Survey: Methodology

Using Google.com, we conducted a search for library book clubs mentioned on publicly-viewable sites with “.edu” domain suffixes, limiting our results to the past year in order to examine groups with current programs.^[1] We then used personal judgment to evaluate web information to determine if the programs were open to students and coordinated (in partnership or in whole) by the institution’s library. We identified 25 groups this way.

We then used a list of R1 universities in the United States as compiled by Wikipedia and used the same search terms and date filter to identify book groups mentioned specifically on each individual university’s domain. We identified an additional 15 groups this way. Overall, our searching included 142 universities.  The spreadsheet we used to collect data can be viewed here.