Book Group Therapy - this workshop had 6 speakers who had great ideas about working with book groups and how to deal with groups that need resuscitation. This one speak seems like she took up a big chunk of the session's time that it didn't leave room for Q&A at the end. They did a 6-month survey among book group members for this workshop and they reported the following: - 95% of members are female -members want more diversity -most common problem among groups is that there's not enough time spent on book discussion because of too much chatter. -some individuals want to monopolize the discussion -some were unhappy with the way books were chosen/book selection -they wanted more structured discussion -everyone should participate & not be a wallflower -51% wanted to see men in the book group Some suggestions: -don't start with the question "did you like the book" -make sure books are discussable. There's a difference between discussable and just beeing your favorite book -always have a short book for January because of holidays. Some groups don't catalog the books they will use and therefore, nobody can put holds on them. They give the books to the members to keep for a month (honor system). Others have their books circulate for 8 weeks with no renewal. Others buy multiple copies of the titles and any books they use for the book group are not included in their library's book budget. Some groups select their books based on themes. They also talked about campus (university/college) book clubs and suggested to try the Summer College book discussion group for 2 months at the library. -include male-themed books -use non-fiction books -books that appeal to both sex group. Their website listed titles of book suggestions.
Saturday at 8 a.m. I attended PLA 101: ALA Annual Conference Tips for First-Time Attendees with Michelle Bayuk and Claudia Sumler.
This program was not nearly as helpful as Robert and Michelle's emailed tips. It had some useful information, some questionable suggestions (tearing pages out of your ALA program and carrying only those with you to save space), and some tips that were too late to be helpful once you were already at the conference!
However, I am glad that throughout ALA I followed their suggestion to "talk to the person next to you" - people were generally quite friendly and it was interesting to compare experiences with librarians from other parts of the country.
2 comments:
Book Group Therapy - this workshop had 6 speakers who had great ideas about working with book groups and how to deal with groups that need resuscitation. This one speak seems like she took up a big chunk of the session's time that it didn't leave room for Q&A at the end. They did a 6-month survey among book group members for this workshop and they reported the following:
- 95% of members are female
-members want more diversity
-most common problem among groups is that there's not enough time spent on book discussion because of too much chatter.
-some individuals want to monopolize the discussion
-some were unhappy with the way books were chosen/book selection
-they wanted more structured discussion
-everyone should participate & not be a wallflower
-51% wanted to see men in the book group
Some suggestions:
-don't start with the question "did you like the book"
-make sure books are discussable. There's a difference between discussable and just beeing your favorite book
-always have a short book for January because of holidays.
Some groups don't catalog the books they will use and therefore, nobody can put holds on them. They give the books to the members to keep for a month (honor system). Others have their books circulate for 8 weeks with no renewal. Others buy multiple copies of the titles and any books they use for the book group are not included in their library's book budget.
Some groups select their books based on themes. They also talked about campus (university/college) book clubs and suggested to try the Summer College book discussion group for 2 months at the library.
-include male-themed books
-use non-fiction books
-books that appeal to both sex group.
Their website listed titles of book suggestions.
Saturday at 8 a.m. I attended PLA 101: ALA Annual Conference Tips for First-Time Attendees with Michelle Bayuk and Claudia Sumler.
This program was not nearly as helpful as Robert and Michelle's emailed tips. It had some useful information, some questionable suggestions (tearing pages out of your ALA program and carrying only those with you to save space), and some tips that were too late to be helpful once you were already at the conference!
However, I am glad that throughout ALA I followed their suggestion to "talk to the person next to you" - people were generally quite friendly and it was interesting to compare experiences with librarians from other parts of the country.
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