19 Book Clubs for Community Building — Book Clubs in Academic Libraries: A Case Study and Toolkit

Fajardo (2010) seeks to encourage academic librarians to host book clubs, and highlights the benefits. Similar to Real Lit[erature], Fajardo focuses on the role of book clubs in promoting the library and its services on campus and creating community.  The focus at St. Catherine’s, an all-female institution, is on books written by women and women of color; it is clear from these choices that finding titles that make sense to the campus demographics is important. Fajardo also notes that popular titles with films associated with them see more interest than literary fiction.  Similarly to Real Lit[erature], Fajardo found that finding the right time to meet was important to optimize attendance (lunch time, with snacks), and that by far the biggest benefit to the participants was the sense of discussion ideas with a diverse audience.

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