Yuma library joins consortium to host virtual author talks
Sarah Wisdom recalls speaking to the publicist for a prominent author she and other organizers of the One Book Yuma reading program hoped to bring to town to speak to the public.
The publicist told Wisdom the author would come for a minimum speaking fee of $25,000 – far more than $3,000 available to pay for the appearance.
Needless to say, the writer didn’t come.
That was almost 20 years ago, and Wisdom, the Yuma County Library District’s community relations manager, assumes speaking fees have only gone up since then.
But now the district has found that by pooling its funds with those of other libraries across the nation, it can allow patrons to listen in on virtual talks with prominent authors for considerably less cost.
The district is one of nearly 200 library systems across the nation that form the Library Speakers Forum, which debuts July 7 with a virtual discussion with Alka Joshi, the author of “The Henna Artist.”
Joshi will discuss her inspirations for the 2020 novel that is set in post-independence India of the 1950s and follows one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society that straddles tradition and modernity.
Yuma-area residents wanting to see and hear Joshi can go to the Yuma Main Library, 2951 S. 21st Drive, and take a seat in Meeting Room A, where her talk will be livestreamed beginning at 6 p.m. on the 7th. Or by registering online, they can take in the discussion on their own computers and personal devices.
“They can watch it from their phone if they want,” said Brandon Adler, who will serve as moderator for the author talks.
Either way, they will see Joshi and Adler discuss “The Henna Artist,” which serves as the basis for a future Netflix series.
“It’s kind of like a virtual fireside chat, and then we leave time for questions and answers from the audience,” Adler said.
Joshi’s virtual appearance is the first of 11 online discussions with writers of fiction and non-fiction in diverse genres slated to take place through October. Other writers scheduled to appear include David Allen, author of the New York Times best-selling “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”; Dr. Marcia Chatelain, author of “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America”; Liz Moore, author of the thriller “Long Bright River”; Simon Winchester, author of more than a dozen works of history, and Kate Quinn, author of “The Diamond Eye” and other historical fiction.
The talks will all be hosted by the Yuma library and in some cases the Foothills Library as well. And given enough interest on the part of patrons, Wisdom foresees the district continuing to offer them after this year.
“It helps us make our programming that much more robust,” she said. “There’s just no way we could get some of the authors on our programming budget, so this just helps us to get them through the consortium.”
To be part of the consortium, the district pays an annual fee of $4,500, an amount based on the number of its patrons – and a sum that is a far cry from the $25,000 minimum fee demanded for the One Book Yuma appearance.
The Library Speakers Consortium is the creation of PBC Guru, a Maryland-based company that manages more than 10,000 online book clubs for organizations.
Nearly 200 library systems around the nation have committed to being a part of consortium since efforts began about a year ago to launch, says Adler, operations manager for the project.
“We’re reaching 10 milllion (library) cardholders at this point,” Adler said. “That’s nationwide but there are plans in the future to expand to Canada, Australia and the UK.”
The size of participating libraries “runs the gamut. We have had giant libraries and tiny libraries, and everything in between.”
A one-room library in Alaska is part of the consortium, as are Detroit’s libraries, Adler said.
She said PBC Guru’s goal is to provide two to three virtual author discussions a month to libraries participating in the consortium.
Wisdom said PBC Guru contacted the library district about joining the consortium. “We thought it would be of interest to our patrons,” she said, and given the prevalence of virtual presentation and talks, “we decided to jump on board.”
Area residents do not need to be library card holder to attend the free livestreaming events. Nor do they need cards to register for free to receive the talks on their personal devices, although they will have to register for each talk they want to view.
The registration site is https://libraryc.org/yumalibrary/upcoming
The site allows people to submit questions that, given enough time in the program, will be asked of the author, Adler said. People who go to the library for the virtual talk can submit questions to library staff who will pass them along to the moderator.