Colorado Authors & Libraries Connect

I’m excited to tell you about a brand new emailing list (also known as a listserv) called Colorado Authors & Libraries Connect. CALC is the place for authors and library staff throughout Colorado to build community. Using the magical means of email, subscribers can share news, information, and speaker opportunities, as well as facilitate connections between book clubs and writers. We hope you’ll spread the word about it to anyone who might be interested in subscribing, be they people working in libraries, local authors, or members of book clubs. Getting connected is easy!

Subscribe to CALC today and help grow this community!

Background

The Colorado Book Club Resource recently surpassed 1,000 book club sets, thanks to the support of Colorado libraries, who have donated hundreds of book club sets over the years. And no small thanks also goes to members of the Colorado Authors League, who have donated a huge amount of new sets lately!

We have been working with the League on spreading the word about all the impressive creative talent in our state. In particular, we wanted to find an easy way of making it possible for libraries to connect with writers (and vice versa).

Why an email list?

One fantastic and time honored way of increasing the reach of great books is through book clubs or reading groups. It just so happens that many authors love nothing more than to talk about their works with enthusiastic readers! What better place to facilitate this rare connection than the library? Although there is doubtlessly interest in having such a community, no simple way of connecting interested parties has existed in the state – until now! As the continued popularity of email lists like Libnet shows, this rather basic technology remains a tremendously effective way of connecting truly interested parties. The key to Libnet’s success is its strong community of dedicated subscribers, so the hope here is to build a similarly robust community of collaborators.

Who is it for?

The mailing list is set up to benefit the library community, authors, and ultimately readers. After subscribing, members are approved by the list administrators to weed out potential spam. Posters that deviate from the mailing list’s intended purpose (for example, posting unrelated material, or advertising irrelevant commercial products) are subject to removal by the administrators.

More information

• Read more about Colorado authors, including a list of authors (most of which have a works in our collection) willing to appear at YOUR book club.
• Find a full list of the mailing lists we host.
• Want more information on listservs? Check out our Mailing Lists 101.