Not Just for Patrons: Book Club Participation as Professional Development for Librarians

Reading Well

“…During the early decades of the twenty-first century, librarianship began embracing reflective approaches to professional practice via book clubs to greet, meet, and network together as a community of practice to learn from one another for professional development (Brown and Shaindlin 2021;Dilevko and Gottlieb 2004;Irvin and Reile 2018;Irvin and Reile 2020). Librarian book clubs are venues where hard questions find safe spaces to be asked, unpacked, and discussed.…”

“…Morris and Kumasi, librarians who coordinated, facilitated, observed and participated as researchers in library-based book clubs, situate librarians as de-facto readers with an inquiry stance (Cochran-Smith and Lytle 2009; Irvin and Reile 2018;Irvin 2022). Librarians reading with an inquiry stance within a book club context is a viable practitioner model for librarian professional development (Brown 2019;Brown and Shaindlin 2021).…”

“…In-kind, the librarian book club is a means to unpack librarians' literary readings to "work out" and "work on" professional issues and events pertinent to their identities as public librarians. For librarians, collective and collaborative reading in the form of a book club online or face-to-face involves reading popular literature from their library collections to serve as a critical inquiry to contemplate community realities, even while acknowledging their collective work as professional learning (Abrams 2016;Brown 2019;Brown and Shaindlin 2021;Irvin 2022).…”

“…For example, Irvin and Reile (2018) worked with public librarians in Hawaii, convening practitioners as communities of practice to read texts, documents and policy documents for professional networking and development. Brown and Shaindlin (2021) conducted a study to explore the question, "Do librarians participate in book clubs themselves?" Their survey of 233 librarian participants revealed that librarians highly participate in personal and professional book clubs that positively impact their professional development.…”

“…With book clubs being traditionalistic programs in libraries, in recent years, librarian scholars started to explore the question: How do librarians use book clubs for professional development? Some studies have embraced frameworks such as feminist theory, critical race theory, and participatory research to investigate this question (Brown and Shaindlin 2021;Foster et al 2022;Henriksson et al 2019;Hincks, 2016;Irvin 2022). Librarian book clubs have been sites for processing work experiences, sharing resources, responding to reading professional literature, and as a checks-and-balances method for studying and improving professional practice.…”