Library's Summer Reading T-shirts Have Become a Palatine Symbol

You see people wearing them in the supermarket, at the Y or at the summer festivals in Community Park. Children wear them, and so do their parents – those colorful T-shirts the awards to those who complete its summer reading program.

“I think it’s a source of community pride and unity when you see people wearing the shirts,” Library Director Susan Strunk said.

“It shows they’ve participated in something in the community,” adds library Communications Manager Andrea Lublink, who designed this summer’s T-shirt and the previous two.

The Palatine library began its summer reading program in 1989. T-shirts were given away for the first time in 1995; that year’s design featured rainforest animals. The library decided that the prize should be something a person would use, not a tchotchke that might be tossed in a junk drawer, said Gayla Swansen, manager of the popular materials department, which administrates the summer reading program.

The Friends of the Library, which has been affiliated with the Palatine library for more than 60 years, agreed to pay for the T-shirts. “It’s a great incentive,” said Friends President Ann Marquardt. The Friends raises money for the shirts through its used book sales.

The library has given away more than 4,000 T-shirts every summer since 1998 except for 2005, when the total was 3,818. The year with the highest participation was 2002, when 4,933 T-shirts were awarded. That summer’s T-shirt had a patriotic design. Each summer, elementary school children receive the most shirts – an average of 2,723 since 1998 – but the number of T-shirts awarded to adults has risen from a few hundred in the program’s early years to more than a thousand.

“Kids are so proud when they get their shirts,” Marquardt says. “And the adults, too.”

The program’s theme changes every year, and so does the T-shirt’s design. Summer reading shirts have been adorned with cowboys, superheroes, undersea creatures, movies reels, safari animals, tikis, haunted forests and rock ’n’ roll guitars. “People look forward to whatever it is,” Lublink said.

This summer’s theme is “A Midsummer Knight’s Read” (for the last few years, the Palatine library has used the same summer reading theme as the Illinois Library Association). Lublink, who started at the library as a graphic artist, began working on the T-shirt design in March. “The theme really drives what graphic images I use,” she said.

This summer’s navy blue T-shirt features a gold dragon sleeping upon a treasure trove of books. A knight and princess lurk in the background. Lublink knew from the start that she wanted a dragon on the shirt, but adds, “We didn’t want a scary dragon.”

Registration for the summer reading program began Wednesday, June 1. The program concludes July 31. A Palatine library card is required to sign up.

This summer, for the first time, the library has taken the program online. “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for patrons to sign up and participate,” Swansen says. “We’re excited about the online. We think it gives an opportunity for people who can’t always come in.”

Instead of filling out a log sheet, participants will track their progress on the library's website. Another change this year is that the program will be based on the number of pages read (the goal varies by age group) rather than the number of books. Patrons can visit the popular materials desk behind the central staircase for assistance with signing up and maintaining their summer reading accounts. “We want to give that personal service,” Swansen says.

When participants reach the halfway point of their reading goal, they will receive coupons from the , , Medieval Times, , and Sonic Drive-In. But the T-shirt that comes at the end remains the grand prize.

Many area libraries have summer reading programs, but only Palatine awards T-shirts. “It’s something that sets us apart and makes us unique from any other community,” Strunk says. “It’s part of our brand.”

The main reason other libraries don’t give away T-shirts, Swansen says, is because they are expensive prizes. This summer’s shirts will cost the Friends of the Library $3 apiece. “You have to have a Friends board that’s really willing to fund them,” Swansen says.

If T-shirts are left over at summer’s end, the library donates them to charities in developing countries. Strunk once received an e-mail from a patron who visited an orphanage in the Mexican state of Baja California and was surprised to see a group of children wearing Palatine library shirts. The patron took a picture of the children and sent it to Strunk.

Closer to home, the one place you are most likely to find people wearing previous years’ T-shirts is the library itself. “We see them all summer long,” Swansen says.