Once again, we are pleased to invite you to participate in Booksmack at VILSC!
What is a booksmack? It is a fast and fun readers advisory event where panelists participate in timed rounds of recommendations from their library’s collection. Booksmack is designed to engage the audience and make folks think, laugh, and learn about various collections from different libraries.
Note: While we refer to books here throughout, participants are welcome to select other types of media like films, music, podcasts, etc. If you want to recommend specifically the audiobook version of a title, that’s great!
How it works:
- Booksmack is open to individuals from any type of library. Depending on the number of individual panelists, we will run up to 6 rounds of 1 minute each.
- Each round will have a different theme, introduced by the MC.
- For each round, you will need to bring a book (or books – it is up to you) of your choice. As long as you connect it to the round’s theme, it can be a book that you loved or hated, a book that inspired you, or a book that was simply soooo good you just have to share.
- Each minute of booktalking is timed, and a buzzer will go off at the end of the minute.
What you need to do:
- Register for Booksmack by emailing Samantha MacFarlane at snmac@uvic.ca.
- Once registration closes, panelists will be invited to vote in a poll to determine the themes for each round. Some potential themes are: a book you read in the last 10 years; your favourite book from when you were 10 years old; and nostalgic for 2016: a book that came out 10 years ago.
- The poll will be open for a week to give all participants time to respond. Once the poll closes, the organizing committee will send out the final list of themes to participants.
- Submit a list of the items you are booksmacking by May 1, 2026, to the organizers so that they can create a list of all selections.
- Bring your books to VILSC on May 8, 2026.
- In each round, make the case for your selection(s) in 1 minute. We will not be declaring a winner, but the goal is still to persuade the audience to (or not to) read/watch/listen to what you have chosen.
More information:
Want to learn more about Booksmack? See how GVPL Booksmack has worked: (See GVPL’s Video)
Have further questions? Please contact Samantha MacFarlane (snmac@uvic.ca), Vruti Patel (PatelV@camosun.ca), or Emma Wilson (ewilson@gvpl.ca).