Julie Elliott Indiana University South Bend One Book Programs in Academic Libraries: Lessons Learned

About our campus & Program

Our campus is part of the Indiana University system. We are mainly a commuter campus (some student housing) of about 8,500 students One Book, One Campus started in Part of our Library’s mission is to foster intellectual discovery and encourage lifelong learning, and this project meets these goals by encouraging people to read a work that will challenge and provoke thought and dialogue among students, faculty, staff. We were tied to the general education’s campus theme program—theme chosen each year, overseen by a faculty member, book related to the theme & faculty were encouraged to incorporate both theme and book into their classes (not required) Campus theme used to have a budget for speakers. One book, One Campus never had a budget, so fundraising each year is an issue. Been a One Book, One Michiana Partner with our Public Library since This also has no budget on our campus

What Works

Always have had strong programming. Especially when the works chosen fit well with numerous courses Fadiman==nursing program adopted, additional gen ed courses Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep==Computer Science, additional gen ed courses There are no children here == Freshman U100 course, additional gen ed courses From the very first year of the program, I’ve had the opportunity to witness how a book can bring people together in conversation. Students have told me that they’ve changed their mind about not enjoying non-fiction after spending time discussing one book titles (War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, There are No Children here, etc.) Word of Mouth Advertising – begin promoting book as soon as possible to professors Big Speakers/Author? Work with campus development office & partner with various campus departments Bring in speakers who are also willing to talk to a class or group of classes in addition to lecture Faculty presentations related to books work really well (and are cheap) Found that the programming tied well with the classes—gave the students an additional perspective on what they were reading than just their professors.

Five Things I’ve Learned with OBOC & Reading Promotion You need to be flexible, able to assess what is not working, and adapt to change Administrators Change (or their opinions may change) and what was once a hot idea may hit a rough patch in terms of institutional support – you need to be ready and adapt Have a great event or strong outside publicity? Capitalize before it is forgotten Collect data Be excellent at the rest of your job (this helps you find goodwill for your ideas about reading promotion, even in rough times)

Selection Process & Unpopular Choice = Popular Programming

One thing I’ve learned is that you have to identify what is not working and change. One feature of our program was a vote—books were nominated by students, faculty and staff & then voted on. A nice idea that led to some fun works over the years, but also led to some titles that left faculty and students cold. Not enough people voted also, to justify continuing the practice. One note—even when a title was unpopular (Like the Communist Manifesto) we still had strong turnout for programming. People may not have wanted to read it, but they wanted to hear our faculty talk about it.

Challenges & Lessons Learned One Book…One Bibliography?

As previously noted, the campus vote led to some problematic titles that were leading the program away from its original goal (uniting the campus community in discussion around a related work – doesn’t work if no one is reading it!) One suggestion was that we just have a reading list based on all of the nominations. At that point, it was time to reassess the program and make some changes. Here is a bit more detail about the 5 lessons I have learned through this process:

Changing Course

Flexibility and Adaption to Change We used to tie our One Book program to the “campus theme” each year. Issues with that program led to delays in our getting our book selected each year, which caused publicity problems Working now on a trial basis with a freshman course and softening ties to theme program Book Selection For many years tried to select through campus vote – problematic Faculty who commit to teaching the book should select

Assessment Data

Assessment Data You will Need Administrators Change (or their opinions do) and what was once a hot property (listed as a campus strength in higher learning commission report) can hit a rough patch (my Marx experience) Assessment Data You will Need to Justify to Administrators: Which classes are reading it? How many people are attending related programming? – strong programming numbers helped me in making my case to Dean & other campus administrators Did the faculty find the program beneficial for their students? – having this data helped me move program to freshman class- Did the students who read the work find the programming was beneficial in their understanding of the work/course content? For Other Reading Promotions: Circulation Statistics—do these books circulate after being promoted? Have a great event or strong outside publicity? Capitalize before it is forgotten. Take a lot of photos (I wish I had for some events too late to go back and get them now!) Have a program evaluation sheet and use the data you get from it.

Future Questions & Advice

A final bits of Advice about One Book programs There will always be critics of the program, titles chosen, events planned, etc. Develop a rhino hide and keep an open mind – sometimes the best ideas come from your critics Tie the book with classes (and student clubs) from the start Find people who are willing to help you— Delegate – if you are only one doing the work, there can be problems if you have to take a family leave or your workload changes.

One Book, One Community

One Book, One Michiana Partner for past three years (To Kill a Mockingbird, Rocket Boys, Sherlock Holmes) One of many community partners What Did Really Did Not Work: Holding an event on a Saturday (know your audience – we’re mostly a commuter campus, no one is here on the weekends) What has worked: Outside speaker (public library was willing to share expenses —very important) Having one of our faculty give a presentation on the book (on a weeknight) – this really brought out our student audience, many of whom did not know about the public library program – but they wanted to hear their professor speak. For many of our students – professors have better name brand recognition than speakers you would pay for. Partnering with our alumni association—we do not have a budget for our participation, so when the alumni association helped with a reception, that was a huge help – it also has increased ties to the association for our library, which is wonderful outreach. What I’d love for the future: One year having our public library’s One Book, One Michiana & One Book, One Campus be the same book

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