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Montgomery County Public Libraries is hoping to prove that children's love of reading goes beyond prizes and T-shirts.

Decreased staffing — a result of county budget cuts — has forced the library system to suspend its participation in the popular statewide summer reading program, said Michele Sellars, county library public services administrator for community engagement and outreach. The library system is decreasing hours at most braches and shuffling many employees to new locations.

As part of a 23 percent reduction in funding for fiscal 2011, the library system will lose 80 positions, said county library business manager Eric Carzon. Fiscal 2010 budget cuts forced the system to eliminate 60 positions.

Montgomery County is the only county in the state suspending its participation in the Maryland State Department of Education's summer reading program, said Bill Reinhard, a department spokesman.

"I think it's unacceptable that Montgomery County is the only county not to participate in it," said Ari Brooks, executive director of Friends of the Library Montgomery County, a volunteer support group for libraries. The nonprofit usually pays the $45,000 needed for the summer program.

"We have the money to fund it, that's not the issue," Brooks said. "I think they were being careful and cautious until things shook out and they knew if they had staffing capacity to run the program."

Previously, children who registered for the summer reading program in Montgomery County received a game board to track their reading progress, prize incentives for completing tasks and a T-shirt and certificate for completing the program. There will be no game boards available this year, but some programs will continue.

This year, the Friends of the Library Montgomery County are sponsoring and managing several countywide children's programs, such as puppet shows, guest performances and educational presentations. Local Friends chapters may provide additional programming.

Last year, 23,000 children signed up for the summer reading program in Montgomery County, Carzon said.

"It was very staff-intensive in the way it was done," Carzon said. "So much was going into the little pieces of plastic and stuff. There was all this paperwork to do, managing certificates and managing shirts – it's a huge time drain. Having 20 percent less staff to do the program, you just can't have them deployed running around doing these little tasks."

Libraries also will be limited to running three staff-run early literacy development programs per month, Carzon said. These programs, such as preschool story times, are run by trained librarians. All staff-run adult programming, such as librarian's reading groups, also has been cut.

About 200,000 people attend programs every year, he said, but staffing the library counter which receives 1 million requests for help each year needs to be the first priority.

At the Potomac Library, which is losing half a position and reshuffling many others, manager Lindsey Hundt said young readers will not need a game to keep them motivated.

"It's never a struggle here to get a child to read. The libraries are really popular in our system," Hundt said. "While it is fun, they love getting prizes, what really turns them on is getting the books. That always far outweighs the prizes."

There is a reading log available on the county libraries website, as well as suggested reading lists for Pre-K though high school students.