Week 9: Book Club Experience
The
book club I observed for this assignment was the Financial Literacy Book Club
at Altus AFB Library. It is run by the librarian, and the focus of the club is
learning about finance and investing strategies. It meets on the last Tuesday
every month, and alternates between a book and articles selected by the librarian.
There is never any sort of snacks or beverage provided by the library, but attendees
are always welcome to bring their own should they wish.
This
book club is not a widely attended event; there is usually one steady attendee,
but at this meeting it was a new person and her children. While the meeting
usually takes place on some couches at the back of the library, it was moved to
the children’s section of the library for her to be able to keep an eye on her
children while the book was discussed. The librarian began the discussion with open-ended
questions, and the conversation flowed naturally into more of a discussion of finance
and investing in general instead of discussing the book that was supposed to be
read. If more attendees had shown up there might have been more of a chance for
a proper discussion, but with only one person besides the leader it can be hard
to get a proper group discussion started. There was no individual who outshone
the other; it was truly just a discussion between two people.
It is
not necessary for an attendee to read the book/articles being discussed. The
leader is very knowledgeable in finance and investing; it is one of his hobbies
that he is very passionate about. The selection for the most recent meeting was A Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. The one attendee did
not read the book prior to the meeting but came wanting to learn more about
the different aspects of investing. The leader was able to have a conversation
with her for almost two hours on different aspects of her life and give her
feedback on good ways to invest her family’s money to provide for her retirement
and children’s futures.
Overall, it was a pretty lackluster book club. There was little attendance and no discussion of the book supplied by the library. The children were distracting and running around the entire time. While the number of attendees can’t be controlled, the expected behavior of those attending can and should be stated for the enjoyment of all involved.
Wow, what a bummer that the one person who attended hadn't even read the book. But as someone with young kids myself, I totally get how hard it is to balance kids, childcare, and wanting to do something for yourself. So even if it made things more difficult, I actually kind of feel like it shows how important that program was to her if she was willing to attend it with kids in tow. I also commend the librarian for shifting the meeting place to the children's area to accommodate her. I wonder if this program would be more successful if it was just a money talk with time for a Q and A instead of a book club.
ReplyDeletePossibly! I think it would benefit from a rotation of books instead of using the same ones every year. The librarian has had to do some major overhauling in the last year to expand from meeting once a quarter to meeting monthly, but he has decided to keep a lot of the same titles from year to year, which I think is a slight deterrent for keeping steady attendance
DeleteIt is really sad that only two people attend the book club. I am glad the librarian moved it to the children's section for the woman and her kids. But that can be distracting for the book club with kids screaming. It sounds like the woman knew about the librarian's knowledge of investing. It is just really sad that you didn't even get to discuss the book. I have yet to attend a traditional book club, but would it be possible for patrons to suggest reading topics that the librarian approved for a book club?
ReplyDeleteIt's possible! I might have to suggest that to him and see if that's something he would be interested in trying. Thanks for the idea!
DeleteTera, I agree with Liz, that it might be more appropriate for this to be a money Q&A - doing this as a program, rather than pitching it as a book club. And I do think repeating books makes it less interesting. I think the topic is already fairly restricted - it's even more limited than saying "all non-fiction" or "all cozy mysteries." So then if you also say that you're reading a book you read the year before, why would someone want to go? I could imagine re-reading a book for a book club, but I can't imagine having a good discussion on the same book every year. Many book clubs have the same members. So would you want to talk about the same book (even your favorite) every year? This definitely feels like the librarian wants to do a program on financial literacy, not really a book club.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post - I'm glad you went and I'm glad you shared about your experience, and I do hope the librarian makes some changes so more people can be reached. It's a really important topic!
I whole-heartedly agree with you on the topic of repeating books. That being said, I believe that reason the librarian repeats some of the titles is because we do have a fairly regular rotation of patrons with it being an Air Force Base Library and he would like for any airmen that are new to the base to be able to read these titles. I'll suggest the financial literacy program to him though!
DeleteTera and Janna (and pretty much everyone else),
DeleteI agree that it seems like this librarian has important information to present and is going about it in an ineffective way. Recruiting bankers, accountants, financial advisors, etc. to do presentations might draw more people.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/educator-tools/library-resources/) offers a lot of resources, including some printed materials that can be requested for free by libraries. A small display of brochures and bookmarks placed near the relevant books could be useful.
This is a super interesting concept for a book club, and something I would be interested in attending, if I found a local library that offered this. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of opportunities for adults, or even teens, to learn financial literacy, and so a book club geared towards that is very important to those who attend. It's unfortunate, no matter the book club topic, when someone doesn't read the book for that session, but hopefully that won't deter the library from continuing this club.
ReplyDeleteThis book club concept seems interesting since it can also double as a financial program! It can be great to double up on topics and prompt multiple things simultaneously. I wonder if you can add participants by creating a theme like scholarships or tax benefits? Or living on a budget with a family?
ReplyDeleteWow! That makes me a bit sad that there aren't more attendees. Based on what you said, it seems that there is not much organization to this club. I feel like in this situation, a few alterations and fixes could really help this book club take off and gain more attraction. I hope that things get better over the course of the year, and maybe this was just a quiet month for them!
ReplyDeleteThis is a unique and important sounding book club! Like your classmates have stated - it's unfortunate that there weren't more in attendance. It's commendable that the moderator moved the discussion - but it wouldn't be a good long term solution.
ReplyDelete