Promoting reading culture: Book club for busy people

<p>The poster was presented at Library Leads Forum in Qatar on March 19th 2023.</p> <p>Abstract: Research reveals that students’ reading habits have a significant impact on their academic achievement. Library plays an important role in promoting the reading culture and helping students become lifelong learners. </p> <p>The poster presents Book Club for Busy People, an outreach program run at the CMU-Q library, and describes its purpose, organization, essential elements and ways of measuring success. University students, busy with assignments, exams and extracurricular activities, have little time to read books. Instead of running a traditional book club, the CMU-Q library offers a new approach where students read only a chapter or an excerpt of a book and get together to discuss it in depth and develop their own interpretation. Run by students and for students once a month, the library outreach program builds a community of readers open to explore diverse stories, engage in eye-opening conversations and gain a better understanding of what they read. Librarian supervisors serve as ambassadors to the fascinating world of ideas and enablers of cultural learning, knowledge exchange and perspective building. </p> <p>This project is a true example of library leadership in community building and cultural diplomacy. </p>