Special Topics Paper

My Special Topics Paper is on Public Library Book Discussions/Clubs.  

I found a great amount of information on innovative formats for book clubs that I hope to implement one day!  Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. 

Jessica Beal

S524

Special Topics Paper

Public Library Book Discussion Groups

            Reading can be a powerful experience encouraging strong emotional connections.  Nancy Pearl states, “The joy and mystery of reading is that each of us reads a different book from everyone else…even when it's the same book.  We bring all of our life experiences to the reading of a book, any book, and each person's history is different from everyone else's” (as cited by Dempsey, 2011, p. 24).  Dempsey offers, “One of the most profound ways to experience any book is to share feelings about it with others in a program libraries do especially well: the book discussion group” (p. 24).  The book discussion provides a natural way for each reader to share their own feelings and experiences with others while enriching their own reading experience. 

            Public Library Book Discussions can take on numerous iterations to cater to a variety of patrons and their interests. The success of each group can depend on a variety of factors.  Librarians and/or facilitators must keep in mind helpful guidelines to ensure positive patron participation.  Additionally, with the technology innovations that have become commonplace in today’s society, there are now a great deal of new and innovative possibilities to engage patrons in the book discussion experience. 

            Book discussions among friends allow individuals to engage in an activity that they find enjoyable.  Not only are they able to have fun, but they are also able to build upon an existing relationship by discussing thoughts, feelings, and ideas on shared experience.  Why would individuals want to participate in this same activity with strangers?  Robertson states, “It provides a way to get to know neighbors, discuss ideas relevant to life in the community, and to simply learn more from one another than possible by reading a book alone in a vacuum” (2002, p. 52). 

            Throughout the years, there have been several well-known book discussion structures implemented by public libraries.  Let’s Talk About It, was originally started by a group of friends during the 1970s in Vermont (p. 52).  The Vermont Humanities Council promoted this model, and the American Library Association began to engage with this program in the 1980s (p. 52).  “Libraries in 30 states presented "Let's Talk About It" series throughout the 1980s, and the programs have engaged an estimated 4 million people in the last two decades” (p. 52).  In this series, participants read five books related to a humanities theme, and are led by a humanities scholar in a discussion.

      The most well-known and widely participated book discussion group is the One Book, One Community program.  “In 1998, Nancy Pearl and Chris Higashi, librarians working in the Washington Center for the Book and the Seattle Public Library, had a brainstorm…The expanded the book club concept to encompass the entire city, launching a book discussion that incorporated all the branches, bookstores, and even cultural organizations” (Dempsey, 2009, p. 19).  Pearl was asked her opinion as to why these types of community reading programs have become so popular.  She offered:

Readers welcome the guidance provided by reading programs and their preselected titles. The world of books is so big. You walk into a library and no matter how small it is, it's bigger than you can ever read," she said. Such programs also can provide a sense of unity and camaraderie. People are aware of the fact that you can go through your whole day never talking to anyone outside of your immediate family, and maybe not even that. ... They have a hunger to connect with another person," she said. (Orr, 2006). 

However, the Chicago Public Library took this idea one step further and included the entire community.  This program brought about the “One Book” label for future incarnations (Dempsey, 2009, p. 19).  Palmer and Peterson state:

According to the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, the success of the Seattle program has inspired other OBOC programs in more than 100 communities around the country.  As civic agencies with a mandate to provide free books to all and promote reading, public libraries are a natural place to breed programs such as OBOC, and, in fact, the majority of OBOC programs are hosted by public libraries with cooperation and financial assistance from other local groups (2007, p. 53). 

The OBOC is a natural fit for local library’s wanting to engage their patrons while connecting to community supporters, local businesses and nonprofit agencies (p.57).  These partnerships foster a collaborative effort among community organizations in a highly visible and engaging format.  Not only does it promote the library as a community resource, it also provides opportunities for a community to come together for a common goal.  Dempsey states that the discussions created by OBOC, “offer opportunities for readers to connect with one another in meaningful ways and, in the process, learn more about their neighbors…These kinds of experiences build community ownership of the library and elevate its presence as a curator of those experiences” (2009, p. 22).  In the article, “And Then We Went to the Brewery”, Fuller and Sedo share the following in reference to One Book One Community activities:

Some activities, like book discussions, assume that participants will read the book. Others do not, instead bringing people together for author events, bus tours around places related to the book, craft workshops, and even campouts, canoe trips, and themed cooking classes. Screenings of film adaptations, theatrical dramatizations, and staged readings of extracts from the book by professional actors or local celebrities are common to various iterations of the model. We have also encountered wine tastings, group singing, visual art projects, and pub crawls, none of which depended on anyone actually reading anything, but all of which are predicated on the idea that a book can act as a cultural mediator or a kind of engine for social gatherings (2014, p. 15).

            However, it is also important to remember the variety of traditional book discussion formats that public libraries can engage in with their patrons.  In his article, “Oprah and out”, Robertson offers the following list:

·      Ongoing groups or clubs that meet according to the participants' demographics (moms of toddlers, seniors, teens, ethnicities) or the type of material being read (science fiction, mystery, romance, nonfiction, poetry, history). These groups may meet monthly, three times a year, or at other intervals, and are currently the most numerous.

·      Thematic or topical series, in the style of "Let's Talk About It," with or without a scholar-leader or other facilitator.

·      One-time discussion of works by visiting authors prior to their appearances.

·      Radio call-in, such as that on ALA's "StoryLines America" regional literature programs on public radio.

·      Discussion and listening series, combined with filmed or audiotaped programs, such as ALA's "Poets in Person" readings, produced by the Modem Poetry Association.

·      Adjuncts to other cultural programs, such as discussion of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in conjunction with the current ALA traveling exhibition "Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature" (AL, Dec. 2001, p. 8-10).

(2002, p. 53)

            In the article, “The Book Club Exploded”, Hoffert offers the following ideas for book club formats:

·      Thematic approaches to book discussions.  Instead of revolving around a single title, the discussion incorporates a theme over a variety of titles.  “Working by theme enriches the conversation by allowing readers to cross genres and approach the discussion from different perspectives, thus getting a better sense of an author, idea, or culture” (2006, p. 35).

·      Combine discussions with a meal, specifically a title that reflects scenes from a book or an author’s culture.

·      Librarians working with groups of any size can check out publisher web sites to see what authors might be available for phone chats.

(2006, p. 35)

            Book club kits provide patrons with a resource that takes the book discussion experience outside of the library encouraging patrons to become their own facilitator.  Johnson County in Kansas utilizes the following to ensure success in this program.  

·      The library's check-out period is two months with one renewal to allow numerous groups access to titles.

·      Most of the kits have corresponding large print and audio formats for each title available in the library's collections.

·      Discussion guides are included either in the book itself or are available on the library's website.

·      The library offers sessions on how to facilitate a book club, in addition to the How to Start a Book Club link on its website and book discussion groups, led by library staff, to join and from which to learn modeling.

(2008, p. 30)

There is also an understanding that, “The availability of discussion questions is key to enabling book clubs to operate successfully and also differentiates the kits from "a bag of books." Discussion questions can come from the publisher, NoveList, Reading Group Guides, or other credible sources, but they are too labor intensive to produce in-house” (p. 32).

            Technology is not lessening the importance of books or reading.  E-book sales account for only 34 percent of the market share in the US during 2013, “So the urge for people to be social through their reading has not died in the face of technological change or as a result of the recent shifts in the book publishing and retailing industries” (Fuller and Sedo, 2014, p. 15). However, it is providing new opportunities for library patrons to engage in the book club/discussion experience.  Hoffert shares,

HarperCollins has just begun creating podcasts that can be downloaded to an iPod from the HarperPerennial.com web site and heard later. The original programming on these podcasts includes author interviews and even musical scores, suggesting what music was wafting in the background as the author wrote the book. "If a librarian is thinking of suggesting a book, the podcast can give a little more background," explains HarperPerennial marketing director Amy Baker. "For reading groups themselves, it supplies more fuel to fire the discussion." (2006, p. 37).

Jan Lima, of Maine’s Bangor Public Library, offers a variety of ideas to incorporate the Internet experience into a book discussion. 

Not Your Ordinary Book Group has a unique structure: it meets in the physical library monthly and also connects readers daily online through a blog. "We started with the intention of pulling in patrons who have moved onto Internet forums back to the library, while allowing our traditional readers to interact as well," says Lima (Dempsey, 2011, p. 24).

Members are encouraged to participate, in person or online, regardless if they have read the book or not.  Lima states, "This takes the pressure off our patrons if it's a busy month for them” (p. 24).  To encourage ownership for the participants, books are chosen by an online vote.  The online structure was not difficult to create. “Lima started with a free Google email account and built from there. ‘From our email we created the blog, which automatically supports Google Friend Connect within the blog, and Google Talk, an IM service, is easily created in each blog follower's gmail account,’ she says. ‘You don't need a server, domain name, or design program. Google provides it all’” (p. 26).  Several other resources offer similar discussion platforms: LibraryThing and LibraryThing for Libraries, Goodreads, and ChiliFresh. 

            When designing a book discussion experience for patrons, it is essential to remember the purpose of the interaction. It is important to maximize enlightenment without sacrificing enjoyment.  Barthelmess states, “We are not gathered to refine a collection of disparate judgments into a polished, unanimous opinion.  Instead, we discuss together in order to construct a conjoint assessment bigger than the sum of its parts” (2014, p. 30).  The book discussion is meant to enrich the reading experience.  McArdle and Trott add, “Reader interests in book discussions offers libraries a lot of opportunities to interact with their reading community and is a chance for libraries to reinforce their value to the community, a useful thing in unsettled economic times” (2009, p. 122).  Michele McGraw, Southdale Library, Hennepin County PL, MN. sums it up perfectly when she stated, "People are looking for a chance to connect, and the library's book club is a real community." (Hoffert, 2006, p. 37)

Works Cited

Barthelmess, T. (2014). Thom's Rules of Order: Ten Tips for Good Book Discussion. Horn Book Magazine, 90(6), 28-32.

Beach, R., & Yussen, S. (2011). Practices of Productive Adult Book Clubs. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(2), 121-131.

Dempsey, B. (2011). The Evolving Book Group. (Cover story). Library Journal, 136(14), 24-26.

Dempsey, B. (2009). One Book, One Community: One Great Idea. Library Journal, 134(14), 19-22.

Fuller, D., & Rehberg Sedo, D. (2014). And Then We Went to the Brewery. World Literature Today, 88(3/4), 14-18.

Hermes, V., Hile, M. A., & Frisbie, J. L. (2008). Reviving literary discussion: Book club to go kits. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 48(1), 30-34.

Hoffert, B. (2006). The Book Club Exploded. Library Journal, 131(12), 34-37.

McArdle, M., & Trott, B. (2009). Book Group Therapy: A Survey Reveals Some Truths about Why Some Book Groups Work and Others May Need Some Time on the Couch. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 49(2), 122-125.

Orr, S. (2006, October 10) No kidding, librarians are lots of fun. Evansville Courier & Press. Retrieved from http://www.courierpress.com/news/local-news/no-kidding-librarians-are-lots-of-fun

Robertson, D. (2002). Oprah and out: Libraries keep book clubs flourishing. American Libraries, 33(8), 52-53.