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In today’s modern world, computers and smartphones take up a lot of our time. For adults, this is a pretty spectacular and exciting new change. For many kids, these devices have been here for as long as they can remember. For many of these kids, they would rather play with one of their smart devices than do things that previous generations used to do for entertainment. One example of this would be reading.
In an effort to help keep kids reading, the Los Angeles County Public Library started a new program last year in order to help encourage kids to read. A while back, the library began to notice that library cardholders 21 and younger would stop coming to the library altogether if they accumulated too much debt in overdue fees. This meant that kids were turning way from books to avoid the fees, which is something the library didn’t want to do.
In order to avoid this, the library started a new program that allowed kids to easily clear their debts to the library. All the kids had to do, is read a book. For every hour that the child spends reading in the library, $5 is removed from fees on their account. When a child wants to participate in this program, they simply talk to a library staff member who will register them for the program. The librarian will sign the child in and out in order to keep track of reading times.
Since this program started a year ago, the 80 public libraries throughout LA County have reinstated over 13,000 previously blocked accounts that had acquired too many late fees. This means that over 13,000 kids have been able to continue to access all of the reading material, and other resources, that the public library provides them.