College Store's Student-Staff Embraces Book of the Year 'Assignment'

The student-staff at the Colby (College) Bookstore in Waterville, Maine, has been eagerly awaiting the announcement of the 2004 Book Sense Book of the Year finalists. According to Barb Shutt, the store's assistant director, this is the second year the store is having the students on staff read the finalists and then rate them to come up with the store's vote for the Book of the Year Awards.

Shutt explained that the store wanted to bolster the staff's interest in, and knowledge of, Book Sense Picks by having them read the finalists in each category and then vote for their favorites. "Students don't have a lot of time to read, outside of school work, Shutt told BTW, "so I wanted to make their extra reading more exciting. Last year, I provided all the [Books Sense Book of the Year finalists] in galley form or advance reading copies, mostly from the Book Sense White boxes. [The students on staff] signed them out, and once they had read all five contenders in a given category, they allocated points to each entry: five points to their favorite, four to their second, and so on, down to one point. We added each book's cumulative score, and the books with the highest point total [in each category] got the store's vote. That's just what we're doing again this year."

So far, students have been reading books from the long list of semifinalists, waiting for the finalists to be named. Shutt said, "When they return from spring break, one of their first questions is, do we know the finalists yet?"

Shutt finds that the most votes are cast in the Children's Illustrated category, since those are very quick reads, and staff is encouraged to read them during their regular shifts at the store. Some staff members may not vote in every category, since Shutt is firm about them reading all five finalists in the category. "Sometimes they ask me what to do when they absolutely can't stand a book," she explained. "The rule is that they must read at least one-quarter of the book before abandoning it."

Last year, Shutt said happily, the students on staff were urging other staff members to read all the books.

"Some of our picks won." But even better, Shutt continued, "people are now talking about the books all the time; asking each other's opinions. Because this is a part-time job, and they have a lot of other things going on, it's hard to have them know about many current books. This is their chance to have fun, and, as a result, they have a lot more to say about each book to customers."

Since the winners are announced at BookExpo America, after the students have left the campus, they keep in touch and ask about the winners via e-mail. After last year's experience and the start of this year, Shutt "assigns" the Book Sense Book of the Year finalists with great confidence. "This way," she noted, "if they don't have much time to read outside books, they know with these, they're going to get great reads, only the creme de la creme." --Nomi Schwartz