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From Lets Talk About It to The Big Read: Library Partnerships Expand Readership Via Community Connections

Ever since a Russian satellite broke spatial and global boundaries during the Cold War, prominent national literacy initiatives have been implemented in the United States to assure the countrys future supply of skilled, educated workers. Since the 1960s, however, efforts to educate the American public have waxed and waned.

A quarter century after the probes launch, The National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983) produced A Nation at Risk, an alarming report claiming that America was falling behind international competitors in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation. Even before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the American educational system had fallen into mediocrity, squandering the gains in student achievement made in the wake of Sputnik. Schools were producing graduates who were not challenged to exceed expectations, but to attain a minimum standard of performance. Schools took an educational and financial toll due to grade inflation, a cafeteria style curriculumand the freedom to choose the substance of half or more of their education. Educators, instead of teaching fundamentals and critical thinking, were routinely being called to serve in loco parentis when parents abdicated their responsibilities to resolve social issues outside the classroom. If the American populace was to participate fully in a free, democratic, pluralistic society, they must possess the commodity of the future: knowledge. They must know where to find it, have the ability to synthesize it, and know how to apply it. The report did caution, however, that a balance must be struck between teaching the sciences and humanities. The former leads to technological innovations, while the latter enriches

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daily life, helps maintain civility, and develops a sense of community. Both involve developing skills in comprehension, analysis, and drawing conclusions.

The report recommended that the search for solutions also include a commitment to lifelong learning with a goal of creating a Learning Society. Every American should have the opportunity to stretch their minds to full capacity, from early childhood through adulthood. A Learning Society would provide opportunities to grow outside school and university settings. It would encompass communities outside the home: workplace, libraries, art galleries, museums, and science centers.

1981 Vermont Humanities Council (VHC) pioneers humanity-based reading and discussion programs in public libraries

1983 A Nation at Risk published by National Commission on Excellence in Education

1989 VHC 's Victor Swenson launches complete literacy goal by 2000 for the state of Vermont

1982 American Library Association (ALA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) adapts VHC model for "Let's Talk About It"

1984 Library of Congress establishes "Center for the Book" in all 50 states 1996 Oprah Winfrey launches Oprah's Book Club from home studio in Chicago

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To help develop a Learning Society and to create a nation of readers on the community level, the American Library Association (ALA), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Center for the Book (NCB), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and Arts Midwest (AW) have partnered with states Humanities Councils, state libraries, and state Centers for the Book. One of the earliest initiatives, ALAs 1982 series, Lets Talk About It, (LTAI) was adapted from the Vermont Humanities Council (VHC) reading and discussion program, where a theme was explored through literature, e.g., friendship, courage, fathers and families. LTAI designated a nationally known scholar to select a series of five books with a given theme. With funding from the ALA and NEH, community libraries hosted a local scholar, every two weeks, to facilitate discussions of each of the five books. The goal was to help participants come to see firsthand the ways in which the humanities give profound meaning to the human experience. Generic book club discussion groups had been well established nationwide, but what made LTAI unique was the addition of a humanities scholar who would delve more deeply into the theme, providing critique and serving as an expert readers advisor for the topic. The ALA sponsored the program for 25 years, but discontinued funding in 2007; states libraries and regional humanities-oriented umbrella groups still use the LTAI program format on themes such as Latino Literature in the U.S., End of the World or World Without End: Readings for the Millennium, and Demons, Golems, and Dybbuks: Monsters of the Jewish Imagination. Positive testimonial feedback included, This is what I went to college for and never got. The power of celebrity and television became a major influence in Americas reading habits when Oprah Winfrey began her book club selections in 1996. Oprah describes herself as

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being inspired, challenged, and sustained by books, and began her personal library with selections by black authors: Langston Hughes, Paul Dunbar and Nora Neale Hurston. Her favorite novel of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird, which coincidentally was the first book chosen when Chicago (Oprahs television studio home) began its city-wide reading program in 2001. Oprah built a community of readers who could tune in and watch their favorite author(s) being interviewed.

1998 Nancy Pearl & Chris Higashi "Seattle Reads"

2004 NEA Study: Reading at Risk

2007 NEA Study: To Read or Not to Read

2001 Chicago Public Library "One Book, One Chicago"

2006 NEA Pilot Program: "The Big Read" 2009 NEA Study: Reading on the Rise

A more recent library initiative originated in Seattle, Washington in 1998 (Dempsey, 2009), when librarians Nancy Pearl, executive director of the Washington Center for the Book, and Chris Higashi were challenged with a grant to develop new audiences for literature. They pooled resources with the Seattle Public Library system, bookstores and cultural organizations to spread their theme, Seattle Reads, and selected one book for the community to read: Russell Banks The Sweet Hereafter. The topic of Banks book became all too relevant when the Seattle

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community experienced a real-life parallel to the books storyline: a bus crash took innocent lives shortly before the authors arrival to participate in scheduled events.

Pearl and Higashis success in reaching out to community partners in Seattle was followed in 2001 by the Chicago Public Librarys (CPL) launch of One Book, One Chicago. Dempsey (2009), states that CPLs ambitious take swept the idea of community reads into the library programming spotlight and coined the famous One Book label. (Chicago currently holds its program twice a year, economically boosting bookstore sales by as much as 300% for the selected titles.) Subsequent refinements to the program led to Pearl and Higashis outlining the importance of book selection. The book should be discussablecompulsively discussable. Books with ambiguous endings and those with characters who have to make choices in difficult situations are preferred. To keep the readers attention, 200 is the magic page count. The text should be simple to read but have many layers. The One Book, One New Paltz weblog (2009) specifies the book should appeal to widely diverse readers (both reluctant and avid) in terms of age, education, gender, ethnicity, or religion. It should also be accessible in terms of print size, language use, price, and availability. Most important, it should provide a multi-dimensional basis for discussion topics and activities.

While successful One Book programs were being implemented under variant names across the country (One Book, One County, Read Along the River, Sycamore: One Community Reading Together, All Iowa Reads), and the list of titles being expanded each year, the NEA published a controversial report entitled, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America (2004). Although the report denies drawing cause and effect conclusions, it

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presents a high correlation between literary reading (novels, short stories, plays or poetry) and civic involvement, i.e., support for performing arts, museum attendance, political action, and volunteering in the community. Dana Gioia, then Chairman of the NEA, noted that

reading a book requires a degree of active attention and engagementand is a progressive skill that depends on years of education and practice. By contrast, most electronic media such as television, recordings, and radio make fewer demands on their audiences, and indeed often require no more than passive participation.

Gioia also claims that use of the Internet and electronic games leads to shorter attention spans, and reinforces the need for immediate gratification. The same metrics in Reading at Risk were used in studies done in 1982 and 1992, as supplements to the decennial U.S. Census. The following conclusions were made: y Over the past 20 years, reading has declined across all age groups; the percentage of adult readers has dropped from 57 to 47 percent, despite a 23 percent growth in the adult population; y The percent of Baby Boomer readers (born between 1946 and 1964) has also declined, from 25 to 20 percent of the adult population; y Literary reading by race or ethnicity has declined among whites, African Americans and Hispanics; y Higher reading rates have a positive correlation with higher education levels, but rates of reading in every level have declined since 1982; and

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The steepest decline in literary reading is in the youngest age groups (18-24 and 25-34)

Librarians reactions to the report were mixed. Du (2009) compared the discrepancy between librarians experiences and the NEA findings. While the eleven-member expert panel did not disagree with the decline in literary reading, they countered that the studys definition of reading did not include nonfiction, such as cookbooks, travel books, self-help, biography, political analysis, history or science. The panel was split on the assertion that reading is at risk, and maintained that reading has increased in younger age groups with incentives like Accelerated Reader and Pizza Huts Book It! programs. In their experience, there had been an increase in circulation in every category, especially in young adult literature. As for the positive correlation between literary reading and community involvement, one expert said that these people may be non-working adults who simply have more time. Another pointed to the high cost of participating in cultural activities as a possible reason for the decline. Experts who agreed with the report stated that, In order to stay actively involved in civic life one must be able to sit at the table: We cannot expect people to sit at the table when they cant (metaphorically) find it.

To combat the decrease in literary reading, in 2006, the NEA launched a nationwide initiative, to be managed at the community level, called The Big Read. Modeled on the One Book theme, ten organizations received grants to promote and carry out four- to six-week community-based programs to encourage reading by teens and adults. Each grant recipient developed a program of activities related to their chosen novel and collaborated with local schools, colleges, arts organizations, government officials and community leaders to encourage

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participation. In addition to earlier selection criteria outlined by Nancy Pearl and Chris Higashi, the four initial classics made available to the communities also had movie adaptations: Fahrenheit 451, The Great Gatsby, Their Eyes Were Watching God, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Future years book selections would also be chosen based on social and community issues: y Lafayette, Louisiana (now home to Ernest Gaines) chose Gaines A Lesson Before Dying, a story modeled on a town just outside Baton Rouge where the author grew up; y Ocala, Florida chose Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings The Yearling, set in the harsh terrain of swampy, central Florida; and y Placerville, California chose Jack Londons Call of the Wild, since the citys existence was the result of the California gold rush, a major theme in the California-born Londons novel

30

25

20

15

10

0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Number of The Big Read Book Selections

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Map of Participating The Big Read Communities 2009-2010 (Courtesy Google Maps)

In 2007 the NEA revisited American reading trends in a report entitled, To Read or Not to Read. Dana Gioia, then Chairman of the NEA, summarized the findings, taken from disparate sources to be startling in their consistencyboth reading ability and the habit of regular reading have greatly declined among college graduates. Younger Americans read less, and read less well, which resulted in lower academic achievement, and heavily correlated with lower wages and fewer opportunities for advancement. The study made clear how powerfully reading transforms the lives of individualswhatever their social circumstances. Researchers could find no facts to support the growth in reading, or reading comprehension. The report was a clarion call to action because a nation without readers is bound to suffer substantial economic, social, and civic setbacks.

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While the NEAs report was discouraging, The Big Read book selections and communities continued to grow. The program took an international turn in 2007 when a cultural exchange between Russia and the United States joined communities in the former Soviet Union to read To Kill a Mockingbird, while Americans read Tolstoys The Death of Ivan Ilyich. In 2008, the U.S. Department of State partnered with the NEA and AW for a cultural exchange with Egypt. The American University in Cairo, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and the Egyptian Association for Education Resources read Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Grapes of Wrath. Four American communities focused on Naguib Mahfouz The Thief and the Dogs. The Big Read Egypt/U.S. is part of the State Departments Global Cultural Initiativein international cultural diplomacy. Mexico became the third Big Read country to partner with the U.S.--this time with a twist. Sun, Stone, and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories, a collection created especially for The Big Read, was translated in both English and Spanish, and would be read by students on both sides of the border: in El Paso libraries, the University of Texas (Brownsville), Matamoros, Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. In 2009, the poetry of Chicagos own Carl Sandburg was added to the NEA reading list, and three national historic poetry sites were designated for The Big Read" events for authors Emily Dickinson, Robinson Jeffers, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The Big Read and One Book, One Community programs have blossomed in their outreach to communities. They are scalable to fit any size and budget. The ALA provides a book kit and free advertising material (buttons to be worn to identify readers in publicgreat for initiating discussions on a commuter bus, or in grocery store check-out lines). Smallwood (2010) has captured variations on the theme from around the nation, documenting programs

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which fall on continuums between easy and difficult, simple and complex, free and funded. A common adaptation is used to orient incoming college freshmen: to give them a sense of community from the first day of classes; to expose them to issues relevant in todays global community; and to stimulate discussion and critical thinkingwith a book that is interdisciplinary, global, recently published, and relatable to both first-year students and the UF community. (University of Florida Dean of Students Office) The selected book was interwoven into core curriculum class assignments, and events were held both on and off campus. Students were encouraged to become involved in community groups which dovetailed with issues raised in the book. Later this year, Michigan State (2010) has plans to host Dave Eggars, author of Zeitoun, during Academic Welcome Week activities. Discussions will be held in residence halls, giving students an opportunity to get to know one another and form social book clubs. To obtain grants, college leaders delineated their plans to partner with fraternities, religious organizations, newspaper and radio stations, fine arts and drama departments, professors and administrators (all on campus), as well as establishing sources in the community through outreach initiatives related to the book.

Branching out from the One Book and The Big Read themes, librarians have found many ways to plug in to their communities. They have noticed that food is always a plus at any event. One university hosts an annual Edible Book Contest, awarding bookstore gift certificates to winners in categories such as Least Edible, Best Childrens, and Most Creative. Although not based strictly on the One Book theme, it could be easily adapted to characters, settings, or costumes from a common book.

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In Ohio, librarians stormed the beaches at local public pools, reading aloud to kids during the all clear pool breaks, and during adult swim times. Parks and Recreation departments advertised the events, and librarians brought baskets of gently used books for patrons to keep or return. Outdated magazines or paperbacks are available for pool moms. The American Cancer Society and local hospitals partnered with the library, handing out sunscreen samples and literature about sun safety.

In Queens, New York, librarian Mark Donnelly helped seniors write their memoirs. At the end of their eight week session, a small book was published, a publication party was held, and every contributor (whether author or artist) received a copy. Both the retirement home library and the local archives were recipients of the book. Mr. Donnelly used that first book as a springboard for topics at the next facility he approached in his ongoing outreach efforts.

Educational outreach to homeschool teens is another popular program. Some libraries follow the One Book theme, while others also focus on teaching researching skills based on American School Library standards. One librarys motto was: Search It, Find It, Use It. Private, public, and parochial high school seniors are not in school all day during finals week, and need a place to study. Enterprising librarians can make sure local schools know their students will have small group meeting rooms available, quiet study areas, computers, snacks, pencils, paper, and water, along with reference librarians, (who take four hour shifts and keep extra references at the desk).

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In the spirit of go where your audience is, librarians have created outreach programs for pregnant and teen parents, meeting them at hospitals, in parenting classes, youth shelters, and the YWCA. While librarians stress the importance of reading to their babies, mothers have reported an improvement in their own reading abilities. In a similarly marginalized population, Notre Dames outreach librarian, Felicia Smith, adapted Erin Gruwells Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them, to encourage youths in a juvenile detention center to write. Like the authors experience, Ms. Smith was unprepared to address the realities in her students lives: these teenagers lived in a racially divided community and were already hardened by firsthand exposure to gang violence, broken homes, juvenile halls, and drugs. When one of Gruwells students exclaimed, I feel like I live in an undeclared war zone, she knew they needed to be encouraged to pick up a pen rather than a gun. The topics for this One Book group included the Holocaust, e.g., Diary of Anne Frank, Cambodian and Bosnian genocide, Japanese internment, and Civil Rights.

One Book communities are everywhere: first year medical students reading Smallpox: The Death of a Disease; disenfranchised or lapsed readers in prison analyzing Fahrenheit 451; and a group in Green Bay, Wisconsin where the book selection, Seedfolks, symbolizes the idea behind One Book. The plot brings together thirteen characters with different backgrounds to form a community garden; One Book brings together people with different background to build life-long readers in a Learning Society.

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In his last report as NEA Chairman, Dana Gioia proudly announced a reversal in literary reading, due to the collaboration of parents, libraries, community leaders, celebrities, and journalists who helped publicize the largest literary initiatives in the agencys history, targeting students in their high school years. Literary reading has risen among whites, African Americans, and Hispanics, across all age levels, and across all educational levels. As a group, young adults had shown the largest declines. They have reversed the 20 percent decline noted in 2002 to a 21 percent increase in 2008 (Reading on the Rise, 2009). I can think of no happier way to end my tenurethan by sharing such felicitous dataand congratulating the legionswho helped achieve the renaissance.

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References
A community reading celebration. (2009). Retrieved April 12, 2010, from One Book One New Paltz: http://sites.google.com/site/onebookonenewpaltz/ A report from the field: Hagerstown, Maryland. (2010). Retrieved April 12, 2010, from Big Read Blog: http://www.arts.gov/bigreadblog/ American Library Association. (2007). The history of let's talk about it. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from ALA Public Programs Office: http://publicprograms.ala.org/ltai/history/index.html Bates, J. a. (2009). One school, one book, one successful school-library collaboration. Children and Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children , 7 (3), 47-50. Beete, P. (2005, December 20). National Endowment for the Arts announces the big read. NEA Initiatives, Big Read Press Release . Washington, D. C. Bruwell, E. (2007). Freedom writer's diary teacher's guide. New York, NY: Broadway Books. Dempsey, B. (2008, November 15). Big read, big ROI. Library Journal , 33 (19), pp. 26-29. Dempsey, B. (2009, September 1). One book, one community: One great idea. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from Library Journal: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6677269.html Dempsey, B. (2009, September 1). One great idea. Library Journal , 134 (14), pp. 19-22. Du, Y. (2009). Librarians' response to "reading at risk": A Delphi study. Library & Information Science Research , 31 (1), 46-53. Gwinn, A. (2010, April 14). Oprah's favorite books of the past decade. O, The Oprah Magazine . Jensen, D. (2010, April 2). Executive Director of the El Dorado Arts Council. (NEA, Interviewer)

Holly Stiegel P a g e | 16 Kippen, D. (2008, November 15). View from the big ride. Library Journal , 133 (19), p. 28. Michigan State University. (2010). One community. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from Michigan State University First Year: http://www.onebook.msu.edu/first_year.html National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. Washington, D. C.: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office. National Endowment for the Arts. (2009). Reading on the rise, a new chapter in American literacy. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. National Endowment for the Arts. (2010). The big read. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from NEA Big Read: http://www.neabigread.org/program_history/ National Endowment for the Humanities. (n.d.). Timeline. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from How NEH has fostered the humanities: http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/timeline.html Office of Research & Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts. (2004). Reading at risk: A survey of literary reading in America. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Office of Research & Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts. (2007). To read or not to read. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Printing Office. Robertson, D. (2002). Oprah and out: Libraries keep book clubs flourishing. American Libraries , 33 (8), 52-53. Smallwood, C. (. (2010). Librarians as community partners, an outreach handbook. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

University of Florida. (2009-2010). Dean of students office. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from New Student Programs: http://www.dso.ufl.edu/nsp/firstyearexperience/commonread/

Holly Stiegel P a g e | 17 Van Dyke, D. (2005, February). Building a community of readers: A one book program. Library Media Connection, 23 (5), pp. 20-22. Vermont Humanities Council. (n.d.). Connections. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from Vermont Humanities Council: http://www.vermonthumanities.org/index_files/connections.htm Webber, R. (2001, November/December). Humanities: In focus. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from National Endowment for the Humanities: http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2001-11/infocus.html Why this book? (2010). Retrieved April 12, 2010, from About One Book, One Community--Green Bay & Brown County, WI: http://obocgreenbay.wordpress.com/why-this-book/