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