The Selection Process
Who decides the title that is chosen?
There are two steps in deciding the final title for the One Book, One Community (OBOC) program each year. In 2014, we debuted the One Book, Your Vote program that gives our readers and participants a chance to finalize the book that we will focus on. During the month of October, anyone can vote online or in a participating library. The choices put forth come from a committee of local book lovers who spend almost six months reading and discussing titles that become the nominees for the One Book, Your Vote process.
All year long, people are welcome to suggest titles that they think might make a good OBOC selection. You can e-mail suggested titles to OBOC@yorklibraries.org or tell somebody at a participating library or bookstore to pass along your recommendation to the committee.
Around the beginning of December, the OBOC Selection Committee will begin to compile the list of suggestions - from the community, the committee members themselves, librarians at our participating libraries, or booksellers who stock our books annually. The One Book program has become so widespread throughout the country that several major publishers even have catalogs with suggested titles for programs like this. The Selection Committee starts with anywhere from 60-75 titles on the reading list. Each person reads as many titles as they can between our meetings and then we sit around a big table and discuss what we thought of the books and whether they fit our criteria for the program. The 2021 Book Selection Criteria were as follows:
There are often really good books that just don't quite fit these criteria - some are too intellectual, some just aren't very discussable, and others just don't feel right for the program. For as many books as are eliminated from the process, there are reasons why the committee members don't think they are the right choice. To see our starting list of titles for the 2022 Selection process, click here.
Once the Selection Committee has landed on a number of titles for the vote, the Steering Committee begins to make arrangements for the vote to take place. After all the votes are in, the title is announced in October and reading begins!
There are two steps in deciding the final title for the One Book, One Community (OBOC) program each year. In 2014, we debuted the One Book, Your Vote program that gives our readers and participants a chance to finalize the book that we will focus on. During the month of October, anyone can vote online or in a participating library. The choices put forth come from a committee of local book lovers who spend almost six months reading and discussing titles that become the nominees for the One Book, Your Vote process.
All year long, people are welcome to suggest titles that they think might make a good OBOC selection. You can e-mail suggested titles to OBOC@yorklibraries.org or tell somebody at a participating library or bookstore to pass along your recommendation to the committee.
Around the beginning of December, the OBOC Selection Committee will begin to compile the list of suggestions - from the community, the committee members themselves, librarians at our participating libraries, or booksellers who stock our books annually. The One Book program has become so widespread throughout the country that several major publishers even have catalogs with suggested titles for programs like this. The Selection Committee starts with anywhere from 60-75 titles on the reading list. Each person reads as many titles as they can between our meetings and then we sit around a big table and discuss what we thought of the books and whether they fit our criteria for the program. The 2021 Book Selection Criteria were as follows:
- A good, discussable book with wide appeal. Books that make successful subjects for discussion have well-developed characters who are challenged by issues in their lives with which readers can identify;
- A book that is available in quantity at reasonable cost, in various media formats (paperback, large print, audio, CD, or electronic formats);
- A book that is written at a high school reading level; and
- A book that varies in type (e.g., subject matter, author, etc.) from other recent selections;
- An author, or recognized experts on the author or topic, who would be willing to engage in discussion with readers at several events.
There are often really good books that just don't quite fit these criteria - some are too intellectual, some just aren't very discussable, and others just don't feel right for the program. For as many books as are eliminated from the process, there are reasons why the committee members don't think they are the right choice. To see our starting list of titles for the 2022 Selection process, click here.
Once the Selection Committee has landed on a number of titles for the vote, the Steering Committee begins to make arrangements for the vote to take place. After all the votes are in, the title is announced in October and reading begins!