Heading to ALA?
Posted by: Rebecca Vnuk
If so, I’d like to promote a program that the RUSA CODES RA Committee is presenting: Innovative Collection Centered Programs: Beyond the Book Group.
Now, it might seem odd to promote going “beyond the book group” on a blog about book discussions… but, one of the pieces of the program actually has to do with a book group of a different kind. The Oak Park (IL) Public Library, in addition to their regular book groups, has a completely unstructured group called Oak Park Readers, where they pretty much just invite anyone to come and chat about whatever it is they’ve been reading and would like to share with others.
I’ve always thought this was a great way to snag some of those patrons who wouldn’t be interested in a regular structured group. In the group I previously moderated, our December meeting was always just called “Book Chat” – kind of an end of the year wrap-up where the members would just come to discuss the great books they’ve read that year. It was also a useful way to gather reading suggestions for upcoming meetings.
Innovative Collection Centered Programs: Beyond the Book Group
Sunday, June 27, 10:30a-12p
Libraries around the country put on fantastic adult programs for their patrons, but often these programs are driven by the performer or speaker, and connections made to the library’s collection are frequently an afterthought or nonexistent. During this session we’ll discuss content and implementation tips for collection-centered programs, including both traditional events like book discussion groups creative programming opportunities such as adult storytimes, summer reading programs, mock book awards, battle of the book competitions, genre studies, and seasonal previews of new books.
June 10th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
The group I lead, called the Genre Reading Group, picks two months out of each year for what I call “Salon Discussion: Book(s) of Choice”. For the life of the group, they’ve always voted for July and December and we LOVE these meetings!
June 10th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Holley, that sounds great – July and December – 2 often “slow” months for book groups. This is a great opportunity to keep members involved without them feeling like they have have to do an assignment. Glad to see your group does this too!