Beanstack Library Challenges 📚📱

Some of you are hopefully familiar with Beanstack, the app we use for our different challenges, but just in case you aren't, here's an explanation of how to get started and work on our challenges!

First question might be: "What challenges?" The main one might be our Summer Reading Challenge. Each year, we go all out for Summer Reading to keep everyone reading over the summer. It's meant for all ages, we'll have different events, and of course incentives to read. How it's worked the past few years is you get points for books you read or listen to, movies you watch, and events you attend. With those points, earn badges that will enter you into the grand prize drawing at the end of the Challenge.

We also do a smaller Winter Reading Challenge. This past year, we had a challenge of time spent reading, with badges earned for every 30 minutes of reading.

Finally, we have our on-going challenge 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten. Any child from birth until they enter kindergarten qualifies to work on the challenge. The goal is for caregivers to read 1,000 books before the kindergarten milestone. It doesn't matter if you're reading a 1,000 different books or you read the same story before bedtime each night, it all counts. Each participant gets a tote bag for joining, buttons for each 100 books, and a final prize for finishing the challenge.

Next is probably: how do we get signed up? You have a couple different ways, you can download the Beanstack app or you can sign up on your computer on our Beanstack page. I'll walk you through some of the steps from the app. Signing up on your computer should be the same, it might just look a little different.

Here is what you will see when you open the app. On the first page, you'll choose the top option, "At my library, school, or bookstore." That will take you to the second screen. You can scroll through some of the information they offer about the app. To move on, click "Find a Site" at the bottom of the screen. From there, you can search "Ida Rupp" to find our site.

From there, you'll start the process of signing up. A tip for families: if you're signing up everyone in the family, start with one adult that will take care of the account. From there, you can sign everyone up under the original profile so everyone is in one place! No need to remember different passwords our account names. We'll get to that in a bit though. To start, pick a username for yourself. You can use your name if you'd like. You'll also enter your email and password, make sure to choose something you'll remember. Most phones give you the option to save passwords, so that is a great way to remember if you get signed out at any point. Next, you'll enter your first and last name. Again, start with one member of the family that will oversee the account if you're signing up more than one person. Next is you phone number and zip code. Then you will choose which branch you are signing up from. We have profiles for all 3 of our locations, so choose which library you visit most often.

After sign up, you can fill out your Reader Profile. You'll start with your first and last name and age. Adults will be 19+. If you'd like to add a profile picture, you can, but it's not required. Next is grade. Adults still have to choose, but you can just choose "Adult" since you're out of school. Again, you'll choose your branch. Then you will get to the profile complete screen. Here is where you can add additional readers to the account. You'll follow the same steps for each reader, just adding in their name, age, and grade. The age and grades are more detailed for children because everything can be more catered to their levels. For example, 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten will only be available for those that haven't reached school yet. Also, in the past for Summer Reading prizes we've had different prizes available for younger readers versus middle grades versus teens.

Once you get the family signed up, you can start logging books or getting started on challenges. Currently, we only have the 1,000 Books challenge for younger readers. Summer Reading will start in June so you can keep a look out for it closer to then.

This is what you should see for your main page when opening the app. To switch between readers, click your initials in the upper right-hand corner.

To log books, look for the blue plus sign at the bottom of the page, this will bring up the option to log your reading. A great feature is that you can log for multiple people, so if you read together, the book can count for each reader. Or you can log it for one person if everyone reads separately. You can search by title and author. You can also scan the ISBN (the barcode typically found on the back of every book, for library books, this is separate from our personal barcodes). Once you find your book, you have a few options: "log reading" which will let you choose if you've finished the book or are still reading, "quick complete" which will automatically assign the book as completed, or "start timer" if you want to keep track of your reading time as you're reading the book.

Back on your profile, you can look at your overall progress: how many books you've read, how many rewards you've earned, and how many badges you've earned. You can log books between challenges if you need a way to keep track of what you're reading. Make sure if you have multiple readers to switch over to their profile to check out their stats as well.

If you need any help with getting started, logging, or figuring out how to enter a challenge, stop into the library and talk to staff. We can do our best to help you over the desk or we have printed sheets you can take with you with instructions.

Hopefully this will help you so you're all set up for the Summer Reading Challenge this year!