library. In the two primary summer months, June and July, the library is at its busiest. 

“It is go, go, go the whole time,” said Gloria Repolesk, Emmet O’Neal’s director of children’s services.

A peek inside reveals as much. 

Under a decorated ceiling that resembles outer space, children peruse aisles of books and form a loose line at the check-out desk with their finds.

According to data provided Lindsy Gardner, the library’s executive director, Emmet O’Neal experiences a significant uptick in attendance and circulation during the summer, particularly in the children’s department for kids through sixth grade.

“I think it comes from the schools encouraging the parents and the kids,” Gardner said. “It’s also a tradition for a lot of these families. The parents came here as children.”

 In 2018, library patrons checked out 11,081 more print books from the children’s department in June and July than they did in March and April. 

The jump represented a circulation increase of 49 percent. Overall attendance also leaped by about 25 percent in that same period. 

Gardner said the summer spike occurs each June and July before circulation and attendance return to more regular ranges in August, when children head back to school. 

“This is a place where they go to socialize with each other,” Repolesk said. “It’s kind of a safe place for them.” 

Each summer Emmet O’Neal enrolls close to 2,000 kids in its summer reading program, which allows kids to track how many pages they read and earn prizes. This year’s program is space-themed and is called “Universe of Stories.” Faux planets hang from the library’s first-floor ceiling that is covered in night-black paper and dotted with yellow stars. 

In addition to its core reading program, the library hosts events most days of the week and offers several camps. 

“It’s always buzzing in there,” Gardner said. “There’s always lots of people in the children’s area.” 

Preparation for the chaotic summer months begins about a year ahead of time, Repolesk said, and then escalates as June nears. In May, librarians visit Mountain Brook’s four elementary schools to “hype up” the summer reading program. 

Repolesk said they aim to create an excitement that ultimately results in summer slide prevention. Research has shown that children who don’t pick up a book over the summer can lose up to two months of reading progress gained in the previous school year. 

“Reading about four to six books over the summer will avoid the decline and keep them level,” Repolesk said. “... It doesn’t even matter what they read. They don’t need to read at a higher level, they just need to be reading and using that part of their brain.” 

Repolesk leads a team of eight children’s department librarians who help kids find books that will whet their appetite for reading. Numbers suggest they’ve done that effectively. 

In 2018, summer reading program participants logged 1.5 million pages. 

“We’ve got children’s librarians that take time to have conversations with the child and make personalized recommendations that are right for their interests and right for their reading level …,” Gardner said. “That’s something that’s a point of pride for us.” 

This article was updated Aug. 8 at 3:15 p.m. to correct the last name of the library's executive director.