Ground rules were established: 1.) any book, any format was permissable (selections were not restricted to library books); 2.) no children's picture books or magazines; 3.) the program was for one month only; 4.) the participant, not the library, was responsible for keeping track of the titles; and 5.) the library must trust that the participant is honest.
Before we could procede, we had to prise some prizes from our local merchants. They were remarkably generous, donating prizes that ranged from a dinner for two to coupons for a free watch battery. We ended up with six major prizes and many coupons for various products. This required a fair amount of leg work, but was well worth it due to the merchants' extraordinary generosity. Prizes in hand, staff could then turn their attention to designing the posters, brochure, raffle tickets, signup sheet and prize labels for the display case. An example of the poster, brochure, and raffle tickets is shown below. It was decided that every title read would earn a raffle ticket toward one of the major prizes, and each visit to the library to have the reading list validated would earn a small prize.
