The Program
One Read is a community-wide reading program coordinated by a task force of community agencies and media in Boone and Callaway Counties. The task force is led by Daniel Boone Regional Library (DBRL), in conjunction with the Kansas City Metropolitan Library & Information Network (KCMLIN). Modeled after Chicago’s successful “One Book, One Chicago” project, this comprehensive program involves cities, counties, media, and businesses in encouraging adults of all ages to read and talk about one book and participate in thought-provoking discussion and activities. It is the hope of the One Read Task Force, a group of local media and community organizations, that as many residents as possible in the DBRL Region of Boone and Callaway Counties will join those in the Kansas City Metro area in reading the same book. In September, community-wide discussions, programs and other activities will begin, and the program will culminate in November with the author’s visit to Columbia and Fulton. The One Read committee has set forth these goals for the program:

Background
The idea of having as many people as possible read a single book together originated four years ago in Seattle. It has since spread to other cities, including Chicago, Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., Springfield, Ill., and Boise, Idaho. Credit for the original idea is given to Nancy Pearl, a Seattle librarian at the Washington Center for the Book. “It’s based on the idea of community. My idea was that people would come together who would never come together any other way. Literature brings them together because a book touches them,” she said.

One Read Task Force

City of Ashland	KOMU-TV	City of Columbia, Office of Cultural Affairs
KFRU-FM	Columbia Bookstore	KBIA-FM
Columbia Chamber of Commerce	KOPN-FM	Columbia Daily Tribune
KFAL-FM & KKCA-AM	Columbia Missourian	University Bookstore
Kingdom of Callaway Chamber of Commerce

KCMLIN Partnership
Initially, the success of similar programs in Seattle and Chicago gave DBRL the idea for One Read. During an interview on KFRU-FM, DBRL Director Melissa Carr, was asked when we might do something similar. Just a few weeks later, we were asked to partner with KCMLIN in a book discussion project that seemed to fit with our plans, including the timing—the activities will be kicked off in September, the same time as our grand opening events for the DBRL headquarters building in Columbia.

KCMLIN is a multi-type library consortium serving 48 library systems on both sides of the Missouri/Kansas state line, with its main office located in Independence, Missouri. KCMLIN was established in 1978 with the mission to promote "the effective development, coordination and sharing of human and material resources in the metropolitan area of Kansas City." The network consists of more than 100 individual members as well as institutional members that represent public, academic, school, health science and special libraries.