About One Book - History of the
"One Book, One Community" Program
An exploratory group including Wendy Wilkins (dean of MSU's College of Arts and Letters), Cliff Haka (director of MSU Libraries), Sylvia Marabate (director of the East Lansing Public Library), Judith Taran (communications director for the City of East Lansing) and Kristan Tetens (media relations project manager for MSU’s Division of University Relations) met in the fall of 2001 to discuss the idea of a community reading program and to determine whether it would gain broad university and city support. After determining that it would, the exploratory group began building partnerships with other university and city administrators, with university faculty, with students, with East Lansing High School teachers, and with the East Lansing business community. It also established a book selection committee.
The first "One Book, One Community" program took place October 7 - November 15, 2002 and featured Ray Bradbury's science fiction masterpiece Fahrenheit 451. In 2003 the selection was Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. 2003 was the first year incoming MSU freshman were asked to read this book before arriving on campus and encouraged to participate in community-wide events. More information on past book selections can be found in the site archive.