Children & Teen Online Book Clubs

      Today’s post will examine an exciting new trend in the virtual book club world. This new development pertains to virtual book clubs for children and teens. As online book clubs become more popular, a number of resources have become available for children and teens. Virtual book clubs dedicated to Harry Potter, graphic novels, manga, and YA have sprung up all over the internet, in libraries, and in schools. There is even an online book club geared towards toddlers and their parents!
  

Photo courtesy of Scholastic

      According to researchers Ann Melrose and Jody Wurl, “Over the past 20 years, research continues to show that reading scores plummet and voluntary reading rates diminish as children move from childhood to late adolescence” (Melrose & Wurl, 2007, pg. 176). The researchers further explain that this decline in reading might be combated by appealing to this ‘net generations’ interest in technology. In this way, virtual book clubs offer a unique possibility to encourage adolescents to read more and to read for fun. Virtual book clubs also offer young members a chance to acquire more computer literacy skills in a safe environment (Melrose & Wurl, 2007, pg. 176-179).

Photo courtesy of Virtual Book Club for Kids

      In order to do this, many of these virtual book clubs geared towards children and adolescents rely on Moodle to host their clubs. As mentioned in earlier posts, “With its flexibility, ease-of-use, safety features and many options, Moodle is an ideal environment to host public and school-based library online book clubs for kids” (Melrose & Wurl, 2007, pg. 181). In addition, Moodle offers various features such as forums, chats, and polls. Members can also upload images, documents, and links to their Moodle profiles.


Bibliography:

Scharber, C. M., Melrose, A., Wurl, J. (2009). Online book clubs for preteens and teens. Library Review, 58(3), 176 - 195.

Picture links:

http://www.scholastic.com/hpbuy/

http://www.virtualbookclubforkids.com/

Oprah's Book Club 2.0

       This post is all about Oprah, specifically Oprah’s Book Club 2.0! Because no discussion about virtual book clubs can be had without mentioning Oprah’s Book Club. Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 began in 2012 after the traditional Oprah’s Book Club ended. This new revision’s focus was on bringing book clubs into the digital age. Oprah’s objective was to include social media and e-readers into a book club forum. The club’s first book was Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. A memoir about one woman’s quest to hike the pacific crest trail solo after the death of her mother. The new book club format was a huge success, mainly due to the celebrity presence and influence of Oprah (Associate Press, 2012, pg.1). As of today, the book club has 22,712 members.

Photo courtesy of goodreads

     Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 currently meets on goodreads for discussions, videos, and announcements.  Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 also has a web page. From this site, members can sign up for the Oprah’s Book Club Newsletter to get updates and book reviews. Information concerning workshops and book lists can also be found on this site (Harpo Inc., 2015, p. 1-4).

     Furthermore, all of the book club books are chosen by Oprah Winfrey herself. A few of Oprah’s other book picks include The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, The Invention of Wings, Ruby, and The Underground Railroad. At the present moment, the group is reading Glennon Doyle Melton’s Love Warrior. In the past, Oprah’s picks have spanned genres including nonfiction, classics, and new fiction (Winfrey, 2016, p.1-4). 

Photo courtesy of Oprah.com

 
Bibliography:

Associated Press (2012). Winfrey launches “Oprah’s book club 2.0.” CBS News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/winfrey-launches-oprahs-book-club-20/

Harpo, Inc. (2015). Oprah’s book club. Oprah.com. Retrieved from http://www.oprah.com/app/books.html.

Winfrey, O. (2016). Oprah’s book club. Goodreads. Retrieved from
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/85538-oprah-s-book-club-official


Picture links:

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/85538-oprah-s-book-club-official

http://www.oprah.com/app/books.html

Women's Lives Club

       Another virtual book club with a growing global following is Women’s Lives Club. Women’s Lives Club’s major objective is to read a biography written by a woman about a notable woman in history. Essentially, the goal is to focus on who is telling women’s stories and to shed light on the lives of women previously hidden by traditional historical discourse. The book club was started by Rachel Syme, a writer and editor based in New York City (Syme, n.d., p.1). As Rachel Syme explains, “I was writing about paying attention to women’s lives in general, and really casually in a tweet storm, I asked if I were to start a monthly book club about women’s lives, would anyone do it” (Sepulveres, 2016, p.1-2).

Photo courtesy of Amy Poehler's Smart Girls 

       Currently, the group meets in a google groups platform for scheduled discussions. Interested participants must email Ms. Syme to request membership to the group. Membership includes 1,300 participants so far. As mentioned in the Our Shared Self post, participation is entirely up to the members themselves. Women’s Lives Club has a significant Twitter presence, #wlclub,and some members even meet up in person as well as online. For instance, sub-groups have started forming in Portland and San Francisco. As mentioned earlier, Women’s Lives club focuses on telling women’s stories by reading a biography written by a woman about a notable female figure every month. Past reads include Janet Malcolm’s The Silent Woman, a biography of Sylvia Plath, and Valerie Boyd’s biography of Zora Neale Hurston called Wrapped in Rainbows. Members are encouraged to offer suggestions and vote on the book selections (Carpenter, 2016, p. 1-4).

Photo courtesy of twitter #wlclub

Photo courtesy of twitter #wlclub

Photo courtesy of twitter #wlclub

Bibliography:

Carpenter, J. (2016). #wlclub, the women’s book club on twitter that will take over your reading list. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/09/wlclub-the-womens-book-club-on-twitter-that-will-take-over-your-reading-list/?utm_term=.81e5ee4ecb9b

Sepulveres, D. (2016). Be a part of the smartest new book club #WLClub. Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. Retrieved from https://amysmartgirls.com/be-a-part-of-the-smartest-new-book-club-wlclub-6b4ee7b9faac#.14qmkiwyh

Syme, R. (n.d.) About. Rachel Syme. Retrieved from http://www.rachelsyme.com/about/


Picture links:

https://amysmartgirls.com/be-a-part-of-the-smartest-new-book-club-wlclub-6b4ee7b9faac#.6m9d97hcq

https://twitter.com/hashtag/wlclub?lang=en

Our Shared Shelf

      In the following posts, I’m going to highlight a few examples of successful virtual book clubs for adult readers. To begin with, one of the more recent book clubs launched in January of 2016 is Our Shared Shelf. Our Shared Shelf was founded by actress and Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson as a part of her work with UN Women. Watson introduces the book clubs by stating,

“As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading as many books and essays about equality as I can get my hands on. There is so much amazing stuff out there! Funny, inspiring, sad, thought-provoking, empowering! I’ve been discovering so much that, at times, I’ve felt like my head was about to explode… I decided to start a Feminist book club, as I want to share what I’m learning and hear your thoughts too” (Watson, 2016, p.1). 

Photo courtesy of goodreads

      The book club’s main objective is to examine and discuss feminist literature, particularly the interplay of gender and identity in classic and modern works of feminist literature. The group has its own site on goodreads and communicates through a discussion board. The site also features book suggestions and scholarly feminist articles on topics ranging from multicultural feminism, intersectionality, and LGBT issues (Watson, 2016). So far, the club has read ten books, including:

    Mom & Me & Mom -Maya Angelou           
    Half the Sky-    Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
    Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl- Carrie Brownstein
    Persepolis- Marjane Satrapi
    The Argonauts - Maggie Nelson
    How to be a Woman- Caitlin Moran
    All about Love: New Visions- bell hooks
    The Color Purple - Alice Walker
    My Life on the Road - Gloria Steinem

      Furthermore, the club has quite a substantial worldwide following with 158,313 members so far. This may be due in part to its celebrity presence. Members can be as involved as they choose by actively creating threads and comments within the group discussion board. Typically, one book is chosen by Emma Watson every other month. Discussions questions are posted by Emma or a fellow club moderator. Content such as author Q&A and interviews are also available (Watson, 2016). Our Shared Self can be accessed by clicking here.  

 Photo courtesy of goodreads

 
Bibliography:

Watson, E. (2016). Our shared shelf. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/179584-emma-s-book-club---our-shared-shelf

Picture links:

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/179584-our-shared-shelf

https://www.goodreads.com/photo/group/179584-our-shared-shelf?page=1&photo=1370662

Virtual Book Club Platforms

      In this post, I will examine virtual book club platforms or spaces. Essentially, where these book clubs take place in the online environment. In some cases, these online platforms are serving the same role that a physical library does for traditional book clubs. They are a meeting place where participants can read and discuss literature. A few popular book club virtual spaces include Goodreads, Google hangouts, and Moodle. 

     To begin with, goodreads is a social networking site and book database for book lovers. Users can review and discuss books, as well as find book recommendations. Specifically, goodreads can be used as a virtual book club site. According to goodread’s how to site “Groups can be public, moderated, restricted by domain, or secret” (Goodreads Inc., 2016, p.1). A few popular book clubs such as Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 and Our Shared Shelf are hosted on goodreads. 

Photo courtesy of goodreads@twitter 

      Next, Google Hangouts is a chat site where users can video call, phone call and message other members in their group. According to Daniel Freeman, an online learning manager at ALA, “Hangouts allows you to easily connect, broadcast, and even record your meetings, and it includes several tools that make it possible to share documents and images to aid your discussion” (Gilliss, 2014, p.1-2). This is an ideal site for book club members who prefer to have ‘real time’ virtual meetings in cyberspace. Currently, Women’s Lives Club is using a Google Hangouts forum for their meetings. 

     Lastly, Moodle is a popular site for kids or teen virtual book clubs. Moodle is described as a “learning platform designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalized learning environments” (Moodle Partner, 2016, p.1-2). With the security and user privacy interface provided by Moodle, this site is an excellent choice for adolescent book club members.



 
Bibliography:

Gilliss, A. F. (2014). Librarians reimagine book clubs with the help of technology. ilovelibraries. Retrieved from http://www.ilovelibraries.org/article/librarians-reimagine-book-clubs-help-technology

Goodreads, Inc. (2016). How it works. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/about/how_it_works

Moodle Partner. (2016). About Moodle. Moodle. Retrieved from https://docs.moodle.org/31/en/About_Moodle

Picture link:

https://twitter.com/goodreads/media

Public Libraries and Virtual Book Clubs

      In the previous post, I introduced the topic of virtual book clubs. To recap, virtual book clubs are a huge success within the digital age while traditional book clubs are suffering from a lack of participation. Factors such as user’s convenience, diverse audience, and celebrity presence have all contributed to this success. So, if virtual book clubs are such a huge hit, the obvious solution would be to incorporate this trend into the sphere of the public library. Are public libraries starting virtual book clubs? And if so, how are public libraries implementing this resource into their traditional programming schemes?
       Major libraries such as the Toronto Public Library, New York Public Library, Greene County Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library have started virtual book clubs in addition to physical book clubs. Various reasons have been cited for implementing virtual book clubs. The most common reasons being to increase diversity, and extend reach. Another reason is simply the convenience for patrons. For instance, patrons don’t have to worry about travel time and set meetings each month. Interestingly enough, virtual book clubs tend to be more successful because they are catered to patron’s interests. To illustrate, one study by the Toronto Public Library sent out online surveys to see what their patrons wanted to discuss in a book club, and to find out more about their target audience. The Toronto Public Library then used this information to plan a book club targeting the mass majority of their audience's needs. They also used the information gathered about their demographic to design the webpage, and to plan the role of a book club facilitator/moderator (AuYeung, Dalton, & Gornall, 2007, p.3 -13). 

Photo courtesy of Chicago Public Library

     Yet another major library, the Chicago Public Library, used the success of a city-wide initiative called One Book, One Chicago to launch their first virtual book club in February of 2015. The book club books depend upon the book chosen by the One Book, One Chicago program. One Book, One Chicago began in 2001. According to the site’s homepage, the program was started “as an opportunity to engage and enlighten our residents and to foster a sense of community through reading” (OBOC, 2016, pg. 1). The first selection to coincide with the launch of the virtual book club was Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Participants can read the book online, and discuss via a twitter account @1book1chicago (White, 2015, p.1).

      Another popular online book club is hosted at the New York Public Library and it’s called, Reader’s Den. As the website explains, “Reader’s Den is an online book discussion group offering library readers with busy lifestyles a convenient way to connect with books and The New York Public Library. This virtual discussion is accessible 24/7 and gives readers an opportunity to spark insightful discussions with the surrounding community by reading at his or her own pace” (Soule, Butler, Salmon, Scheurer, Baer, & Waters, 2016, pg. 1-3). Currently, the group is reading Robert E. Howard’s The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. To access Reader’s Den click here. 

Photo courtesy of New York Public Library

    One final public library that is worth mentioning in regards to online book clubs is the Greene County Public Library in Ohio. This library offers an online book that is unique in that every book that they choose also has a corresponding movie adaptation. The librarians contribute by posting related videos, pictures, and questions on the book club blog. Recent reads include The Giver, Me Before You, and A Christmas Carol (Green County Public Library, 2016, p.1).


 

Bibliography:

AuYeung, C., Dalton, S., Gornall, S. (2007). Book buzz: Online 24/7 virtual reading clubs and what we’ve learned about them. Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 2(2), 1 - 19.

Greene County Public Library. (2016). Greene county public library online book club. Greene County Public Library. Retrieved from http://greenelibrary.info/discussion-groups/gcpl-online-book-club/

OBOC (2016). About OBOC. Chicago Public Library. Retrieved from http://www.chipublib.org/about-oboc/

Soule, J., Machlin, S., Butler, A. E., Salmon, L., Scheurer, M., Baer, B., Waters, E. (2016). Reader’s Den. New York Public Library. Retrieved from https://www.nypl.org/voices/blogs/blog-channels/readers-den

White, L. (2015). Chicago public library unveils virtual book club. Chicagoist. Retrieved from http://chicagoist.com/2015/02/04/chicago_public_library_unveils_virt.php

Picture links:

http://www.chipublib.org/about-oboc/
https://www.nypl.org/voices/blogs/blog-channels/readers-den

The Popularity of Virtual Book Clubs

    Book Clubs are one of the main events in library programming. Historically speaking, even outside of the library sphere, book clubs have had a substantial community presence. Book clubs have a long history dating back to the 18th century France where women gathered to discuss literature and other topics in what became known as ‘salons’ (Sedo, 2003, p.66-67). However, with the emergence of the digital age, face to face book clubs have seen a major decline in attendance. For whatever reason, be it busy schedules or too many distractions, traditional book clubs suffer from a lack of participation in many libraries. As Apryl Flynn Gilliss observes, “In our more modern, connected, and ever-busy age, however, traditional library book clubs have been undergoing a quiet revolution. Lack of time, scheduling conflicts, mobility issues, desire for anonymity, and other factors have moved the conversation online—namely onto social media" (Gilliss, 2014, p.1-2). 

Photo courtesy of XOXO

  With that being said, the focus of this blog is not to expound on the many reasons for this development. My focus is on the emergence of a fascinating new trend within the realm of the book club world. This new trend being ‘the virtual book club.’  Virtual book clubs appeal to individuals in today’s society. With the popularity of social media and all things digital, virtual book clubs take the traditional book club format and modernize it. Moreover, virtual book clubs have the advantage of convenience. Members can easily incorporate the book club into their busy schedules by choosing to be as involved as they want. And since everything is online, members can participate from their own homes. They can make use of online content such as author interviews, book previews, and book talks; as well as, guide notes and selected passages. 

    Furthermore, virtual book clubs have the advantage of a wider reach, and as a result of this extended reach, a more diverse audience. This can be a huge bonus to discussion board conversations by allowing for multiple points of view and more well-rounded opinions from a global audience. Perhaps the major draw to virtual book clubs, however, is their celebrity presence. In our pop culture-obsessed world, anything celebrity affiliated is almost guaranteed an audience. And with virtual book clubs such as Oprah's Book Club 2.0 and Emma Watson’s, Our Shared Shelf it’s no surprise that virtual book clubs are a huge hit!

Photo courtesy of Bustle Book Club

Bibliography:

Gilliss, A. F. (2014). Librarians reimagine book clubs with the help of technology. ilovelibraries.   Retrieved from http://www.ilovelibraries.org/article/librarians-reimagine-book-clubs-help-technology

Sedo, D. R. (2003). Readers in reading groups an online survey of face-to-face and virtual book  clubs. Convergence, 9(1), 66-90.

Photo links:

https://xoxolib.com/page/4/
https://www.bustle.com/bustle-book-club