Red Deer bibliophiles will have to settle for private book clubs in 2018.
The Red Deer Reads community book club program is taking a hiatus. It will not return — if it does come back — until 2019, and then it will be in a changed format.
Briana Ehnes, manager of adult services at the Red Deer Public Library said Red Deer Reads has run for three years and it was time to evaluate how well the program is working for the community, and whether it can be adapted to involve less than 10 months of planning for library staff.
The local program was modeled on the One Book, One Community book club, with a long lead-up time to a community book discussion in the fall.
Planning started in January, when various book titles were nominated. A public vote on favourites followed, then a narrowing down to the Top 5 , then a final vote.
Ehnes said library staff were kept busy for months with this, as well as ordering 500 free volumes, designing promotional material and t-shirts, and arranging schedules with the author and Red Deer’s mayor (a program booster).
It took the first year for the Red Deer public to start buying into the community book club, which started with the sci-fi pick Station Eleven.
Red Deer Reads grew in popularity in the second year with the graphic novel The Outside Circle. Ehnes said the Indigenous story-line resonated with the community during the time of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings.
Community engagement dropped off somewhat during last year’s run of Red Deer Reads. The book, We’re All in This Together, proved more polarizing, perhaps because of its quirky plot featuring a dysfunctional family and the subject of Alzheimer’s disease, said Ehnes.
Library staff thought it timely to review the program to see whether its timeline can be condensed. Ehnes said she hopes Red Deer Reads will return next year with a shorter lead-up to help maintain community excitement about the book.
Meanwhile, she hopes library patrons will drop by the downtown location on Saturday, April 14, for a Volunteer Fair from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The library is looking for people willing to read to house-bound people, and many other community organizations will also participate in the fair in hopes of attracting volunteers.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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