Dartmouth libraries log over one million minutes read in March

For the second year in a row, Dartmouth Public Libraries participated in Minute Madness — a local reading challenge between libraries in the SAILS Library Network.

Ramping up reading efforts after last year’s competition, Dartmouth libraries placed in first, with community members logging 1,192,723 minutes to beat out communities like Walpole, Dracut and Holbrook.

With this win, Dartmouth also became the highest circulating community in the SAILS Library Network and also the most read town in the state.

To make this possible, starting in February every book that was checked out came with a slip of paper advertising the challenge.

The North Branch Library also partnered with the nearby Potter School, with students logging their minutes read.

By the end of the competition, the libraries had over 1,300 submissions from community members.

“People of all ages were logging,” Library Director Dina St. Pierre said. “A lot of homeschooled kids were in competition with each other in their homeschooled groups.”

The minutes that people logged came in a wide array of avenues, from books to articles and audiobooks.

“It was just incredible how it took off,” St. Pierre said, “And we won.”

While the competition is now over, St. Pierre said the libraries are looking for a way to keep the logging system going to help motivate people to read.