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A summer reading initiative is not just for public libraries! Academic Libraries can engage campus readers, or those who need a little extra motivation to put down the remote or their phone and make reading a book a new outlet to recharge or de-stress. The DiMenna-Nyselius Library at Fairfield University started a Summer Reading Challenge (SRC) to motivate students, faculty, and staff to read and create a sense of community during the summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. Campus departments were invited to collaborate and the SRC created virtual programming for participants. The presentation will talk about the how the SRC came to fruition, the benefits of a reading challenge, assessment, and how it can be adapted.

Lisa Thornell – Student Engagement & Outreach Librarian, Fairfield University
Lisa Thornell is the Student Engagement & Outreach Librarian at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library and does marketing, communications, and event planning at the in addition to research services, instruction, and serving as the liaison to several academic departments. She runs the Personal Librarian Program for first-year students, and annual Library Research Prize, and is the chair of the Student Library Advisory Board, and co-chair of the Human Library committee. Lisa is also the current section chair of the Connecticut Library Association’s College & Universities Libraries Section (CULS). She has a Little Free Library in front of her house and helped install others around her town with the Friends of Milford Public Library.