BibliON’s Digital Reading Clubs are offering spaces for intellectual and emotional exchanges about books for people from across Brasil, creating a sense of belonging among people of all ages and socio-economic and educational backgrounds who share similar interests. 

The BibliON Reading Clubs are part of the São Paulo state public libraries system and serve as an extension of the digital services offered by public libraries. In this way, BibliON improves and expands citizens' access to reading and culture.

“By offering clubs focused on different topics and literary genres we have created the opportunity for people from different realities to get together and discuss books. Our audiences include adults and seniors, children and young people, people interested in philosophy and sociology, or in reading works written by women, or poetry, or fantasy, or works by contemporary authors”, says ”, says Miguel Gutierrez, Executive Director of Director of SP Leituras - São Paulo Association of Libraries and Reading -  the social organization that manages BibliON.

How the Digital Reading Clubs work

To join a Reading Club people register through a platform on the Digital Library, where they can access a book of the month selected by a reading facilitator. The facilitators are careful to select books based on the club members' interests, and to listen to their suggestions. All participants can read the book at the same time and there is no need for reservations or waiting lists.

Each Reading Club has one hour-long virtual meeting a month, using the Zoom communications platform. The facilitators have been trained to ensure that all voices are heard at the monthly meetings. They also ask questions during the meetings to provoke critical and creative thinking.

The Reading Clubs platform offers an online forum where readers can share excerpts from the book of the month and their insights and comments in-between meetings. Readers are encouraged to use the forums to share readings that complement the book of the month, for example, historical texts, book reviews or interviews with the author. The facilitators also pose questions on the online forums, stimulating discussion of the selected work before the virtual meeting.

Enthusiasm from across the country

The Reading Clubs have attracted enthusiastic readers from across the country, and by November 2024 there were six Reading Clubs with 4,329 readers from 23 of Brazil’s 27 states. Since the beginning of the Reading Club programme in 2023, 132 digital titles have been read and 132 monthly meetings have been held.

“The facilitator, as well as the people participating, are giving me another perspective regarding reading. I learn a lot during the meetings, and they are very pleasant moments. So much so that I participated in the last few meetings even though I had not finished reading the selected books,” said a regular participant in the Reading Club focused on contemporary authors.

The Reading Clubs are offering alternatives for people who cannot come to the library to take part in face-to-face library programmes: “Although I prefer face-to-face contact and am very interested in attending events organized by the São Paulo public library system, my intense routine and the lack of libraries in Moema, the neighbourhood where I live, make it difficult for me to participate in events in the city's libraries. The availability of the Digital Reading Clubs and the digital collection enables the participation of more citizens in events. I congratulate this initiative!” said a member of the Women’s Voices Reading Club. 

And the Reading Clubs are inspiring creativity: “There was a remarkable moment in the Children’s Club,” recalls Evelyn Fonseca de Souza, the BibliON staffer who coordinates the Reading Clubs. “The club was reading a children's poetry book, and the facilitator was leading a discussion about the poetic structure of the verses. At the following month’s meeting, an 11-year-old boy asked to speak and read a poem of his own that he had written inspired by the meeting of the previous month.”

More innovative public libraries contributing to Reading & Literacy and Education.

PLIP-Education

Contributing to Literacy: Innovation Award