All posts by Kate

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

One Book, One Twitter

Jeff Howe, a contributing editor for Wired Magazine and writer of the popular blog – Crowdsourcing, recently developed the idea of One Book, One Twitter. Inspired by “one book, one city” clubs, Howe posed the idea of an online book club that would hopefully pull in “zillions” of readers. Howe first proposed the idea on March 18th, and began collecting book nominations from online participants. All nominated books had to be available around the world, translated into MANY languages, and of general interest to all. As of April 6th, American Gods by Neil Gaiman was selected as the crowd favorite. Other popular nominations included Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse Five, and Catch 22.

But, wait, not so fast… Voting isn’t over yet! By the end of this week, “judges” for the One Book, One Twitter club will be posting 4 other possible choices. Then, during the week of April 12th, participants will be able to vote for one of the “judges” suggestions, or can select American Gods or one of the other popular nominations as their favorite. In all, voters will have ten books to choose from. No word yet as to when the winner will be announced, but we’ll be sure to update you as soon as we know!

 This is something libraries should get behind, and just maybe…help promote. Imagine the possibilities, and how cool is it that a huge group of people from around the world are being exposed to great works of literature? What a wonderful way to promote a love for reading, create a community made up of people from vastly different backgrounds—AND introduce people to a popular technology!

To get involved:

1) Get a Twitter account!

2) Search for hashtag #1b1t

3) Read posts, you’ll quickly discover where the group is with the whole process.

You may also learn more about One Book, One Twitter at Howe’s Crowdsourcing Blog: http://www.crowdsourcing.com/cs/.

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Minnesota Book Awards: Vote for Your Favorite Finalist!

Last month judges narrowed down over 250 nominated books to just 32 finalists for the MN Book Awards. Finalist’s works are organized into eight categories, including: Children’s Literature, General Nonfiction, Genre Fiction, Memoir & Creative Nonfiction, Minnesota, Novel & Short Story, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. You can visit The Friends’ of St. Paul Public Library website for a complete list of finalists. These books will soon be reviewed by another group of judges, and a winner will be selected from each category.

There will also be a Reader’s Choice Award. The Reader’s Choice winner is selected by Minnesota readers, so this is your chance to get involved! Attend the Reader’s Choice Event at 7:00 PM on Friday, March 12 at the Open Book Literary Arts Center (1011 Washington Ave. S. in Minneapolis) for a chance to meet finalist authors, learn about their books, and enjoy a wine reception. To learn more about the event, visit the Reader’s Choice Event site. You may also vote for your favorite finalist here.

Get further involved by joining the 32 Books in 32 Days blog. Starting March 16th, the blog will devote one day to highlight each of the 32 finalist books. As a subscriber to the blog, you’ll receive regular updates whenever new content is added.

The Reader’s Choice winner will be announced along with the other winners at the Book Awards Gala on Saturday, April 17th.  The 22nd Annual Minnesota Book Awards Gala will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul. The reception begins at 6:30pm and includes celebrity speakers, champagne, books, and live music. Please visit the Friends’ website www.thefriends.org for more information.