Book Discussion Group Kits

The West Virginia Library Commission Book Discussion Group kits are available for public libraries in the state of WV to borrow for their book clubs. The WVLC has more than 360 BDG kits in a variety of genres. If you wish to start a book club at your library and to request book discussion group kits from us, please read below. For any questions you may email bdg.requests@wvlc.lib.wv.us or call us at 304-558-2045 and ask to speak with Sarah Marzouk, the staff member currently running BDG kits.

Starting a Book Club at your library

Please fill out this contact information form here first before requesting any kits.

Reserving Book Club titles

To reserve book discussion group titles with us, we advise you send us about a year's worth of titles you are interested in, plus an additional 3-5 titles in case some of the titles you want are not available. To do this, simply email bdg.requests@wvlc.lib.wv.us with the following information:

Name of your book club
Library delivery location
List of titles your book club is interested in

Please be sure to include a few alternative titles in case your preferred choices are not available

Date of distribution (preferably stated as so: First Mondays, Third Thursdays, etc)

If you are requesting multiple titles, indicate the date you will be distributing the first title scheduled
Titles are scheduled by the date they are distributed, not the date they are discussed

Number of copies you would like each meeting (most kits have 10-15 available copies, but some of our older kits are missing books and the entire number of copies requested cannot always be guaranteed. We will send what we can)

You can go here for a document that you can print and fill out with your requests if you wish to do so. This document is only viewable and cannot be edited. You are not required to use this form; it is just for your convenience.

Current Book Discussion Group titles available

Check this spreadsheet to look at our current book discussion group titles that we have. There are several tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet to help you search for a particular genre or age range. The last tab that says "NEW" are all of our kits that have been added within the last year. This spreadsheet also tells you how many copies we have of each kit. If your club has more than 10 people, please check if the kit has at least 15 copies if you would like there to be one copy for every person. If you are okay with not having a copy for every person, you can request any title with any number of copies.

Searching for titles through WVLN

You can search the West Virginia Library Network catalog for a list of all of our book club titles here.

In the pull-down menu, change Title to Local Note
In the box next to that, type in WVLCBDG
In the box that says All Libraries, click on WV Library Commission
Hit submit

After you hit submit, the next page will list all of the book discussion group titles available from us. This, however, does not show availability of particular kits. Copies will show as available, but entire kits are checked out using a separate barcode. Use this procedure to get detailed information about the book such as genre, number of pages, and a synopsis.

Scheduling software we use + returning materials

We use KitKeeper to schedule BDG kits. Availability for kits is confirmed through kitkeeper by a WVLC staff member. Groups are allotted 30 days usage of materials. Kits usually arrive at least seven days prior to the distribution meeting, pending delivery service. We allow one week for materials to be collected from group members from the discussion meeting date and an additional week for shipping back via prepaid FedEx slips that we include with your shipment. It is the responsibility of the borrowing library to schedule a FedEx pickup at the library or to arrange to drop off the package at a local FedEx Drop-Off Location. You may elect to return the package via the postal service at your library's expense. Most kits are already scheduled for another library, so returning materials on time is much appreciated. If you ever have a situation you are unsure of how to handle with regarding returning materials, please email us at bdg.requests@wvlc.lib.wv.us or call us at 305-558-2045 and ask for Sarah Marzouk.

Most of the information listed here can also be found on our WVLC Book Discussion Group LibGuide, which you can access here.

Book Discussion Group Kits

​S​​​​tarting a Book Club at your library

​​Reserving Book Club titles

​​Current Book Discussion Group titles available​​​​

​Searching for titles through WVLN

​Scheduling soft​ware we use + returning materials

Starting a Book Club at your library

Reserving Book Club titles

Current Book Discussion Group titles available

Searching for titles through WVLN

Scheduling software we use + returning materials