Community Chapters: A Collaborative Community Book Club
“Community Chapters: A Collaborative Community Book Club” is an idea for a program that I’ve been workshopping in my mind for some time now. I enjoyed the process of putting this plan together and thinking about the logistics of pitching and implementing it. While it started with an idea for a shared topic book club with accompanying activities and community connections, the modules encouraged me to consider how I could make it participatory and incorporate a digital option for participation. Beanstack would be a new tool for this library, and I think this would be a great program to introduce it to staff and patrons.
I love this idea, and the name is perfect. My community did something like this a few years ago. The name was “One Brook, One Book.” (I live in Bolingbrook, which is sometimes casually shortened to the Brook). I’m not sure who took the lead in organizing it. In our program, there was one adult book chosen and a children’s book on the same topic so families could participate together. One year, the adult book was How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, and the children’s book was Antiracist Baby. There were book discussions and programs planned for all ages. The second year, it was a cookbook for the adult book. I don’t remember the exact title, but I think it was something that had an international flair to it. There were cooking and cultural programs planned to coincide with this theme.
@jenfredrick Thank you so much for sharing this with me! I had a hard time finding examples of exactly what I was thinking but found inspiration for elements of it. The program you described sounds very similar. There are so many directions and themes to explore, from relevant current events to locally relevant topics. The cookbook idea is so fun too! I really hope I get the chance to try this idea out in the future.