Based off viral internet book clubs like Dracula Daily and Letters from Watson, ECU’s Joyner library recently started our own digital book club. Using public domain literature and open access photos we divided each story into bit-sized sections and emailed them out to students, faculty, and staff on campus who signed up for the newsletter. Our program hoped to not only promote access to knowledge but also encourage active participation and dialogue. Each semester we tried a different technique to incorporate more campus voices including partnering with the Gender Studies Program for one semester and using a magnet wall to allow students to vote on short stories. This session will share successes and failures from our first year running this program as well as detail how we navigated logistics, marketed the program, and continue to work to ensure diverse and inclusive voices while using 100+ year old texts.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Plan a virtual book club at their own institution
- Reflect on successes and failures from our first year of this program and hopefully anticipate how similar issues might arise in their virtual book clubs
- Understand how we prioritized diversity and inclusion when primarily using 100+ year old texts and images
