Armchair BEA Day 3 - Networking

Today's topic at Armchair BEA is Networking. Have you ever wondered how bloggers get so involved outside the nuts and bolts community of book blogging? Well, now's your chance to learn from the experts! From partnering with their local indie bookstores to coordinating events at their local libraries, we've got tips to share with you to help you become more involved with your local bookish community.  Visit the website to learn more.

I'm on the learning end of this topic.  I've been blogging for 2 1/2 years, but haven't gotten heavily involved in networking or partnering, so I'm anxious to learn more. My limited experience was while I was working at the library - I teamed up with a fellow blogger and another library to create Library Bingo.

The originial idea came from Jenners at LifeWithBooks.  She created the "Take-A-Chance Challenge".  With Jenners' permission, I adapted her idea to work as a reading program for library patrons.  We featured six categories:

1. Random library location - draw a shelf number and read a book found on that shelf.
2. Random word - draw a word from the hat and read a book with that word in the title.
3. Random author - all fiction authors available at the library were thrown in the hat - draw a name and read anything by that author.
4. Random year - draw a year and read any New York Times Bestseller from that year.
5. Judge a Book By It's Cover - select a book you are unfamiliar with based solely on the cover design.
6. Read a non-fiction book.

Patrons who completed all six challenges received a prize.  The challenge was such a hit that the next year I "borrowed" an idea from a library blog (again, with their permission), combined it with Jenners' idea and created Take-A-Chance Bingo. 

Each patron received a standard 5X5 bingo card containing 25 different book categories - romance, mystery, 2010 bestsellers, staff recommendations, Kansas authors, foreign setting, etc.  Reading five books, one from each category in a row, made a BINGO and earned a prize.  A blackout - reading all 25 categories - earned a larger prize plus immunity from library fines for 1 year.  The program was a huge success.  One high school English teacher used it in her classroom, several area libraries hi-jacked the idea for their own reading programs.  I even sent sample cards to libraries and bloggers outside our area because they read it about it on this blog.  And all because I read a book blog . . .