Litblog Co-op

I saw this news in two sources in one day. Laura Johnson posted it on the Metropolitan Library System’s reference blog Metro Desk. I later saw it on page 6 of the Tempo section of the April 19 issue of the Chicago Tribune.

A group of about 20 literary bloggers have started the Litblog Co-op, a joint blog to promote literary fiction. As part of their effort to promote books that are overlooked by mainstream media, they are starting Read This! Five of the members will soon nominate a book each for all of the members to read and discuss on the blog. All of the members will vote to choose one book from the five and it will be announced May 15. Then the members will begin posting reviews of the book and readers can comment. They will repeat this effort four times per year.

In the meantime, members who are not on the nominating committee are reviewing the books that they would have nominated. I have read the postings and checked the titles reviewed against the SWAN catalog. While SWAN libraries have some of the titles, there are several that no library owns. I ordered two of these that interested me for the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. I hope other librarians will do likewise.

Our duties as librarians do not stop with buying books. Like the members of the Litblog Co-op, we need to market many of our titles to bring them to the attention of readers. Set up displays. Send out new book lists. Write reviews. Also, do as Joyce Saricks says – talk to your readers.