Color Our World – Summer 2025

Resources for Summer Program Planning

Compiled by Beth Yates ~ Indiana State Library ~ byates@library.in.gov

Indiana public library staff–sign up for a listserv to receive all the latest news and updates about summer reading and more!  Visit here to sign up. (Youth services and summer reading news are most commonly sent to INCHILDPROG, YAPPERS, and INPUBLIB.)

General

 

Programming Resources

 

Related Partner Ideas

  • Arts for Learning: Non-profit that provides arts education to youth in Indiana, most commonly in schools. Website includes a page with Indiana arts in various mediums (some of which include how-to art videos) as well as information about Arts for Learning’s own education programs for hire.
  • Council for Art Education: Includes a list of Arts Centers and Non-Profit Art Organizations in Indiana, across the state.
  • ArtSmart Indiana: Provides resources for teaching Indiana history through art; originally developed to support teaching Indiana history to 4th graders, but resources could be used with many ages.

 

Programming Groups On Facebook

 

Summer Food Info

 

Root Cause Analysis

During the Color Our World workshops and webinar, we briefly spent time practicing the “Root Cause Analysis” method of evaluating our “whys” of summer reading.  This was a very simplified version of Root Cause Analysis.  Ultimately, the goal is to ask yourself what your goal is and why it is important, and to assess whether you need to tweak your program to meet what your community’s actual needs and your library’s actual goals are.

The Colorado Department of Education has a website dedicated to Root Cause Analysis with a number of resources to help you and your colleagues practice this technique at your own libraries.  It can be used in many circumstances, including strategic planning.

CDE’s website includes this Root Cause Identification worksheet, which is a starting place to work through the “Five Whys.”

Setting goals for summer, beyond statistics, is key since libraries spend so much time, effort, and money on summer programming.  Summer planners should ask themselves:

  • Who in our community are we serving with the goal, and how?
  • Who is not being served—and how can we reach them?
  • Who else is serving that audience—could we partner?
  • How will you know you’ve reached the goal?

 

Stats and Outcomes

 

Reaching New and Old Patrons / Community Asset Mapping

 

Other Resources

  • List of Indiana Library YouTube Channels – add your library’s channel to the list, check out what other libraries are doing, and/or follow each other if you want!
  • CSLP 2025 Font Guides 
    • Fonts used in this year’s program artwork were hand-made by illustrator Michael Mullan.  CSLP recommends Barlow Condensed as the closest match.

 

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Past Program Year Resources