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Thursday, February 20, 2003

By Bob Hoover, Post-Gazette Book Editor

A month after it was launched, the One Book, One Community program, which had hoped to get the whole county reading and discussing "To Kill a Mockingbird," is still struggling to take flight.

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While most of One Book's schedule focuses on discussion groups and film showings at libraries and bookstores, several events scheduled this month were aimed at drawing bigger audiences and they have been canceled.

"It just seems to be a nonevent," said Shelia Fisher, president of the Friends of the Carnegie Library and a member of the organizing committee. "It's just not making a big hit and that's too bad. It has a lot of potential."

The One Book idea, which started in Seattle in the late 1990s, has been embraced by dozens of communities across the country, many of them reporting great success.

Paula Calabrese, another planning committee member, said much of the Pittsburgh program's problems stemmed from inadequate marketing and publicity. "If I weren't on the committee, I wouldn't know much about it," she said.

Allegheny County Library Association Director Marilyn Jenkins announced the start of the project Jan. 17 at a ceremony that included Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey and Mayor Tom Murphy.

Both the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and municipal libraries are members of the association, the prime organizer of One Book, One Community.

Since the launch, several activities -- including a theatrical presentation of the book's rape trial at the Hazlett Theater, North Side, and classes sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Lifetime Learning -- have been canceled for lack of interest.

"It's important for a program with a modest marketing budget like this one to have events that attract a wide range of people," said Sean Smith of Red House, the South Side firm marketing One Book, One Community. "It's really too bad those events were canceled."

Smith would not disclose the amount of the marketing budget.

One Book's "signature" event, a town meeting-style gathering, would involve public officials in a discussion of racism and community, issues raised in the novel.

"We haven't confirmed a date or place," Seth Hufford of Leadership Pittsburgh, organizers of the event, said yesterday. "All the logistics are still being worked out."

The tentative date is March 25. The forum would address the issue of racism raised in the novel, in which a black man is wrongly accused of raping a white woman in 1930s Alabama.

As well as the public forum, plans for other events in March are still in the works, according to Carri Czyewski of the library association. They include a reading of the stage version of the book, more municipal library programs and activities at independent bookstores.

Another Pitt program based on the 1962 film version will be held as scheduled. The movie will be shown tonight at 7 in Room L9, Clapp Hall, followed by a panel discussion tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the William Pitt Union assembly room. Vernell Lille, founder of Pitt's Kuntu Repertory Theater, and filmmakers Tony Buba, Harish Saluja and John Rice are among the panelists.

When the idea for a regional "book club" began in Seattle it was limited to a number of independent discussion groups in that city.

The One Book concept expanded to a civic activity in 2001 when the Chicago Public Library selected "Mockingbird," the favorite book of Mayor Richard M. Daley, as a starting point for a citywide program.

The concept has since spread to New York City, Los Angeles and at least 130 other locales, including Cleveland and Philadelphia, where one-book activities are under way. In more than a dozen of the communities, "To Kill a Mockingbird" is the current book choice.

The county library association began full-time planning for a similar event here last spring, enlisting such organizations as the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, Pittsburgh Public Schools, H.J. Heinz Foundation, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, several colleges, bookstores and publishers.

Libraries in both Philadelphia and the Cleveland-Akron area are conducting similar reading programs with more extensive programming than Allegheny County's.

Now in its second year, the One Book event in Ohio involves 37 library systems in "all the suburbs and the city of Lorain, too," said Mike Snyder of the Cleveland Area Metropolitan Library System.

It also used "To Kill a Mockingbird" to launch its effort in January 2002.

"We had about 200 programs throughout the area," said Snyder. "One group held a mock trial using modern and fair jurisprudence this time and the verdict was innocent."

Two theater groups held dramatic readings as well during the five months of activities. Snyder said there were more than 10,000 circulations of the book, its audio version and the film by participating libraries.

This year, the Cleveland-area book is "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. Activities begin tonight when Bradbury will be interviewed from Los Angeles by audio hookup to audiences in Cleveland and Akron.

Also planned is a reading of the book at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland.

The Free Library of Philadelphia and those in five surrounding counties including Camden, N.J., launched their reading project Feb. 6 with "The Price of a Child" by Philadelphian Lorene Cary. The 1995 novel is based on the true story of a slave who escaped in pre-Civil War Philadelphia.

Mayor John Street played an active role in pushing One Book, One Philadelphia, said Sandra Horrocks of the Free Library.

"He wanted a book with a local theme and something that would tie in with the opening of the National Constitution Center on July 4," she said. "The mayor kept urging the library to take on the leadership role in getting things rolling."

Along with 20 readings by Cary, One Book, One Philadelphia has organized a town meeting co-sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania April 8, which includes Street and the presidents of the Free Library and Penn. The program is being financed with $250,000 in corporate donations.

Pittsburgh, with a $5,000 contribution from Heinz, and Cleveland are depending on foundation support for funding. Cleveland's Snyder said last year's "Mockingbird" project cost about $17,000 to produce.