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Organising the bookchain
How many small chains can we have in the bookchain?When you’ve got a group of people who want to take part in the bookchain and they have submitted a book and a reader comments sheet (filled in), you need to organise them into smaller chains of 3 people. If you have a total of 12 people in your bookchain group, you should divide them into 4 small groups of 3. You can have as many small chains as you need in a bookchain. What is the ideal number of readers for a small chain?On balance, chains of 3 people seem to have the best success rate, with a greater chance that the chain will complete and everyone will read all 3 books. However, if the number of people wanting to take part in the bookchain is not divisible by 3, the bookchain organiser will need to recruit extra people or take part them self. How can we tell the different small chains apart?Give each small chain an identity. For example, you could identify each chain by a colour – blue, green, red etc. You might also put a small sticker (of the relevant colour) inside the front cover (or on the back cover) of each book in the chain and one on each reader comment sheet. This will help both bookchain members and library staff identify the right books and sheets with the correct small chain. It also helps prevent bookchain books ‘disappearing’ back onto the library shelves – and when the chain is complete, the stickers can be peeled off the books and thrown away. How do we identify each individual bookchain member?The beauty of the bookchain is that it allows readers to pass books to each other and comment on them anonymously – a hugely liberating experience. However, individual bookchain members do need some form of identification. Allocate each small group of readers to a particular colour (or chain). Then give each person in the chain a number (1-3). For example: B = blue, so the blue chain is made up of readers identified as B1, B2, B3. Therefore each participant has a unique bookchain identification number. What the ideal timescale for a bookchain?Each bookchain needs a timescale – a starting date and a finishing date. A good period of time is 10 to 12 weeks. Participants need to read 2 ‘surprise’ books – so 10 to 12 weeks allows most readers to do this, without boredom setting in for the faster readers. However, be prepared to be flexible if all the books are not returned by the agreed finishing date. Don’t be tempted to send a fierce email or make a chasing phone call if a book isn’t back for the deadline. It may be that the reader has almost finished the book and that few extra days means that you get a complete comments sheet and a happy punter. What do bookchain members need to know before they start reading?Once the small chains have been organised, each bookchain participant needs the know the following
Click here to see sample letter – starting the bookchain Where is the best place to store the bookchain books in the library?Before the bookchain gets going you need to decide where to keep the bookchain books (so they don’t get muddled up with each other or with other books from library stock). This place needs to be convenient to counter staff and bookchain members alike. Most libraries find a space behind or underneath the counter to do this and mark the area clearly so that colleagues do not re-shelve the books while the bookchain is in progress. What do we do if another borrower or library requests a bookchain book?Once a book is entered by a reader into the bookchain it is essential that it stays there and isn’t removed as a request for a non-bookchain reader or another library. You will have to decide how to do this depending on your library request system. In some libraries, all bookchain books are immediately placed on request to bookchain participants and are therefore not available to other readers until that particular chain is finished. In other libraries, staff have worked out their own systems to ensure bookchain books are not removed until the end of the chain. What do other library staff need to know?It is essential that library staff are thoroughly briefed on the workings of the bookchain so that everyone – both part-timers and full-timers – know how the following aspects of the bookchain work:
A named bookchain contact (who is a regular member of staff) to sort out any problems is just as important for library staff as it is for bookchain members. In turn, if this person is not the bookchain organiser, they must be fully briefed (by the bookchain organiser) about bookchain readers and their chosen books. You may find it helpful to supply one member of staff with a complete list of bookchain members, listed in their small chain (e.g. Blue) and including their personal identification numbers (1-3). You may also want to include the title and author of the book submitted by each participating reader. Click here for a sample data sheet for a typical bookchain. Initials have been used to disguise the identity of real people; you will probably find it helpful to use full names. |