1. Sex and the Collections
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e21d617ed6f10830fe7a2104075c6a0bff400bc329de8935430cf6f54f9fd912d&fmt=P
Kohl, D. F. Sex and the Collections. The Journal of Academic Librarianship v. 30 no. 1 (January 2004) p. 1-2
2. PAUTAS PARA SERVICIOS BIBLIOTECARIOS PARA LOS JÓVENES
SECCIÓN 1
Introducción:
Destinatarios de estas pautas:
Bibliotecarios que trabajen en todo tipo de bibliotecas de zonas urbanas y rurales de todo el mundo, profesionales, auxiliares y voluntarios.
Directivos de bibliotecas y responsables de la toma de decisiones.
Profesores y estudiantes de escuelas de bibliotecología/biblioteconomía.
Cada biblioteca pública atiende a una comunidad diferente y, por lo tanto, tiene prioridades y necesidades diferentes. Aunque no todos los países han desarrollado servicios bibliotecarios especializados para jóvenes, estas pautas se basan en la creencia de que la adolescencia es una etapa única de la vida y que, por lo tanto, los jóvenes tienen derecho a los mismos servicios bibliotecarios de calidad que se ofrecen a grupos de la población de otras edades. Así pues, cada biblioteca debería iniciar servicios para jóvenes como parte de los servicios bibliotecarios generales y además estos servicios deben ofrecerse en cooperación con otras instituciones.
Misión y Objetivos:
“La biblioteca pública, la institución local de acceso al conocimiento, ofrece la condición básica para el aprendizaje personal permanente, la toma de decisiones independiente y el desarrollo cultural del individuo y de grupos sociales” (MANIFIESTO DE LA UNESCO/IFLA SOBRE LA BIBLIOTECA PÚBLICA, 1995). El MANIFIESTO de la UNESCO proclama la creencia en la biblioteca pública como una fuerza viva para la educación, la cultura y la información.
“Los jóvenes necesitan una atención especial ya que muchos abandonan la lectura voluntaria en esta etapa de sus vidas. Los bibliotecarios y otros profesionales que son conscientes del
crecimiento sicológico y emocional de los jóvenes deberían fomentar el interés de éstos por toda clase de libros compatibles con sus intereses” (Charter for the Reader. International Book Committee and International Publishing Association, 1992).
Las bibliotecas pueden ser una influencia importante para que el individuo consiga pasar con éxito de la infancia a la madurez ofreciéndoles acceso a los recursos en un entorno que propicie el desarrollo intelectual, emocional y social y constituya una alternativa a los problemas sociales.
Objetivos de los Servicios para Jóvenes:
Servir de transición entre los servicios para niños y los servicios para adultos.
Estimular el aprendizaje personal permanente, a través de la biblioteca y del fomento de la lectura.
Motivar la lectura para obtener información y por diversión durante toda la vida.
Promover las destrezas relacionadas con la búsqueda, recuperación y organización de la información.
Ofrecer colecciones y servicios bibliotecarios para satisfacer las siguientes necesidades de todos los jóvenes de la comunidad:
Educativas.
Informativas.
Culturales.
De ocio.
Objetivos de las Pautas:
Estas pautas son una lista de ideas, desde una perspectiva internacional, que pueden ser útiles como orientación para los bibliotecarios con y sin experiencia que tienen la responsabilidad de atender a jóvenes.
SECCIÓN 2
Definición del destinatario final
El destinatario final (los jóvenes) se puede definir como un grupo de gente que se encuentra entre la infancia y la edad adulta. Incluye a todas las personas sin importar su raza, religión, procedencia cultural, capacidad intelectual o física.
Necesidades del destinatario final
La biblioteca debe estar abierta a todo el mundo y, por lo tanto, debe respetar las diferentes necesidades culturales. Éstas tienen sus raíces tanto en la tradición oral como en la visual, en los cambios de la sociedad y de la posición social, en la diversidad cultural y en visiones y sueños. Estas necesidades se deberían reflejar en la oferta de recursos, servicios y programas de la biblioteca y en el entorno físico de ésta.
Es importante que los servicios para jóvenes no sean diseñados sólo por los bibliotecarios sino en cooperación con representantes de los destinatarios finales. Los jóvenes deben ser tratados con
respeto y la aceptación de que sus preferencias pueden ser diferentes de lo que la biblioteca ofrece tradicionalmente. Éstos deberían participar activamente en la planificación, puesta en práctica y evaluación de los recursos, servicios y programas.
Materiales
Dado que las necesidades de los jóvenes varían mucho, los recursos tienen que reflejar estas necesidades. Por lo tanto, la biblioteca debe de tener recursos para todos los grupos incluidos los jóvenes con discapacidades y minorías sociales y lingüísticas.
Para la información y educación.
Para el ocio/diversión.
De diversidad cultural.
En diferentes idiomas.
Las formas y el contenido de los recursos han de tener en cuenta los diferentes niveles de los usuarios, sus intereses, sus destrezas intelectuales y procedencia cultural. Se debería proporcionar una amplia oferta de comics, novela rosa, series populares y música de moda.
La colección puede constar de cualquier material como por ejemplo:
Material impreso.
Libros.
Revistas.
Colección de recortes de periódicos y guías informativas.
Posters.
Material no impreso.
Audiocasete.
Discos compactos.
Multimedia (CD-ROM, CDI).
Programas informáticos.
Videocasete.
Juegos de mesa y electrónicos.
Acceso a redes electrónicas locales, nacionales e internacionales.
La biblioteca debe contar con el equipo necesario para atender las necesidades de los usuarios, por ejemplo, un número adecuado de ordenadores, vídeos y auriculares.
Servicios y Programas
El objetivo de los servicios y programas es hacer frente a las necesidades cambiantes de los jóvenes de la comunidad local, incluidos todos los grupos culturales y los jóvenes con necesidades especiales.
La evaluación continua de las necesidades de los jóvenes es una responsabilidad básica de cada biblioteca. Además, es necesario que éstos participen en la planificación de los servicios y
programas (grupos asesores, mecanismos de retroalimentación tales como posters, block de notas, tablón de anuncios electrónico).
Si existe un espacio para los jóvenes, el mobiliario y la decoración deberían reflejar sus preferencias y estar separado de la zona para niños.
La biblioteca debería contar con personal formado y dispuesto a responder a las necesidades específicas de los jóvenes.
Ejemplos de Servicios Recomendados:
Servicio de referencia (incluida ayuda con las tareas escolares).
Visitas guiadas a la biblioteca.
Clases de lectura y escritura y preparación en las destrezas para la búsqueda, recuperación y organización de información (usando recursos impresos y electrónicos).
Servicios de asesoría a los lectores (individuales y a grupos).
Fomento del uso de la colección en todos los formatos.
Acceso a los recursos externos como, por ejemplo, expertos y el préstamo interbibliotecario.
Aumento del conocimiento público de los servicios bibliotecarios para jóvenes.
Cooperación con otros proveedores de información y de servicios de la comunidad.
Servicios a grupos especiales (jóvenes con discapacidades, padres adolescentes, educación en la prisión y en hospitales).
Ejemplos de Programas Recomendados:
Presentaciones de libros.
Hora del cuento.
Grupos y clubs de discusión.
Programas de información sobre temas especiales (salud, sexualidad, orientación profesional, asuntos de actualidad).
Visitas de celebridades (autores, atletas).
Actuaciones (música, arte, drama).
Programación cooperativa con instituciones y grupos de la comunidad.
Producciones de jóvenes (drama, publicaciones, televisión, vídeo y revistas).
Talleres de trabajo.
SECCIÓN 3
Cooperación con otras instituciones
La calidad de los servicios bibliotecarios para jóvenes necesita una buena relación con otras instituciones profesionales y voluntarias de la comunidad local. Se deben coordinar las actividades de los jóvenes en cultura, educación y vida social para que las instituciones locales no compitan sino que cooperen para el beneficio de éstos. Muchos bibliotecarios tienen los recursos y el conocimiento técnico para ser los coordinadores profesionales en beneficio de los jóvenes.
Colaboración cultural
La colaboración cultural es una forma eficaz de dar importancia a la identidad en una sociedad multicultural para satisfacer las necesidades de los jóvenes. La biblioteca pública puede colaborar con otras instituciones culturales y con los jóvenes para planificar programas culturales como por ejemplo:
Certámenes de literatura.
Festivales de música y cine.
Carnavales.
Producciones de teatro étnico.
Exposiciones de fotografía.
Espectáculos de baile.
Baile en la calle.
Colaboración educativa
Las escuelas son las colaboradoras más importantes de las bibliotecas públicas que atienden a jóvenes. En muchos países y regiones sólo hay una biblioteca escolar, una biblioteca pública o algunas veces una biblioteca mixta que atiende a ambos públicos.
La planificación cooperativa entre las bibliotecas escolares y las públicas puede satisfacer de una forma más adecuada las necesidades e intereses de los jóvenes. Se recomienda establecer un acuerdo formal para asegurar la puesta en práctica de cualquier plan de cooperación que se acuerde.
Otras instituciones educativas con servicios bibliotecarios podrían trabajar con las bibliotecas públicas y escolares en una red de préstamo interbibliotecario electrónico. Estas instituciones educativas podrían ser:
Instituciones de educación superior.
Universidades.
Escuelas técnicas.
Escuelas de arte.
Escuelas para jóvenes con discapacidades.
Escuelas de prisiones y hospitales.
La cooperación entre las instituciones educativas podría ofrecer:
Préstamo interbibliotecario.
Programas de introducción a la biblioteca/formación de usuarios.
Campañas para el fomento de la lectura.
Programas de enseñanza de los conocimientos básicos en la búsqueda, recuperación y organización de la información.
Programas culturales.
En las instituciones educativas que no cuentan con bibliotecas escolares, son necesarios los servicios de extensión bibliotecaria para ofrecer formación a los estudiantes en el uso de la biblioteca con objeto de que puedan trabajar con el sistema bibliotecario de una forma más independiente.
Colaboración social
Para asegurar que el personal de la biblioteca mantenga una buena cooperación con los jóvenes de manera profesional, es importante colaborar con otros organismos como por ejemplo:
Agencias sociales.
Agencias de empleo.
Agencias de bienestar social.
Agentes del orden.
Para obtener información sobre nuevas tendencias y los problemas sociales actuales, se debería crear una red de profesionales, voluntarios, padres y amigos de la biblioteca.
Además, el personal de las distintas bibliotecas debe encontrar la mejor forma de colaborar entre sí. Los diferentes miembros de las redes locales de bibliotecas deberían cooperar para aportar ideas y diseñar un plan estratégico.
SECCIÓN 4.
Planificación
La biblioteca debería demostrar su compromiso con los servicios para los jóvenes del siguiente modo:
Fomentando una actitud positiva en todo el personal de la biblioteca.
Haciendo una declaración de intenciones para los jóvenes en la que se incluyan políticas para ofrecer acceso a todos los recursos y fuentes de información disponibles, respeto de los derechos de los demás y de los recursos de la biblioteca, libertad intelectual y una oferta de servicios adecuados para los jóvenes y equiparables a los de otros grupos.
Ofreciendo un espacio especialmente dedicado a los servicios para los jóvenes.
Nombrando una persona responsable de los servicios, como la manera más eficaz de atender a los jóvenes.
Características deseables del personal
Entender y respetar a los jóvenes.
Conocer bien los recursos impresos y no impresos.
Estar familiarizado con la colección y con los recursos de la comunidad.
Tener deseos de aprender.
Ser lo suficientemente flexible como para aceptar e introducir cambios.
Ser capaz de ofrecer servicios de información usando todas las fuentes adecuadas.
Ser un defensor de los jóvenes.
Educación y formación para el personal que trabaja con los jóvenes
Prácticas bibliotecarias básicas.
Evaluación y selección de materiales impresos y no impresos.
Características evolutivas de los jóvenes.
Políticas de informaciones y cuestiones relacionadas.
Métodos impresos y electrónicos para ofrecer información.
Planificación de los servicios
Crear una política de gestión de la colección.
Planear con los jóvenes un programa de servicios que satisfaga las necesidades de los jóvenes de su comunidad.
Establecer un presupuesto con objetivos prioritarios.
Recaudar fondos para los programas para los jóvenes.
Desarrollar criterios de evaluación.
Evaluación de los servicios
La evaluación de los servicios bibliotecarios para jóvenes debería incluir medidas de rendimiento cualitativas y cuantitativas. La recogida de datos estadísticos se debería hacer de la misma forma que las estadísticas para servicios bibliotecarios en general.
Algunas medidas que se sugieren para medir el uso de la biblioteca por los jóvenes:
Visitas a bibliotecas en relación con el porcentaje de la población de jóvenes.
Uso del edificio por los jóvenes.
Lectores inscritos en proporción a la población.
Número de obras para los jóvenes.
Uso de materiales dentro de la biblioteca.
Uso de los servicios de referencia por la población de jóvenes.
Porcentaje de éxito de las operaciones relacionadas con la información.
Asistencia por término medio a los programas para jóvenes.
Visitas a la biblioteca por grupos externos.
Visitas a grupos externos por el bibliotecario.
Ejemplos del éxito de los programas y servicios.
Las evaluación puede ofrecer una buena base para el marketing de los servicios bibliotecarios. Una forma de saber lo que los jóvenes quieren es preguntarles por medio de cuestionarios (cuantitativo) y entrevistas (cualitativo).
SECCIÓN 5
Marketing
Informe a los jóvenes sobre la existencia de un nuevo servicio especial para ellos dentro de la biblioteca:
Ofreciendo la información en los lugares donde se reúnen y congregan, por ejemplo, salas de cine y cafés.
Consiguiendo que la información sea atractiva, quizás reclutando a jóvenes voluntarios para que la diseñen.
Despierte el interés de los jóvenes.
Dejando claro que el personal de la biblioteca quiere que vengan, se queden y regresen.
Mostrando que la biblioteca está viva y abierta al cambio.
Aprovechando un acontecimiento especial para organizar una campaña de promoción.
Los servicios son casi totalmente dependientes de que los usuarios satisfechos les comenten a otros la calidad de los servicios.
Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas
(IFLA).
Sección de Bibliotecas Infantiles y Juveniles
Si está interesado en trabajar en la Sección de Bibliotecas Infantiles, hágase socio de la IFLA e inscríbase en la sección.
Las asociaciones, instituciones e individuos pueden hacerse socios de la IFLA.
Este folleto esta realizado por la Sección de Bibliotecas Infantiles y Juveniles y está patrocinado por la Biblioteca Pública de Estocolmo.
Únase a nosotros y le ofreceremos:
La oportunidad de tomar parte en un foro mundial para la discusión, la cooperación y el desarrollo en un área esencial de la actividad bibliotecaria.
La oportunidad de hacer una contribución valiosa a su profesión a través de un intercambio de ideas abierto e internacional.
La oportunidad de compartir su conocimiento especializado con compañeros de muchos países.
Información regular actualizada sobre los avances en el campo a través de boletines informativos, congresos, seminarios, etc.
IFLA Headquarters
P.O.B.95312
2509 CH The Hague
Los Países Bajos
Tel +(31) (70)3140884
Fax +(31) (70)383827
E-mail: ifla.hq@ifla.nl
Artículos envíados por: Yetsenia Delgado
1. Lectura y escritura desde la biblioteca escolar
http://animalec.iespana.es/jornadas/mariano_coronas.pdf
2. Animación y promoción lectora en la escuela
Articulos Grupo 1
1. La biblioteca escolar: un reto educativo
http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/revistas/byd/11321873/articulos/RGID0303220203A.PDF
2. 10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library
By Mark Y. Herring
****Articulo ya publicado
http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/revistas/byd/11321873/articulos/RGID0303220203A.PDF
2. 10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library
By Mark Y. Herring
****Articulo ya publicado
Enviado por:Yaritza Arce (Grupo 3)
Algunas interrogantes útiles en torno a la evaluación cualitativa
de los servicios de información
1. http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/aci/vol14_2_06/aci01206.pdf
Evaluación y calidad de los servicios de información: una propuesta teórico-metodológica
2. http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/aci/vol15_04_07/aci07407.htm
de los servicios de información
1. http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/aci/vol14_2_06/aci01206.pdf
Evaluación y calidad de los servicios de información: una propuesta teórico-metodológica
2. http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/aci/vol15_04_07/aci07407.htm
Enviado por: Alix Melendez (Grupo ?)
A tresure Chest of Service": The Role of Toy Libraries within Play Policy in Wales
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/3e/ab/4b.pdf )
Public libraries--Community Organizations Making Outreach Efforts to Help Young Children Succeed in School
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content-storage-01/0000019b/80/3e/09/11.pdf
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/3e/ab/4b.pdf )
Public libraries--Community Organizations Making Outreach Efforts to Help Young Children Succeed in School
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content-storage-01/0000019b/80/3e/09/11.pdf
Articulos de Gramaris Negrón (Grupo 5)
Primer artículo
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1387/is_/ai_105046541
Public library service to children and teens: a research agenda
Autora: Virginia A. Walter
is Associate Professor in the Department of
Information Studies at UCLA, where she
teaches courses in management, children's
literature, storytelling, and library
services for young people. Before coming
to UCLA in 1990, she worked for
twenty-five years in public libraries, most
recently as Children's Services
Coordinator at Los Angeles Public
Library. Her most recent book, Children
and Libraries: Getting It Right, was published
by ALA Editions (2001).
Segundo Artículo
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1387/is_n4_v45/ai_19720291
Becoming digital: policy implications for library youth services - Children and the Digital Library
Autora: Virginia A. Walter
is Associate Professor in the Department of
Information Studies at UCLA, where she
teaches courses in management, children's
literature, storytelling, and library
services for young people. Before coming
to UCLA in 1990, she worked for
twenty-five years in public libraries, most
recently as Children's Services
Coordinator at Los Angeles Public
Library. Her most recent book, Children
and Libraries: Getting It Right, was published
by ALA Editions (2001).
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1387/is_/ai_105046541
Public library service to children and teens: a research agenda
Autora: Virginia A. Walter
is Associate Professor in the Department of
Information Studies at UCLA, where she
teaches courses in management, children's
literature, storytelling, and library
services for young people. Before coming
to UCLA in 1990, she worked for
twenty-five years in public libraries, most
recently as Children's Services
Coordinator at Los Angeles Public
Library. Her most recent book, Children
and Libraries: Getting It Right, was published
by ALA Editions (2001).
Segundo Artículo
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1387/is_n4_v45/ai_19720291
Becoming digital: policy implications for library youth services - Children and the Digital Library
Autora: Virginia A. Walter
is Associate Professor in the Department of
Information Studies at UCLA, where she
teaches courses in management, children's
literature, storytelling, and library
services for young people. Before coming
to UCLA in 1990, she worked for
twenty-five years in public libraries, most
recently as Children's Services
Coordinator at Los Angeles Public
Library. Her most recent book, Children
and Libraries: Getting It Right, was published
by ALA Editions (2001).
Enviado por: Minerva Jimenez Santiago (Grupo 3)
Recomendaciones para la seleccion de literatura para niños y adolescentes hispanoamericanos e hispanohablantes en los Estados Unidos
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/results?vid=9&hid=14&sid=6da8d896-1490-48e1-a8fa-6c87e7aa3e84%40sessionmgr107&bquery=(ni%u00f1os+AND+y+AND+adolescentes)&bdata=JmRiPWE5aCZ0eXBlPTAmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl
(Nota: dado que este artículo no puede ser accedido de forma directa, el mismo ha sido publicado como imagenes tal y como se encuentra el documento PDF)
Teenagers talking about reading and libraries.
Snowball, Clare. "Teenagers talking about reading and libraries. " Australian Academic & Research Libraries. 39.2 (June 2008): 106(13). General OneFile. Gale. Universidad del Turabo. 1 Nov. 2008
http://find.galegroup.com.librarylogin.suagm.edu:84/itx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=ITOF&docId=A182405871&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=turabo&version=1.0
Abstract: Past research has shown teenagers to be reluctant to read and less likely to visit libraries than younger children. These conclusions are debated and further investigation is needed. Difficulties abound in researching teenagers' opinions. Teenagers can be reluctant to participate in activities and peer support is often very important in determining their willingness to take part. Large-scale surveys of hundreds of student participants do not allow in-depth discussion of opinions and attitudes. Focus groups were conducted with metropolitan Perth high school students to investigate teenagers' thoughts on reading and libraries. Although some teenagers were enamoured of reading and libraries, others were more scathing but still found ways to take part in literacy activities and acquire the information they needed to negotiate their world.Full Text:COPYRIGHT 2008 Australian Library and Information Association Past research has found that as children reach adolescence, they become to read in their leisure time and thus visit libraries less. (1) One solution suggested to overcome this reluctance to read is the provision of a wide variety of reading materials, thus allowing choice in reading matter. (2) Reeves has found that teenagers can be highly selective in what they choose to read, but will enjoy reading when they find something they connect with. (3) One universally popular type of reading material is magazines. (4) The provision of comics and graphic novels has been presented as a tactic to encourage teenage reading. (5) While a focus on choice in reading materials is encouraging, some critics question the veracity of the reported decline in enjoyment of reading and decrease in time spent reading. (6) Much of the evidence for a decline is anecdotal, thus additional research is needed to investigate the phenomenon further. Adult influence is a determining factor in teenagers' liking for reading, whether this is influenced by parents or other adults in a teenager's life. (7) Libraries are often not a popular place for teenagers to acquire their reading material, with family or bookshops being the main sources. (8) Internet use among teenagers is ubiquitous, (9) with communication through social networking sites and instant messaging (IM) being particular favourites. (11) A survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found students were more likely to go to the internet for school assignments than the library, (12) although there is disagreement as to whether online sources are replacing books. (13) This paper reports on one part of the author's doctoral research. Focus groups were held with high school students in order to gather data on teenage reading habits and their views on reading, libraries and graphic novels. All names of people, schools and libraries have been changed to ensure confidentiality. Many direct quotes from the sessions are reproduced. Most participants had the habit of inserting the word 'like' in their speech where it did not belong. In reproducing quotes these instances of 'like' were omitted as they sometimes confuse the meaning of the sentence. FOCUS GROUPS AS A RESEARCH METHOD Researching teenagers can prove problematic. They may be reluctant to take part in activities and peer support is often important in determining whether or not they will take part. Focus groups were considered a suitable research method to combat these challenges. For this project seven focus group sessions were conducted at seven different metropolitan Perth high schools, with between five and seven students in each group. This equated to 41 teenage participants in the research. Specific details of the research method can be found in previous literature. (14) During all sessions a number of graphic novels of different genres were provided so that participants could see exactly what a graphic novel is (some people have never encountered the term) and what is available in the format. A list of questions was used as a guide for each discussion, but sometimes other topics were introduced. Thus, areas covered were not exactly the same for each group. The preliminary analysis of the data provided a rich picture of the participants' opinions, and focus groups were deemed a valuable research method in gathering teenagers' opinions. The qualitative nature of the research means the results cannot be generalised to all teenagers, (15) but they may be transferable to similar situations and insights from the research used to look at similar groups of teenagers. A number of themes emerged from the focus groups. These concerned teenagers' enthusiasm for reading, where they found their reading matter, and what they enjoyed reading. Graphic novels were a particular focus of the discussions because they have been noted as a favourite format of teenagers. DO TEENAGERS READ? There was diversity of opinion on whether participants found reading an enjoyable pastime and who read in their leisure time. Some enjoyed reading and regularly spent time reading; others enjoyed it, but were too busy with other things to read for pleasure. Even those participants who disliked reading and were very vocal in their dislike mentioned the reading materials they enjoyed and could cite instances of finding pleasure in reading. Many participants enjoyed reading when they found something they considered 'good' to read. Kylie (14) was reluctant to admit to enjoying reading. She said, 'It bores me. It hurts my head,' but later added, 'It depends what book it is.' In describing what happens when she finds this elusive book she said, 'I get into it and then ... I can't ..., I don't want to put it down. I want to know what happens and it keeps on going and going.' Anna and Kelly (both 14) concurred. Kelly said, 'If you find a good book, it's really easy for me to read and I like it.' Appealing reading material was mentioned frequently. Melissa (14) said she liked 'stuff that's interesting.' The books she disliked were those 'that just go on and on and then it's just ... she dies.' At the start of her session, Mia (14) mentioned her dislike of reading, but later said, 'It depends what books I'm reading at the moment ... At the beginning of the year I was quite into this dragon book. I picked up this book and it was about dragons. I liked it, reading about dragons. But then I got bored of that and then changed.' Her classmates agreed and discussed books that had piqued their interest or discouraged them from reading. David (15) was an avid reader, so much so that he started reading one of the graphic novels during the session, while still taking part in the discussion. His English teacher lent him books from the English Department which were for higher grades than his Year 9. He said, 'I remember I had [Jane Austen's] Pride and Prejudice. I barely read it. It took me ... two months to finish because I'd do something else instead of reading the book. I didn't like it. It was just a little bit too old-fashioned and girly.' When asked why he didn't just stop reading it, he said he always finished a book, whether he liked it or not. Two of his classmates also did this, although most participants would stop reading a book they found uninteresting, or never begin because they thought it would be uninteresting. Despite declaring, 'I never read, never read a book,' Leah (14) still had views on what made for enjoyable reading material. She said it was good to 'read about stuff that's actually happening at the moment.' Leah then mentioned the books she does like--biographies. Her class read Karen Levine's Hana's Suitcase and she 'actually liked that.' When asked if they read books in their spare time, both Ryan (14) and Tom had one word to say, 'No.' Later Tom talked about what he did like reading--sports magazines. This confirms Reeves's view that high school students can be highly selective in their reading material. (18) Adam (16), Danielle, Teneal and Sandra (all 15), Cassie (14) and Kelly read in bed before going to sleep and sometimes stayed up half the night. Danielle said, 'You start reading a chapter and then it gets to a good bit and you have to read on to find out what happens and there's another good bit and then you finish the book.' Adam gave his reason for enjoying reading as, 'I normally read because I just think it's good, how it's written and I want to keep reading ... Then I'm there for ages.' Bianca (15) said she read every day, Teneal tried to finish a book a week, and Rita (15) was proud of having read 30 books over the course of the year. Rita said, 'I generally like reading if I have nothing to do which is pretty much most of the time, I'm just reading.' Melissa was part of a group who were in a lower-achieving English class and despite her fellow participants' vocal dislike of books and reading, she said, 'I read a lot of books.' Her classmates found reading 'boring' or 'all the same.' They did not want to read because they 'hated it.' Their negative comments did not affect Melissa's willingness to share her good opinion of reading. When asked what they would prefer to do in their spare time, reading or another activity, participants rarely chose reading. Some were too busy with other activities. Angela (14) said, 'I do ... lots of sport and everything, so reading's just something I have to get done for school after. It's not something I choose to do.' Angela later said she goes through phases of reading a lot and then not reading so much. At the time of the discussion she was going through the latter, and implied this would end at some stage and she would start reading again more often. Even avid reader Ellen (14) said, 'It depends what I'm feeling like. If I was really bored and ... I was tired, I'd read. But if I was up there, out and felt like doing something else, I'd ...' She didn't finish this statement, but her meaning was clear. Rita and Kelly agreed with this. Kelly said, 'It depends like what kind of day it is ... If it's nice outside, it's probably better to go outside ... If it's ... raining, you've really got nothing else to do.' Reading being a last resort was a common opinion. Peter (14) said, 'Reading's ... the last thing on my list of things to do.' Simon (14) suggested if he was sick or if there was nothing on television he might consider reading as an option and Kylie also mentioned this lack of television, '[If] I can't watch the TV or the computer. If I have nothing to do then I'll read.' A number of participants discussed reading within their family. The literature indicates that this leads to an ongoing enjoyment of reading. (19) Jeremy's (14) mother 'read a lot' and he read 'an hour or quite a bit every night.' Neil (14) read 'quite a lot really' and often got books from his brother. Kylie's brother also 'read heaps' and despite some negative comments on reading, she enjoyed it on occasion. Danielle's and Adam's 'parents read all the time.' Other research suggests encouragement by any significant adult in a child's fife can replicate the above mentoring effect of a family's reading. (20) When Angela was in Year 7 she had a teacher who 'was always forcing us to read ... We had a map in our classroom and it had different ... spots around the world and you had to read a book for each place. And then the first person around won something. It was ... 60 books or something.' This led to Angela reading 'heaps.' She added, 'Me and my friends we all read ..., we all kind of ... read the same series at the same time. So we'd each buy ... a few of them and then we'd all just share.' While there was diversity in what teenagers thought of reading, there was more consensus on where reading materials were found. Raiding the family bookshelf or buying books and magazines was more common than visiting the library to find something to read. TEENAGERS IN THE LIBRARY Participants were asked about their use of libraries as a source of reading material. The focus groups confirmed the literature that finds libraries are not a popular place for teenagers to visit. (21) School libraries were used more often than public libraries. Some exceptions to the norm were Melissa, Ellen and Chelsea (13) who went to the public library to find books to read. Melissa went when she had school assignments to do and she 'usually got two or three books' to read in her free time. Adam found books to read at his school library. The library was not popular with other participants. Many participants were more likely to find their reading material at home, either bought for them by a family member (often a parent) or previously read by someone in the house. Danielle was an avid reader, but only went to the library to find information for school assignments. Most of the schools involved in the focus groups held a regular class in their school library, where students were expected to choose a book and read it for the duration of the class. Some participants, for example Rosa, enjoyed this and if they had found a good book, would take it home to finish reading. Others found it a good time to have a 'social session.' Leah said, 'Half of us sit on the floor, on the couches, you know. We put the books up and then just talk to each other.' The library at one school was very well used before school began and during breaks. Students used the computers, looked at books and magazines, or finished homework. The students in the session at this school did not think so highly of the regular class session they had in their library. It was more structured than at other schools, and although they could choose a book, they were limited in their choice and had to complete activities after their reading. Tim (15) was particularly vocal in his disdain for these classes. His classmates must have heard his views before, because they laughed at his forceful opinions. The lack of choice in reading material may have led to their dislike. (22) Class sessions at the library meant the school library was more likely to be visited than the public library. Some students were not able to get to the public library, such as Jeremy, a boarder at his school. Tanya (15) was too busy with other things. Conversely, some students went to the public library because their mother did. Natasha (13) and Ryan did this, but 'just [to] have a look around' and they did not borrow anything. Liam (13) went to the public library with his mother and found graphic novels to read. When Jason's (15) mother worked late, he went to the public library after school. This lack of library use did not equate to a lack of reading among participants, and there was great variety in the reading matter preferred by the teenagers. WHAT DO TEENAGERS READ? The reading materials of choice for the participants varied greatly, from novels of specific genres, to biographies, newspapers, magazines, and the ubiquitous internet. Rosa (14) liked reading teenage romances; she liked 'happy endings.' Books about teenagers were popular among many participants. Tanya described these as stories that 'relate to our lives at the moment ... parties, boys, everything that's happening now.' Leah found John Marsden's Letters from the Inside about two teenage penpals, which she read for her English class, 'better than any other book we had to read.' Jason qualified this with, 'You wouldn't just read a book about kids or something.' April (15) preferred horror stories, Danielle liked detective mysteries and Simon liked action or comedy. Leah was scathing of reading and at one stage said, 'Can you try and ban reading?' Her friend Tanya replied, 'You can't ban reading, because that means you'd ban magazines and the internet.' Both magazines and the internet were popular, even with anti-reading Leah. Magazines were read by almost all of the students, the most popular being sports magazines for boys and fashion/beauty magazines for girls. 'This is reading that teens enjoy, that they do without any adult prodding--regularly, extensively and with great attention to detail.' (23) During the focus groups Ryan thought it was the pictures that made magazines so appealing, and during a different session April agreed. Melissa liked the current information she found in magazines. 'Magazines now are actually ... way more interesting I reckon, because you find out so much new stuff and information that you think would be useful.' Joanna (15) worked in a supermarket and read magazines while waiting for customers. She described this as a 'hell good' use of her time. Angela used to buy magazines herself, 'but now I just take them from my sister and read them.' She liked the real life stories and found the fashion pages boring. Kylie was an anomaly in not liking magazines. She said, 'I don't really like reading about other people and ... clothes and stuff.' All the students used the internet, but often did not equate this with reading. The internet was where they looked for assignment information and then something fun to do after homework (or during if they could hide it from parents). A particular use of the internet was for talking to friends through IM and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. (During the focus group sessions only MySpace was mentioned because at that time, 2006, 'MySpace was the cool thing for high school teens.' (24) Facebook has since become as popular.) One group laughed when asked if they read things on the internet. Angela qualified this by saying, 'I do MySpace lots ... And MSN [IM], hut not really to read things ... If we have to do a book in English then I search that, but that's about it.' Both MySpace and IM involve literacy activities; writing (typing) thoughts and reading others' online thoughts. During a different session Leah said, 'You can go on the net and do it [find information for assignments]. It's still reading isn't it?' When reassured this was reading she added, 'Yeah, because there's words' and others concurred. In confirmation of the finding from the Pew Internet & American Life Project that 75% of teenagers who have access to the internet use IM, (25) IM or chatting were discussed by many focus group participants. When Angela was in primary school she did not use MySpace or IM (through the MSN service) because she talked to her friends all day at school. 'Now I'm at high school I know ... heaps of people from other schools ... so it's my chance to catch up with them ... It's free. If I want to talk to someone I just ... tell them to go on MSN to save calling or SMSing them or whatever.' 'The Internet has lured teens into a venue that is much more appealing to them than the dusty/musty neighborhood library.' (26) This was the case for many of the students in the focus groups, and these students often had access to the internet from home. Some students said the only reason they would use a computer in a library would be to print out an assignment, after they had completed it at home. 'Many students turn to Google as their main source of information,' (27) just as Leah, Tom and Joanna said they did. Adam talked about his use of the internet for school assignments. 'Ninety per cent of the time you're going to find it on the internet ... Even if it's not as good as the one in the book, at least you've got it straight away.' When asked what his teachers thought of Adam's using only the internet as a source he replied, 'Yeah but, well like ...' and trailed away. After a pause Adam continued by saying he had done this for a recent assignment, and the only comment the teacher had was that he had to be careful not to copy word for word from the source. Aronson believes online sources are not replacing books. People are reading in the many different formats and 'the new technologies will [not] always replace the old ... the two can coexist.' (28) Focus groups participants were not following this trend, particularly when looking for school assignment information. In comparing books to the internet Kylie said, 'It's just so much more interesting, there's more variety [on the internet].' Graphic Novels The graphic novel format was discussed during the focus group sessions as one suggested way to encourage teenagers to read, with a number of graphic novels on hand for participants to look at. Some students had never encountered graphic novels before, were not familiar with the term, or thought of them as comics. Included among the graphic novels were a few manga (Japanese comics). Some manga are read the Japanese way, from right to left, and this was a novel experience for many participants. When right to left manga was explained to one group, Kylie said, 'Oh my god, are you serious?' These manga confounded many of the students, and some said they would not read right to left manga because they were 'confusing', 'weird' or 'dumb.' Equally, there were students who were not fazed by the novelty. Ellen 'really, really, really' liked reading. Nevertheless, she had negative comments about some reading materials, for example, reading the newspaper was 'boring.' Another pet hate of hers was books with pictures. She almost shouted, 'Pictures! I hate pictures! I get halfway through a book and see a picture and I stop. I want a novel, not a picture book. I reckon if you're an author you have be an author, not be an illustrator.' Her dislike encompassed graphic novels. Ellen was not interested in looking at any of the graphic novels during the session. Every other participant at least flicked through some of them. Phil (14) felt that reading a comic was 'just looking at pictures' which was boring, and he would 'rather read a book.' Adam and Kate (13) also preferred their books without pictures because 'you can imagine them yourself.' Four students from different sessions, Sandra, Liam, Mia and Amy (14), particularly liked graphic novels and attended the focus group because of this. Sandra's mother and older sister enjoyed the format and introduced her to graphic novels. Liam found graphic novels at his local public library and began reading them. Mia and Amy were both Asian, loved manga and anime (the animated film version of manga) and were very interested in the manga displayed during the session. Amy asked to borrow some of them at the end of the session (unfortunately this was not possible). At the beginning of the session Mia said she did not like reading, but when the discussion turned to manga, her voracious reading of it became apparent. Manga is available across Asia (29) and many Asian teenagers and younger adults now living in western countries read manga while living in their country of origin, and enjoy it as a reminder of home. Enjoyment of manga was not shared by all Asian participants. Alex (13) had read some, but was not enthusiastic about them. Tim was not a big reader and would only read a comic if one of his friends told him it was good. April was in an English class for lower achieving students, because she had only recently learnt English as a second language. April had read manga in the past, but not enjoyed it because of the length of the series. She would read the first book and then not be able to find subsequent volumes. 'If I want to know the end, I have to read more and more and more and more graphic novels to get to the end.' Ryan and Jason had encountered graphic novels previously and both found them 'easier to read than books.' David had read a couple of graphic novels before the session, including the graphic novel version of the novel and recent film Stormbreaker, and found them 'too short, too simple.' Unlike other students this was a negative characteristic for David. He liked his reading to be challenging. Despite this, David began reading one of the graphic novels during the session and at the end, asked his teacher to buy some graphic novels for the English Department to use in English classes (and for David to borrow for his reading outside of school, which his teacher allowed). A number of students had not encountered graphic novels previously, and were not convinced of their appeal after seeing those displayed during the session. Rosa found the pages too crowded and similarly Kylie felt too much was happening at once: 'You're ... trying to read one thing and all this [the pictures] distracts you.' Her classmate Teresa agreed: 'I see a picture ahead and look at it before I've read the part and then I know what happens.' These views might be ameliorated by further exposure to the format. At a later stage in the session, Kylie looked at C. Clugston-Major's Queen Bee, about teenagers in school, her favourite topic. Kylie became so engrossed in the story she asked where she could find a copy to read. Other participants found enjoyment in the displayed graphic novels immediately. Carl (13) did not enjoy reading, but was very interested in K. Barker's Plastic Man which was available during the session. He said, 'Plastic Man's good.' Robert (14) considered himself 'a pretty good reader' but had not encountered graphic novels before the session. He said, 'I reckon they're really good' and thought he might look for some graphic novels to read. Ideas for Practice in Libraries Despite the praise for graphic novels and their popularity among teenagers found in the literature, the format was not found to be universally liked during the discussions with teenagers. There are a number of possible explanations for this situation. Most of the literature about graphic novels is written by librarians discussing their current library users. As much as might be wished otherwise, these users are a minority of the whole population of teenagers. The participants in this research were chosen from a pool of teenagers from local high schools, and were not necessarily those who liked reading or even visited libraries. This difference in populations would lead to differences in findings. Some of the participants suggested graphic novels might seem intimidating at first glance (particularly manga which is read the Japanese way from right to left) because people had not experienced them before. When asked if she thought studying a graphic novel for her English class would be enjoyable, Kelly said, 'I'm not sure everyone in the class would really know what they were.' She thought fellow students would have to learn more about them, and read some, before they could decide if they liked them. One group of students had been provided with some graphic novels to read during their English class prior to the focus group session. Simon had enjoyed the manga he had read then and wanted to find more, particularly one series displayed during the focus group session. Some teenagers came to the sessions already convinced of the pleasures of reading graphic novels, many of whom found graphic novels at their school or local public library. Others were willing to try them if they come across them in the future, and others wanted to actively seek them out now they knew what to expect. As well as diversity in opinions on graphic novels, there was also diversity in teenagers' views on reading in general and the materials they liked to read. Librarians can make the most of this by providing variety in reading materials to cater to all teenagers' tastes and not value any one material more than another. Newkirk's research on boys' reading (or lack of it) discovered possible reasons behind this. In school-sanctioned reading materials, which were often those found in libraries, Newkirk believes 'books trump magazines; print trumps the visual; the serious trumps the humorous; fiction trumps nonfiction.' (30) Many of the participants in the focus groups stated their preference for the latter in these pairs (particularly magazines, which were universally liked). In some instances participants were unsure if particular forms of reading were actually considered reading. Alex questioned whether his reading of comic books, as he called graphic novels, was a valid example of reading (despite the research topic and his school library having a sizeable graphic novel collection). Angela's earlier mention of her use of IM and reluctance to call this reading is another example. (This could be because IM is so similar to speech and involves numerous abbreviations and spelling and grammatical errors.) The promotion of all formats and genres as equal, by librarians and also teachers, could increase teenagers' willingness to read and find enjoyment in reading, especially by those who prefer what have traditionally been deemed 'lesser' reading materials. Occasionally participants did not know what was provided by their school or public library. Liam said he found graphic novels at his local public library, because his school library did not have any. His teacher librarian subsequently said the school library did have a graphic novel collection. Enhanced promotion of both school and public library collections and events, and also of libraries in general, could alleviate this problem. Improved links between school and public libraries could also add to teenagers' knowledge of what is available, thus increasing their use of both types of library. (31) CONCLUSION While these results are still preliminary, after talking to teenagers about their thoughts on reading, libraries and graphic novels, the demarcations between teenage readers and non-readers were not as definite as could be hoped. Some teenagers happily labelled themselves readers, describing the reading materials they enjoyed and the time they spend reading. Others were more hesitant, a popular answer being, 'It depends ...'. At the other end of the spectrum, some teenagers were vocally anti-reading. While the particular responses of participants cannot be generalised to the whole population, the range of opinions from the focus groups goes some way to explaining the debate in the literature on how much teenagers read, and how much they enjoy reading. Happily, no matter what their articulated views on the concept of reading, all teenage participants shared instances of enjoying reading, even those who initially said they hated reading and 'never' read anything. Providing an encouraging and non-threatening environment enabled even those teenagers who did not like reading as much, and were thus more reluctant to admit to reading in their free time, to feel secure enough to voice their opinions. The challenge for librarians is to find, provide and promote this 'interesting' reading matter--the 'right' book, novel, graphic novel, biography, magazine or website that will encourage more teenagers to frequent libraries and make the time to read and enjoy their reading. NOTES (1.) M A Nippold, J K Duthie & J Larsen 'Literacy as a Leisure Activity: Free-time Preferences of Older Children and Young Adolescents' Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools 2005 vol 36 no 2 pp93-102; E van Schooten & K de Glopper 'The Relation Between Attitude Toward Reading Adolescent Literature and Literary Reading Behaviour' Poetics 2002 vol 30 no 3 pp169-194; Australian Centre for Youth Literature Young Australians Reading: From Keen to Reluctant Readers Melbourne ACYL 2000; T M Smith et al Condition of Education: Reading and Writing Habits of Students Report no 98003 Washington DC National Center for Education Statistics 1997 http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98003.pdf accessed 20 February 2008; M C McKenna, D J Kear & R A Ellsworth 'Children's Attitudes Toward Reading: A National Survey' Reading Research Quarterly 1995 vol 30 no 4 pp934-956. (2.) S La Marca & P Macintyre Knowing Readers: Unlocking the Pleasures of Reading Melbourne School Library Association of Victoria 2006; S D Krashen The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research 2nd ed Westport CT Libraries Unlimited 2004 p180; J V Manuel & D Robinson 'Teenage Boys, Teenage Gifts and Books: Re-viewing Some Assumptions about Gender and Adolescents' Reading Practices' English Teaching: Practice and Critique 2003 vol 2 no 2 pp66-77; J Worthy 'On Every Page Someone Gets Killed! Book Conversations You Don't Hear in School' Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 1998 vol 41 no 7 pp508-517. (3.) A R Reeves Adolescents Talk about Reading: Exploring Resistance to and Engagement With Text Newark DE International Reading Association 2004 p240. (4.) P M Rothbauer 'Young Adults and Reading' in C S Ross, L McKechnie & P M Rothbauer (eds) Reading Matters: What the Research Reveals About Reading, Libraries, and Community Westport CT Libraries Unlimited 2006 p 103. (5.) F Goldsmith Graphic Novels Now: Building, Managing, and Marketing a Dynamic Collection Chicago ALA 2005; S Miller Developing and Promoting Graphic Novel Collections New York Neal-Schuman Publishers 2005; I Fountain 'The Emergence of Graphic Novels' Synergy 2004 vol 2 no 2 pp35-38; A Lyga & B Lyga Graphic Novels in Your Media Center Westport CT Libraries Unlimited 2004; P C Crawford Graphic Novels 101: Selecting and Using Graphic Novels to Promote Literacy for Children and Young Adults Salt Lake City UT Hi Willow 2003; M Gorman Getting Graphid Using Graphic Novels to Promote Literacy With Preteens and Teens Worthington Linworth 2003; K L Kan 'Getting Graphic at the School Library' Library Media Connection 2003 vol 21 no 7 pp14-19. (6.) ABS Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities, Australia Report no 4901.0 Canberra Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006; K Swenor 'A Teen Take on Reading: Results from the 2005 Teen Read Survey' Young Adult Library Services 2006 vol 4 no 4 pp42-44; S D Krashen & D Von Sprecken 'Is There a Decline in the Reading Romance?' Knowledge Quest 2002 vol 30 no 3 pp11-17; K Gutchewsky 'An Attitude Adjustment: How I Reached my Reluctant Readers' English Journal 2001 vol 91 no 2 pp79-85; W P Bintz 'Resistant Readers in Secondary Education' Journal of Reading 1993 vol 36 no 8 pp604-615. (7.) R Horton 'Boys and Reading: Strategies and Problems' Access 2006 vol 20 no 2 p5; C S Ross 'The Company of Readers' in C S Ross, L McKechnie & P M Rothbauer (eds) op cit p5; G K Beers 'Choosing Not to Read: Understanding Why Some Middle Schoolers Just Say No' in G K Beers & B G Samuels (eds) Into Focus: Understanding and Creating Middle School Readers Norwood MA Christopher-Gordon Publishers 1998 p52. (8.) DCMS, MLA & Laser Foundation A Research Study of 14-35 Year Olds for the Future Development of Public Libraries Report no 1516 London Museums and Libraries Archive Council 2006; Swenor op cit; C Creaser & S Maynard A Survey of Library Services to Schools and Children in the UK 2004-05 Loughborough LISU 2005 p328; H Fisher 'A Teenage View of the Public Library: What are the Students Saying?' APLIS: Australian Public Library and Information Services 2003 vol 16 no 1 p6. (9.) J Abbas, K Bishop & G D'Elia 'Youth and the Internet' Young Adult Library Services 2007 vol 5 no 2 pp44-49; S Fox & M Madden Generations Online Washington DC Pew Internet & American Life Project 2005. (10.) D Boyd 'Viewing American Class Divisions Through Facebook and MySpace' 24 June 2007 http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions. html accessed 20 February 2008. (11.) Fox & Madden op cit p3. (12.) D Levin et al The Digital Disconnect: The Widening Gap Between Internet-savvy Students and Their Schools Washington DC Pew Internet & American Life Project 2002. (13.) M Aronson 'Do Books Still Matter?' School Library Journal 2007 vol 53 no 4 p36. (14.) C Snowball 'Researching Graphic Novels and Their Teenage Readers' LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal 2007 vol 17 no 1. (15.) D E Agosto & S Hughes-Hassell 'Toward a Model of the Everyday Life Information Needs of Urban Teenagers, Part 1: Theoretical Model' Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 2006 vol 57 no 10 p 1400. (16.) Y S Lincoln & E G Guba Naturalistic Inquiry Beverly Hills CA Sage 1985 p316. (17.) Fisher op cit p5. (18.) Reeves op cit p240. (19.) Horton op cit p5; Beers op cit p52. (20.) Ross op cit p5. (21.) DCMS, MLA & Laser Foundation op cit; Swenor op cit; Creaser op cit; Fisher op cit p6. (22.) M Darwin & S Fleischman 'Fostering Adolescent Literacy' Educational Leadership 2005 vol 62 no 7 2005 pp85-87; J Ryan 'Young People Choose: Adolescents' Text Pleasures' Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 2005 vol 28 no 1 p38-47; G Ivey & K Broaddus 'Just Plain Reading: A Survey of What Makes Students Want to Read in Middle School Classrooms' Reading Research Quarterly 2001 vol 36 no 4 pp350-377; N Atwell In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning 2nd ed Portsmouth NH Boynton Cook 1998. (23.) C A Mellon 'Leisure Reading Choices of Rural Teens' School Library Media Quarterly 1990 vol 18 no 4 p224. (24.) Boyd op cit. (25.) Fox op cit p3. (26.) C A Nichols 'Introduction' in C A Nichols (ed) Thinking Outside the Book: Alternatives for Today's Teen Library Collections Westport CT Libraries Unlimited 2004 pxxiii. (27.) Aronson op cit p36. (28.) ibid. (29.) F L Schodt Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga Berkeley CA Stone Bridge Press 1996 p360. (30.) T Newkirk Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture Portsmouth NH Heinemann 2002 p171. (31.) Fisher op cit. Clare Snowball, PhD Candidate, School of Media, Society and Culture, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845. E-mail: clare.snowball@postgrad.curtin.edu.auGale Document Number:A182405871
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Teenagers talking about reading and libraries.
Snowball, Clare. "Teenagers talking about reading and libraries. " Australian Academic & Research Libraries. 39.2 (June 2008): 106(13). General OneFile. Gale. Universidad del Turabo. 1 Nov. 2008
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Abstract: Past research has shown teenagers to be reluctant to read and less likely to visit libraries than younger children. These conclusions are debated and further investigation is needed. Difficulties abound in researching teenagers' opinions. Teenagers can be reluctant to participate in activities and peer support is often very important in determining their willingness to take part. Large-scale surveys of hundreds of student participants do not allow in-depth discussion of opinions and attitudes. Focus groups were conducted with metropolitan Perth high school students to investigate teenagers' thoughts on reading and libraries. Although some teenagers were enamoured of reading and libraries, others were more scathing but still found ways to take part in literacy activities and acquire the information they needed to negotiate their world.Full Text:COPYRIGHT 2008 Australian Library and Information Association Past research has found that as children reach adolescence, they become to read in their leisure time and thus visit libraries less. (1) One solution suggested to overcome this reluctance to read is the provision of a wide variety of reading materials, thus allowing choice in reading matter. (2) Reeves has found that teenagers can be highly selective in what they choose to read, but will enjoy reading when they find something they connect with. (3) One universally popular type of reading material is magazines. (4) The provision of comics and graphic novels has been presented as a tactic to encourage teenage reading. (5) While a focus on choice in reading materials is encouraging, some critics question the veracity of the reported decline in enjoyment of reading and decrease in time spent reading. (6) Much of the evidence for a decline is anecdotal, thus additional research is needed to investigate the phenomenon further. Adult influence is a determining factor in teenagers' liking for reading, whether this is influenced by parents or other adults in a teenager's life. (7) Libraries are often not a popular place for teenagers to acquire their reading material, with family or bookshops being the main sources. (8) Internet use among teenagers is ubiquitous, (9) with communication through social networking sites and instant messaging (IM) being particular favourites. (11) A survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found students were more likely to go to the internet for school assignments than the library, (12) although there is disagreement as to whether online sources are replacing books. (13) This paper reports on one part of the author's doctoral research. Focus groups were held with high school students in order to gather data on teenage reading habits and their views on reading, libraries and graphic novels. All names of people, schools and libraries have been changed to ensure confidentiality. Many direct quotes from the sessions are reproduced. Most participants had the habit of inserting the word 'like' in their speech where it did not belong. In reproducing quotes these instances of 'like' were omitted as they sometimes confuse the meaning of the sentence. FOCUS GROUPS AS A RESEARCH METHOD Researching teenagers can prove problematic. They may be reluctant to take part in activities and peer support is often important in determining whether or not they will take part. Focus groups were considered a suitable research method to combat these challenges. For this project seven focus group sessions were conducted at seven different metropolitan Perth high schools, with between five and seven students in each group. This equated to 41 teenage participants in the research. Specific details of the research method can be found in previous literature. (14) During all sessions a number of graphic novels of different genres were provided so that participants could see exactly what a graphic novel is (some people have never encountered the term) and what is available in the format. A list of questions was used as a guide for each discussion, but sometimes other topics were introduced. Thus, areas covered were not exactly the same for each group. The preliminary analysis of the data provided a rich picture of the participants' opinions, and focus groups were deemed a valuable research method in gathering teenagers' opinions. The qualitative nature of the research means the results cannot be generalised to all teenagers, (15) but they may be transferable to similar situations and insights from the research used to look at similar groups of teenagers. A number of themes emerged from the focus groups. These concerned teenagers' enthusiasm for reading, where they found their reading matter, and what they enjoyed reading. Graphic novels were a particular focus of the discussions because they have been noted as a favourite format of teenagers. DO TEENAGERS READ? There was diversity of opinion on whether participants found reading an enjoyable pastime and who read in their leisure time. Some enjoyed reading and regularly spent time reading; others enjoyed it, but were too busy with other things to read for pleasure. Even those participants who disliked reading and were very vocal in their dislike mentioned the reading materials they enjoyed and could cite instances of finding pleasure in reading. Many participants enjoyed reading when they found something they considered 'good' to read. Kylie (14) was reluctant to admit to enjoying reading. She said, 'It bores me. It hurts my head,' but later added, 'It depends what book it is.' In describing what happens when she finds this elusive book she said, 'I get into it and then ... I can't ..., I don't want to put it down. I want to know what happens and it keeps on going and going.' Anna and Kelly (both 14) concurred. Kelly said, 'If you find a good book, it's really easy for me to read and I like it.' Appealing reading material was mentioned frequently. Melissa (14) said she liked 'stuff that's interesting.' The books she disliked were those 'that just go on and on and then it's just ... she dies.' At the start of her session, Mia (14) mentioned her dislike of reading, but later said, 'It depends what books I'm reading at the moment ... At the beginning of the year I was quite into this dragon book. I picked up this book and it was about dragons. I liked it, reading about dragons. But then I got bored of that and then changed.' Her classmates agreed and discussed books that had piqued their interest or discouraged them from reading. David (15) was an avid reader, so much so that he started reading one of the graphic novels during the session, while still taking part in the discussion. His English teacher lent him books from the English Department which were for higher grades than his Year 9. He said, 'I remember I had [Jane Austen's] Pride and Prejudice. I barely read it. It took me ... two months to finish because I'd do something else instead of reading the book. I didn't like it. It was just a little bit too old-fashioned and girly.' When asked why he didn't just stop reading it, he said he always finished a book, whether he liked it or not. Two of his classmates also did this, although most participants would stop reading a book they found uninteresting, or never begin because they thought it would be uninteresting. Despite declaring, 'I never read, never read a book,' Leah (14) still had views on what made for enjoyable reading material. She said it was good to 'read about stuff that's actually happening at the moment.' Leah then mentioned the books she does like--biographies. Her class read Karen Levine's Hana's Suitcase and she 'actually liked that.' When asked if they read books in their spare time, both Ryan (14) and Tom had one word to say, 'No.' Later Tom talked about what he did like reading--sports magazines. This confirms Reeves's view that high school students can be highly selective in their reading material. (18) Adam (16), Danielle, Teneal and Sandra (all 15), Cassie (14) and Kelly read in bed before going to sleep and sometimes stayed up half the night. Danielle said, 'You start reading a chapter and then it gets to a good bit and you have to read on to find out what happens and there's another good bit and then you finish the book.' Adam gave his reason for enjoying reading as, 'I normally read because I just think it's good, how it's written and I want to keep reading ... Then I'm there for ages.' Bianca (15) said she read every day, Teneal tried to finish a book a week, and Rita (15) was proud of having read 30 books over the course of the year. Rita said, 'I generally like reading if I have nothing to do which is pretty much most of the time, I'm just reading.' Melissa was part of a group who were in a lower-achieving English class and despite her fellow participants' vocal dislike of books and reading, she said, 'I read a lot of books.' Her classmates found reading 'boring' or 'all the same.' They did not want to read because they 'hated it.' Their negative comments did not affect Melissa's willingness to share her good opinion of reading. When asked what they would prefer to do in their spare time, reading or another activity, participants rarely chose reading. Some were too busy with other activities. Angela (14) said, 'I do ... lots of sport and everything, so reading's just something I have to get done for school after. It's not something I choose to do.' Angela later said she goes through phases of reading a lot and then not reading so much. At the time of the discussion she was going through the latter, and implied this would end at some stage and she would start reading again more often. Even avid reader Ellen (14) said, 'It depends what I'm feeling like. If I was really bored and ... I was tired, I'd read. But if I was up there, out and felt like doing something else, I'd ...' She didn't finish this statement, but her meaning was clear. Rita and Kelly agreed with this. Kelly said, 'It depends like what kind of day it is ... If it's nice outside, it's probably better to go outside ... If it's ... raining, you've really got nothing else to do.' Reading being a last resort was a common opinion. Peter (14) said, 'Reading's ... the last thing on my list of things to do.' Simon (14) suggested if he was sick or if there was nothing on television he might consider reading as an option and Kylie also mentioned this lack of television, '[If] I can't watch the TV or the computer. If I have nothing to do then I'll read.' A number of participants discussed reading within their family. The literature indicates that this leads to an ongoing enjoyment of reading. (19) Jeremy's (14) mother 'read a lot' and he read 'an hour or quite a bit every night.' Neil (14) read 'quite a lot really' and often got books from his brother. Kylie's brother also 'read heaps' and despite some negative comments on reading, she enjoyed it on occasion. Danielle's and Adam's 'parents read all the time.' Other research suggests encouragement by any significant adult in a child's fife can replicate the above mentoring effect of a family's reading. (20) When Angela was in Year 7 she had a teacher who 'was always forcing us to read ... We had a map in our classroom and it had different ... spots around the world and you had to read a book for each place. And then the first person around won something. It was ... 60 books or something.' This led to Angela reading 'heaps.' She added, 'Me and my friends we all read ..., we all kind of ... read the same series at the same time. So we'd each buy ... a few of them and then we'd all just share.' While there was diversity in what teenagers thought of reading, there was more consensus on where reading materials were found. Raiding the family bookshelf or buying books and magazines was more common than visiting the library to find something to read. TEENAGERS IN THE LIBRARY Participants were asked about their use of libraries as a source of reading material. The focus groups confirmed the literature that finds libraries are not a popular place for teenagers to visit. (21) School libraries were used more often than public libraries. Some exceptions to the norm were Melissa, Ellen and Chelsea (13) who went to the public library to find books to read. Melissa went when she had school assignments to do and she 'usually got two or three books' to read in her free time. Adam found books to read at his school library. The library was not popular with other participants. Many participants were more likely to find their reading material at home, either bought for them by a family member (often a parent) or previously read by someone in the house. Danielle was an avid reader, but only went to the library to find information for school assignments. Most of the schools involved in the focus groups held a regular class in their school library, where students were expected to choose a book and read it for the duration of the class. Some participants, for example Rosa, enjoyed this and if they had found a good book, would take it home to finish reading. Others found it a good time to have a 'social session.' Leah said, 'Half of us sit on the floor, on the couches, you know. We put the books up and then just talk to each other.' The library at one school was very well used before school began and during breaks. Students used the computers, looked at books and magazines, or finished homework. The students in the session at this school did not think so highly of the regular class session they had in their library. It was more structured than at other schools, and although they could choose a book, they were limited in their choice and had to complete activities after their reading. Tim (15) was particularly vocal in his disdain for these classes. His classmates must have heard his views before, because they laughed at his forceful opinions. The lack of choice in reading material may have led to their dislike. (22) Class sessions at the library meant the school library was more likely to be visited than the public library. Some students were not able to get to the public library, such as Jeremy, a boarder at his school. Tanya (15) was too busy with other things. Conversely, some students went to the public library because their mother did. Natasha (13) and Ryan did this, but 'just [to] have a look around' and they did not borrow anything. Liam (13) went to the public library with his mother and found graphic novels to read. When Jason's (15) mother worked late, he went to the public library after school. This lack of library use did not equate to a lack of reading among participants, and there was great variety in the reading matter preferred by the teenagers. WHAT DO TEENAGERS READ? The reading materials of choice for the participants varied greatly, from novels of specific genres, to biographies, newspapers, magazines, and the ubiquitous internet. Rosa (14) liked reading teenage romances; she liked 'happy endings.' Books about teenagers were popular among many participants. Tanya described these as stories that 'relate to our lives at the moment ... parties, boys, everything that's happening now.' Leah found John Marsden's Letters from the Inside about two teenage penpals, which she read for her English class, 'better than any other book we had to read.' Jason qualified this with, 'You wouldn't just read a book about kids or something.' April (15) preferred horror stories, Danielle liked detective mysteries and Simon liked action or comedy. Leah was scathing of reading and at one stage said, 'Can you try and ban reading?' Her friend Tanya replied, 'You can't ban reading, because that means you'd ban magazines and the internet.' Both magazines and the internet were popular, even with anti-reading Leah. Magazines were read by almost all of the students, the most popular being sports magazines for boys and fashion/beauty magazines for girls. 'This is reading that teens enjoy, that they do without any adult prodding--regularly, extensively and with great attention to detail.' (23) During the focus groups Ryan thought it was the pictures that made magazines so appealing, and during a different session April agreed. Melissa liked the current information she found in magazines. 'Magazines now are actually ... way more interesting I reckon, because you find out so much new stuff and information that you think would be useful.' Joanna (15) worked in a supermarket and read magazines while waiting for customers. She described this as a 'hell good' use of her time. Angela used to buy magazines herself, 'but now I just take them from my sister and read them.' She liked the real life stories and found the fashion pages boring. Kylie was an anomaly in not liking magazines. She said, 'I don't really like reading about other people and ... clothes and stuff.' All the students used the internet, but often did not equate this with reading. The internet was where they looked for assignment information and then something fun to do after homework (or during if they could hide it from parents). A particular use of the internet was for talking to friends through IM and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. (During the focus group sessions only MySpace was mentioned because at that time, 2006, 'MySpace was the cool thing for high school teens.' (24) Facebook has since become as popular.) One group laughed when asked if they read things on the internet. Angela qualified this by saying, 'I do MySpace lots ... And MSN [IM], hut not really to read things ... If we have to do a book in English then I search that, but that's about it.' Both MySpace and IM involve literacy activities; writing (typing) thoughts and reading others' online thoughts. During a different session Leah said, 'You can go on the net and do it [find information for assignments]. It's still reading isn't it?' When reassured this was reading she added, 'Yeah, because there's words' and others concurred. In confirmation of the finding from the Pew Internet & American Life Project that 75% of teenagers who have access to the internet use IM, (25) IM or chatting were discussed by many focus group participants. When Angela was in primary school she did not use MySpace or IM (through the MSN service) because she talked to her friends all day at school. 'Now I'm at high school I know ... heaps of people from other schools ... so it's my chance to catch up with them ... It's free. If I want to talk to someone I just ... tell them to go on MSN to save calling or SMSing them or whatever.' 'The Internet has lured teens into a venue that is much more appealing to them than the dusty/musty neighborhood library.' (26) This was the case for many of the students in the focus groups, and these students often had access to the internet from home. Some students said the only reason they would use a computer in a library would be to print out an assignment, after they had completed it at home. 'Many students turn to Google as their main source of information,' (27) just as Leah, Tom and Joanna said they did. Adam talked about his use of the internet for school assignments. 'Ninety per cent of the time you're going to find it on the internet ... Even if it's not as good as the one in the book, at least you've got it straight away.' When asked what his teachers thought of Adam's using only the internet as a source he replied, 'Yeah but, well like ...' and trailed away. After a pause Adam continued by saying he had done this for a recent assignment, and the only comment the teacher had was that he had to be careful not to copy word for word from the source. Aronson believes online sources are not replacing books. People are reading in the many different formats and 'the new technologies will [not] always replace the old ... the two can coexist.' (28) Focus groups participants were not following this trend, particularly when looking for school assignment information. In comparing books to the internet Kylie said, 'It's just so much more interesting, there's more variety [on the internet].' Graphic Novels The graphic novel format was discussed during the focus group sessions as one suggested way to encourage teenagers to read, with a number of graphic novels on hand for participants to look at. Some students had never encountered graphic novels before, were not familiar with the term, or thought of them as comics. Included among the graphic novels were a few manga (Japanese comics). Some manga are read the Japanese way, from right to left, and this was a novel experience for many participants. When right to left manga was explained to one group, Kylie said, 'Oh my god, are you serious?' These manga confounded many of the students, and some said they would not read right to left manga because they were 'confusing', 'weird' or 'dumb.' Equally, there were students who were not fazed by the novelty. Ellen 'really, really, really' liked reading. Nevertheless, she had negative comments about some reading materials, for example, reading the newspaper was 'boring.' Another pet hate of hers was books with pictures. She almost shouted, 'Pictures! I hate pictures! I get halfway through a book and see a picture and I stop. I want a novel, not a picture book. I reckon if you're an author you have be an author, not be an illustrator.' Her dislike encompassed graphic novels. Ellen was not interested in looking at any of the graphic novels during the session. Every other participant at least flicked through some of them. Phil (14) felt that reading a comic was 'just looking at pictures' which was boring, and he would 'rather read a book.' Adam and Kate (13) also preferred their books without pictures because 'you can imagine them yourself.' Four students from different sessions, Sandra, Liam, Mia and Amy (14), particularly liked graphic novels and attended the focus group because of this. Sandra's mother and older sister enjoyed the format and introduced her to graphic novels. Liam found graphic novels at his local public library and began reading them. Mia and Amy were both Asian, loved manga and anime (the animated film version of manga) and were very interested in the manga displayed during the session. Amy asked to borrow some of them at the end of the session (unfortunately this was not possible). At the beginning of the session Mia said she did not like reading, but when the discussion turned to manga, her voracious reading of it became apparent. Manga is available across Asia (29) and many Asian teenagers and younger adults now living in western countries read manga while living in their country of origin, and enjoy it as a reminder of home. Enjoyment of manga was not shared by all Asian participants. Alex (13) had read some, but was not enthusiastic about them. Tim was not a big reader and would only read a comic if one of his friends told him it was good. April was in an English class for lower achieving students, because she had only recently learnt English as a second language. April had read manga in the past, but not enjoyed it because of the length of the series. She would read the first book and then not be able to find subsequent volumes. 'If I want to know the end, I have to read more and more and more and more graphic novels to get to the end.' Ryan and Jason had encountered graphic novels previously and both found them 'easier to read than books.' David had read a couple of graphic novels before the session, including the graphic novel version of the novel and recent film Stormbreaker, and found them 'too short, too simple.' Unlike other students this was a negative characteristic for David. He liked his reading to be challenging. Despite this, David began reading one of the graphic novels during the session and at the end, asked his teacher to buy some graphic novels for the English Department to use in English classes (and for David to borrow for his reading outside of school, which his teacher allowed). A number of students had not encountered graphic novels previously, and were not convinced of their appeal after seeing those displayed during the session. Rosa found the pages too crowded and similarly Kylie felt too much was happening at once: 'You're ... trying to read one thing and all this [the pictures] distracts you.' Her classmate Teresa agreed: 'I see a picture ahead and look at it before I've read the part and then I know what happens.' These views might be ameliorated by further exposure to the format. At a later stage in the session, Kylie looked at C. Clugston-Major's Queen Bee, about teenagers in school, her favourite topic. Kylie became so engrossed in the story she asked where she could find a copy to read. Other participants found enjoyment in the displayed graphic novels immediately. Carl (13) did not enjoy reading, but was very interested in K. Barker's Plastic Man which was available during the session. He said, 'Plastic Man's good.' Robert (14) considered himself 'a pretty good reader' but had not encountered graphic novels before the session. He said, 'I reckon they're really good' and thought he might look for some graphic novels to read. Ideas for Practice in Libraries Despite the praise for graphic novels and their popularity among teenagers found in the literature, the format was not found to be universally liked during the discussions with teenagers. There are a number of possible explanations for this situation. Most of the literature about graphic novels is written by librarians discussing their current library users. As much as might be wished otherwise, these users are a minority of the whole population of teenagers. The participants in this research were chosen from a pool of teenagers from local high schools, and were not necessarily those who liked reading or even visited libraries. This difference in populations would lead to differences in findings. Some of the participants suggested graphic novels might seem intimidating at first glance (particularly manga which is read the Japanese way from right to left) because people had not experienced them before. When asked if she thought studying a graphic novel for her English class would be enjoyable, Kelly said, 'I'm not sure everyone in the class would really know what they were.' She thought fellow students would have to learn more about them, and read some, before they could decide if they liked them. One group of students had been provided with some graphic novels to read during their English class prior to the focus group session. Simon had enjoyed the manga he had read then and wanted to find more, particularly one series displayed during the focus group session. Some teenagers came to the sessions already convinced of the pleasures of reading graphic novels, many of whom found graphic novels at their school or local public library. Others were willing to try them if they come across them in the future, and others wanted to actively seek them out now they knew what to expect. As well as diversity in opinions on graphic novels, there was also diversity in teenagers' views on reading in general and the materials they liked to read. Librarians can make the most of this by providing variety in reading materials to cater to all teenagers' tastes and not value any one material more than another. Newkirk's research on boys' reading (or lack of it) discovered possible reasons behind this. In school-sanctioned reading materials, which were often those found in libraries, Newkirk believes 'books trump magazines; print trumps the visual; the serious trumps the humorous; fiction trumps nonfiction.' (30) Many of the participants in the focus groups stated their preference for the latter in these pairs (particularly magazines, which were universally liked). In some instances participants were unsure if particular forms of reading were actually considered reading. Alex questioned whether his reading of comic books, as he called graphic novels, was a valid example of reading (despite the research topic and his school library having a sizeable graphic novel collection). Angela's earlier mention of her use of IM and reluctance to call this reading is another example. (This could be because IM is so similar to speech and involves numerous abbreviations and spelling and grammatical errors.) The promotion of all formats and genres as equal, by librarians and also teachers, could increase teenagers' willingness to read and find enjoyment in reading, especially by those who prefer what have traditionally been deemed 'lesser' reading materials. Occasionally participants did not know what was provided by their school or public library. Liam said he found graphic novels at his local public library, because his school library did not have any. His teacher librarian subsequently said the school library did have a graphic novel collection. Enhanced promotion of both school and public library collections and events, and also of libraries in general, could alleviate this problem. Improved links between school and public libraries could also add to teenagers' knowledge of what is available, thus increasing their use of both types of library. (31) CONCLUSION While these results are still preliminary, after talking to teenagers about their thoughts on reading, libraries and graphic novels, the demarcations between teenage readers and non-readers were not as definite as could be hoped. Some teenagers happily labelled themselves readers, describing the reading materials they enjoyed and the time they spend reading. Others were more hesitant, a popular answer being, 'It depends ...'. At the other end of the spectrum, some teenagers were vocally anti-reading. While the particular responses of participants cannot be generalised to the whole population, the range of opinions from the focus groups goes some way to explaining the debate in the literature on how much teenagers read, and how much they enjoy reading. Happily, no matter what their articulated views on the concept of reading, all teenage participants shared instances of enjoying reading, even those who initially said they hated reading and 'never' read anything. Providing an encouraging and non-threatening environment enabled even those teenagers who did not like reading as much, and were thus more reluctant to admit to reading in their free time, to feel secure enough to voice their opinions. The challenge for librarians is to find, provide and promote this 'interesting' reading matter--the 'right' book, novel, graphic novel, biography, magazine or website that will encourage more teenagers to frequent libraries and make the time to read and enjoy their reading. NOTES (1.) M A Nippold, J K Duthie & J Larsen 'Literacy as a Leisure Activity: Free-time Preferences of Older Children and Young Adolescents' Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools 2005 vol 36 no 2 pp93-102; E van Schooten & K de Glopper 'The Relation Between Attitude Toward Reading Adolescent Literature and Literary Reading Behaviour' Poetics 2002 vol 30 no 3 pp169-194; Australian Centre for Youth Literature Young Australians Reading: From Keen to Reluctant Readers Melbourne ACYL 2000; T M Smith et al Condition of Education: Reading and Writing Habits of Students Report no 98003 Washington DC National Center for Education Statistics 1997 http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/98003.pdf accessed 20 February 2008; M C McKenna, D J Kear & R A Ellsworth 'Children's Attitudes Toward Reading: A National Survey' Reading Research Quarterly 1995 vol 30 no 4 pp934-956. (2.) S La Marca & P Macintyre Knowing Readers: Unlocking the Pleasures of Reading Melbourne School Library Association of Victoria 2006; S D Krashen The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research 2nd ed Westport CT Libraries Unlimited 2004 p180; J V Manuel & D Robinson 'Teenage Boys, Teenage Gifts and Books: Re-viewing Some Assumptions about Gender and Adolescents' Reading Practices' English Teaching: Practice and Critique 2003 vol 2 no 2 pp66-77; J Worthy 'On Every Page Someone Gets Killed! Book Conversations You Don't Hear in School' Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 1998 vol 41 no 7 pp508-517. (3.) A R Reeves Adolescents Talk about Reading: Exploring Resistance to and Engagement With Text Newark DE International Reading Association 2004 p240. (4.) P M Rothbauer 'Young Adults and Reading' in C S Ross, L McKechnie & P M Rothbauer (eds) Reading Matters: What the Research Reveals About Reading, Libraries, and Community Westport CT Libraries Unlimited 2006 p 103. (5.) F Goldsmith Graphic Novels Now: Building, Managing, and Marketing a Dynamic Collection Chicago ALA 2005; S Miller Developing and Promoting Graphic Novel Collections New York Neal-Schuman Publishers 2005; I Fountain 'The Emergence of Graphic Novels' Synergy 2004 vol 2 no 2 pp35-38; A Lyga & B Lyga Graphic Novels in Your Media Center Westport CT Libraries Unlimited 2004; P C Crawford Graphic Novels 101: Selecting and Using Graphic Novels to Promote Literacy for Children and Young Adults Salt Lake City UT Hi Willow 2003; M Gorman Getting Graphid Using Graphic Novels to Promote Literacy With Preteens and Teens Worthington Linworth 2003; K L Kan 'Getting Graphic at the School Library' Library Media Connection 2003 vol 21 no 7 pp14-19. (6.) ABS Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities, Australia Report no 4901.0 Canberra Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006; K Swenor 'A Teen Take on Reading: Results from the 2005 Teen Read Survey' Young Adult Library Services 2006 vol 4 no 4 pp42-44; S D Krashen & D Von Sprecken 'Is There a Decline in the Reading Romance?' Knowledge Quest 2002 vol 30 no 3 pp11-17; K Gutchewsky 'An Attitude Adjustment: How I Reached my Reluctant Readers' English Journal 2001 vol 91 no 2 pp79-85; W P Bintz 'Resistant Readers in Secondary Education' Journal of Reading 1993 vol 36 no 8 pp604-615. (7.) R Horton 'Boys and Reading: Strategies and Problems' Access 2006 vol 20 no 2 p5; C S Ross 'The Company of Readers' in C S Ross, L McKechnie & P M Rothbauer (eds) op cit p5; G K Beers 'Choosing Not to Read: Understanding Why Some Middle Schoolers Just Say No' in G K Beers & B G Samuels (eds) Into Focus: Understanding and Creating Middle School Readers Norwood MA Christopher-Gordon Publishers 1998 p52. (8.) DCMS, MLA & Laser Foundation A Research Study of 14-35 Year Olds for the Future Development of Public Libraries Report no 1516 London Museums and Libraries Archive Council 2006; Swenor op cit; C Creaser & S Maynard A Survey of Library Services to Schools and Children in the UK 2004-05 Loughborough LISU 2005 p328; H Fisher 'A Teenage View of the Public Library: What are the Students Saying?' APLIS: Australian Public Library and Information Services 2003 vol 16 no 1 p6. (9.) J Abbas, K Bishop & G D'Elia 'Youth and the Internet' Young Adult Library Services 2007 vol 5 no 2 pp44-49; S Fox & M Madden Generations Online Washington DC Pew Internet & American Life Project 2005. (10.) D Boyd 'Viewing American Class Divisions Through Facebook and MySpace' 24 June 2007 http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions. html accessed 20 February 2008. (11.) Fox & Madden op cit p3. (12.) D Levin et al The Digital Disconnect: The Widening Gap Between Internet-savvy Students and Their Schools Washington DC Pew Internet & American Life Project 2002. (13.) M Aronson 'Do Books Still Matter?' School Library Journal 2007 vol 53 no 4 p36. (14.) C Snowball 'Researching Graphic Novels and Their Teenage Readers' LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal 2007 vol 17 no 1. (15.) D E Agosto & S Hughes-Hassell 'Toward a Model of the Everyday Life Information Needs of Urban Teenagers, Part 1: Theoretical Model' Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 2006 vol 57 no 10 p 1400. (16.) Y S Lincoln & E G Guba Naturalistic Inquiry Beverly Hills CA Sage 1985 p316. (17.) Fisher op cit p5. (18.) Reeves op cit p240. (19.) Horton op cit p5; Beers op cit p52. (20.) Ross op cit p5. (21.) DCMS, MLA & Laser Foundation op cit; Swenor op cit; Creaser op cit; Fisher op cit p6. (22.) M Darwin & S Fleischman 'Fostering Adolescent Literacy' Educational Leadership 2005 vol 62 no 7 2005 pp85-87; J Ryan 'Young People Choose: Adolescents' Text Pleasures' Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 2005 vol 28 no 1 p38-47; G Ivey & K Broaddus 'Just Plain Reading: A Survey of What Makes Students Want to Read in Middle School Classrooms' Reading Research Quarterly 2001 vol 36 no 4 pp350-377; N Atwell In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning 2nd ed Portsmouth NH Boynton Cook 1998. (23.) C A Mellon 'Leisure Reading Choices of Rural Teens' School Library Media Quarterly 1990 vol 18 no 4 p224. (24.) Boyd op cit. (25.) Fox op cit p3. (26.) C A Nichols 'Introduction' in C A Nichols (ed) Thinking Outside the Book: Alternatives for Today's Teen Library Collections Westport CT Libraries Unlimited 2004 pxxiii. (27.) Aronson op cit p36. (28.) ibid. (29.) F L Schodt Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga Berkeley CA Stone Bridge Press 1996 p360. (30.) T Newkirk Misreading Masculinity: Boys, Literacy, and Popular Culture Portsmouth NH Heinemann 2002 p171. (31.) Fisher op cit. Clare Snowball, PhD Candidate, School of Media, Society and Culture, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth 6845. E-mail: clare.snowball@postgrad.curtin.edu.auGale Document Number:A182405871
Enviado por: Nilda Rivera (Grupo 1)
Bibliotecas escolares en el siglo XXI
http://pinakes.educarex.es/numero7/descargas/articulo2.pdf
La era digital cambia el lenguaje
Frases cortas, abreviadas, emoticones. Un aluvión de términos y signos que están gestando el nacimiento de un nuevo lenguaje, más simple, más práctico. Nuestros hijos lo están aprendiendo a través del universo virtual pero se extiende hasta el mundo real. Polémicas y adhesiones.
El lenguaje es parte del "ser" humano. Como el hombre mismo evoluciona, cambia y se modifica con el paso del tiempo. Si no intente leer la versión original de Don Quijote o el mismo Martín Fierro, ambos textos fueron escritos en español, pero esas modalidades de lenguaje han caído en desuso.
Hoy esos cambios siguen la velocidad de la comunicación instantánea. Ya nadie escribe largas cartas sino más bien breves mensajes de correo (e-mail) o más breves mensajes en el ICQ (término derivado de la frase inglesa "I seek you, te busco") o Messenger.
Popularizado hace más de 10 años, el chat ha formado una generación de jóvenes y adolescentes que se comunican en todo el mundo con un lenguaje que combina abreviaturas "sui generis" más caritas y signos del teclado que combinados se usan para expresar desde emociones hasta animales, países y ocupaciones, difíciles de leer para quien no está inmerso en el mundo del messenger.
Algunos ejemplos son:
:-) Feliz
( :+( Asustado
(:- Muy Aburrido
:-( Triste
Como notas relacionadas, usted podrá acceder a un diccionario de chat y a reglas de uso corriente en este método de comunicación.
En Chile, los chicos comenzaron a utilizar este "lenguaje" en los exámenes escolares, provocando gran preocupación entre los profesores que apelaron a bajar las notas o a intentar descifrar qué han querido decir sus alumnos.
El fenómeno abarca a toda una generación que no conoce fronteras al momento de entablar amistades "vía chat".
Lo que distingue este nuevo tipo de comunicación es que combina la permanencia de la palabra escrita y la fluidez del intercambio propia de las conversaciones cara a cara, de ahí la necesidad de expresar sentimientos y sensaciones a través de los "emoticones" o de las "caritas".
Otra modalidad de la nueva comunicación es el "anonimato", lo que facilita la creación de personajes y hasta la mentira y el engaño que ha llevado a terribles casos aparecidos en las crónicas policiales del mundo entero. Al tener que establecer "nick names", o sobrenombres, la fantasía de ser otro, tan propio de la adolescencia, se concreta fácilmente.
Y para hacerlo más sencillo todavía el servicio es gratis, ninguno de los mensajeros instantáneos pide dinero para funcionar.
Este nuevo lenguaje se justifica debido a las características del acceso a la red que tienen en la actualidad muchos usuarios (el dial-up sigue siendo lento), también a la necesidad de respuestas cortas y rápidas para hacer más fluida la conversación, así como por el costo que representa estar en línea.
Los actores del "chateo"
Hablar de quienes usan el chat es un tema complejo ya que es un ser anónimo que se crea a sí mismo para mostrarse a los demás como él quiere.
Sabemos que la imagen que tienen de sí mismos los adolescentes es parte fundamental de su estructura de pensamiento, por ello la gran diferencia de quienes chatean es que cuentan con la posibilidad de mostrarse sin prejuicios ante los demás; ellos no tienen miedo a la primera impresión, porque la información que pueden proporcionar al “conocer” personas vía Internet es fácilmente manipulable.
En el chat hoy se puede ser Blanca Nieves y mañana Fiona, la de Shreck. La creación de los perfiles en línea dan la oportunidad de dejarlo en blanco o poner cualquier cosa, porque nadie verificará que sea así. Puede cambiarse el nombre, la ciudad en la que vive y hasta de sexo. Es el reinado del anonimato.
Los adolescentes, y no tanto, tratan de imitar la comunicación cara a cara, por lo que no respetan las reglas gramaticales.
¿Qué dicen los adolescentes? ¿Por qué usan ese lenguaje virtual?
· Para escribir más rápido;
· Porque es divertido y no se te cansan las manos de tanto escribir. Además la gracia es que si uno no entiende una palabra hay que tratar de descubrirla;
· Es una molestia escribir todo el tiempo, uno a veces tiene tantas cosas que contar de las historias que te pasaron, entonces es un bajón escribir todo correctamente.
· A veces uno se pone más tímida o más nerviosa en el teléfono y chateando uno se anima decir más cosas ...
Las campañas publicitarias que apelan al uso de este lenguaje para captar un público joven se está viendo en estos días en nuestro país a través del diccionario de Personal. Lo mismo se realizó en Chile con gran éxito, ya que las ventas de celulares entre los jóvenes crecieron en un 35%.
Mientras tanto los ideólogos de la campaña en el país transandino se han ganado las críticas más severas por parte de aquellos que piensan que se está provocando un daño en la educación de los jóvenes.
Según el periodista Héctor Vélis-Meza, profesor universitario y gran estudioso del lenguaje, el problema se presenta cuando la persona tiene que enfrentarse al mundo formal: “Ya existe preocupación en las universidades por lo mal que hablan y escriben los jóvenes y, si bien es cierto que el poder de síntesis es una ventaja muy apreciada, este lenguaje abreviado y lleno de simbolismos hace que la persona posea cada vez menos cantidad de palabras para expresarse y eso es un empobrecimiento”, asegura Vélis-Meza, quien dice que "el hábito de escribir y hablar bien se adquiere principalmente en el hogar: lo más preocupante es que se trata de adolescentes que están incorporando conocimientos en un momento clave de la formación intelectual".
Para la mirada sociológica del tema, las razones del uso de este vocabulario van más allá del tiempo y el dinero. Tiene que ver con una necesidad de crear un universo propio, único, donde los adultos no tengan acceso y que incluso podría llegar a enriquecer la comunicación, porque aunque sea de esta manera, los jóvenes están conversando y eso siempre es una buena señal.
Por Tamara Herraiz/María Inés Martínez
therraiz@infobae.com
http://pinakes.educarex.es/numero7/descargas/articulo2.pdf
La era digital cambia el lenguaje
Frases cortas, abreviadas, emoticones. Un aluvión de términos y signos que están gestando el nacimiento de un nuevo lenguaje, más simple, más práctico. Nuestros hijos lo están aprendiendo a través del universo virtual pero se extiende hasta el mundo real. Polémicas y adhesiones.
El lenguaje es parte del "ser" humano. Como el hombre mismo evoluciona, cambia y se modifica con el paso del tiempo. Si no intente leer la versión original de Don Quijote o el mismo Martín Fierro, ambos textos fueron escritos en español, pero esas modalidades de lenguaje han caído en desuso.
Hoy esos cambios siguen la velocidad de la comunicación instantánea. Ya nadie escribe largas cartas sino más bien breves mensajes de correo (e-mail) o más breves mensajes en el ICQ (término derivado de la frase inglesa "I seek you, te busco") o Messenger.
Popularizado hace más de 10 años, el chat ha formado una generación de jóvenes y adolescentes que se comunican en todo el mundo con un lenguaje que combina abreviaturas "sui generis" más caritas y signos del teclado que combinados se usan para expresar desde emociones hasta animales, países y ocupaciones, difíciles de leer para quien no está inmerso en el mundo del messenger.
Algunos ejemplos son:
:-) Feliz
( :+( Asustado
(:- Muy Aburrido
:-( Triste
Como notas relacionadas, usted podrá acceder a un diccionario de chat y a reglas de uso corriente en este método de comunicación.
En Chile, los chicos comenzaron a utilizar este "lenguaje" en los exámenes escolares, provocando gran preocupación entre los profesores que apelaron a bajar las notas o a intentar descifrar qué han querido decir sus alumnos.
El fenómeno abarca a toda una generación que no conoce fronteras al momento de entablar amistades "vía chat".
Lo que distingue este nuevo tipo de comunicación es que combina la permanencia de la palabra escrita y la fluidez del intercambio propia de las conversaciones cara a cara, de ahí la necesidad de expresar sentimientos y sensaciones a través de los "emoticones" o de las "caritas".
Otra modalidad de la nueva comunicación es el "anonimato", lo que facilita la creación de personajes y hasta la mentira y el engaño que ha llevado a terribles casos aparecidos en las crónicas policiales del mundo entero. Al tener que establecer "nick names", o sobrenombres, la fantasía de ser otro, tan propio de la adolescencia, se concreta fácilmente.
Y para hacerlo más sencillo todavía el servicio es gratis, ninguno de los mensajeros instantáneos pide dinero para funcionar.
Este nuevo lenguaje se justifica debido a las características del acceso a la red que tienen en la actualidad muchos usuarios (el dial-up sigue siendo lento), también a la necesidad de respuestas cortas y rápidas para hacer más fluida la conversación, así como por el costo que representa estar en línea.
Los actores del "chateo"
Hablar de quienes usan el chat es un tema complejo ya que es un ser anónimo que se crea a sí mismo para mostrarse a los demás como él quiere.
Sabemos que la imagen que tienen de sí mismos los adolescentes es parte fundamental de su estructura de pensamiento, por ello la gran diferencia de quienes chatean es que cuentan con la posibilidad de mostrarse sin prejuicios ante los demás; ellos no tienen miedo a la primera impresión, porque la información que pueden proporcionar al “conocer” personas vía Internet es fácilmente manipulable.
En el chat hoy se puede ser Blanca Nieves y mañana Fiona, la de Shreck. La creación de los perfiles en línea dan la oportunidad de dejarlo en blanco o poner cualquier cosa, porque nadie verificará que sea así. Puede cambiarse el nombre, la ciudad en la que vive y hasta de sexo. Es el reinado del anonimato.
Los adolescentes, y no tanto, tratan de imitar la comunicación cara a cara, por lo que no respetan las reglas gramaticales.
¿Qué dicen los adolescentes? ¿Por qué usan ese lenguaje virtual?
· Para escribir más rápido;
· Porque es divertido y no se te cansan las manos de tanto escribir. Además la gracia es que si uno no entiende una palabra hay que tratar de descubrirla;
· Es una molestia escribir todo el tiempo, uno a veces tiene tantas cosas que contar de las historias que te pasaron, entonces es un bajón escribir todo correctamente.
· A veces uno se pone más tímida o más nerviosa en el teléfono y chateando uno se anima decir más cosas ...
Las campañas publicitarias que apelan al uso de este lenguaje para captar un público joven se está viendo en estos días en nuestro país a través del diccionario de Personal. Lo mismo se realizó en Chile con gran éxito, ya que las ventas de celulares entre los jóvenes crecieron en un 35%.
Mientras tanto los ideólogos de la campaña en el país transandino se han ganado las críticas más severas por parte de aquellos que piensan que se está provocando un daño en la educación de los jóvenes.
Según el periodista Héctor Vélis-Meza, profesor universitario y gran estudioso del lenguaje, el problema se presenta cuando la persona tiene que enfrentarse al mundo formal: “Ya existe preocupación en las universidades por lo mal que hablan y escriben los jóvenes y, si bien es cierto que el poder de síntesis es una ventaja muy apreciada, este lenguaje abreviado y lleno de simbolismos hace que la persona posea cada vez menos cantidad de palabras para expresarse y eso es un empobrecimiento”, asegura Vélis-Meza, quien dice que "el hábito de escribir y hablar bien se adquiere principalmente en el hogar: lo más preocupante es que se trata de adolescentes que están incorporando conocimientos en un momento clave de la formación intelectual".
Para la mirada sociológica del tema, las razones del uso de este vocabulario van más allá del tiempo y el dinero. Tiene que ver con una necesidad de crear un universo propio, único, donde los adultos no tengan acceso y que incluso podría llegar a enriquecer la comunicación, porque aunque sea de esta manera, los jóvenes están conversando y eso siempre es una buena señal.
Por Tamara Herraiz/María Inés Martínez
therraiz@infobae.com
Enviado por: Alicia Ortíz (Grupo 1)
Let Book Joy Begin @ Your Library®!
Ten Years of El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros
http://www.linworth.com/pdf/lmc/reviews_and_articles/featured_articles/roy_mar07.pdf
Enviado por: Gloryvee Nieves (Grupo 1) Artículo núm. 1 & 2
Artículo núm. 1
Darle un clic encima para poderlo leer:Bringing in the Boys
Enviado por: Sol López (Grupo 5) Artículo núm. 1 & 2
PLA Promotes Student Literacy
Library conference highlights programs for children from PreK–12
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 4/1/2004
Parents of children who participate in early literacy programs at the public library improve their own reading skills, and as a result, significantly boost the reading levels of their kids. Moreover, attendance at these programs also leads to increased library use regardless of ethnicity, income, and education levels. That's the finding of a recent nationwide study of more than 1,800 parents and caregivers and 30,000 children under age five unveiled at the Public Library Association's (PLA) 10th national conference held in Seattle from February 24–28.
"The Early Literacy Project," a two-year study sponsored by PLA and the Association of Library Service to Children, also found that teenage parents and those with low education and income levels showed "impressive significant gains across the board," especially when it comes to reading to children 0–23 months old and gaining a better understanding of age-appropriate books.
Public libraries have also been instrumental in closing the digital divide by providing free, public access to computers and the Internet, particularly to those without access at home or work. "Toward Equality of Access: The Role of Public Libraries in Addressing the Digital Divide," a report released at the conference by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says that 95 percent of libraries now offer Internet access, which is being used by 14 million Americans. In contrast, only 28 percent of libraries offered public access to computers in 1996.
This year's PLA conference drew a record 8,700 librarians, exhibitors, authors, and guests, and there were plenty of sessions dealing with emergent literacy, teens, and technology. Librarians packed a huge ballroom to hear Clay Roberts of the Seattle-based Search Institute speak about "New Directions for Serving Young People in Libraries." Clay, along with Carmen Martinez of the Oakland Public Library and Wendy Schaetzel of the Maryland-based Youth Activism Project, outlined ways to work with teens, develop community partnerships, and prepare library staff for serving young adults.
Carole Fiore, a youth services consultant at the State Library of Florida, and other presenters from state libraries in Oregon, Washington, and Maryland, spoke at the "State Involvement in Early Learning and Emergent Literacy" session about innovative programs based on research that proves the importance of early learning. And Kimberly Bolan Teney, author of Teen Spaces: The Step-by-Step Library Makeover (ALA, 2003), showed librarians how a little creativity and a lot of teen involvement can turn a drab room into a bustling teen center.
Some librarians were treated to a tour of the new Seattle Public Library, a nearly 363,000-square-foot building with a dramatic glass exterior designed by architect Rem Koolhaas. The library, set to debut in May, will hold more than 1.4 million books and materials and feature more than 400 public computers. A 275-seat auditorium, the building's centerpiece, connects the two main entry levels.
SMLP
Kids Just Wanna Have Fun
The best way to encourage early literacy is also the most amusing
By Renea Arnold and Nell Colburn -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2004
We think fun is a key word when it comes to early literacy. Learning to read is hard work for most children—and kids, like adults, enjoy things that bring them pleasure. So as professionals who work with young children, our job is to make sure that kids discover the joy of books. And one of the best ways to do that is by providing children with exciting, memorable reading experiences.
In the past two years, the Public Library Association and the Association of Library Service to Children (a division of the American Library Association) have joined forces with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to disseminate the latest research findings on how children learn to read. The research pinpoints six emergent literacy skills—the building blocks that kids need in order to learn to read and write successfully when they begin school.
The first essential skill is "print motivation," defined by NICHD as "a child's interest in and enjoyment of books." In other words, kids must be motivated if they are to become readers. In the future, we'll be writing about all six of the emergent literacy skills. But underlying all that we say is the notion of print motivation—all of the other skills are built upon it.
When we work with parents and caregivers, we encourage them to start with the youngest kids. We tell adults: surround babies with board books. Let them handle them, and don't worry if they chew on them. This is a baby's way of enjoying a book. Make a fuss over the books. Make book sharing a special time. At home or in a child-care center, the pleasure of being nurtured by a loving adult with a book in hand will encourage children to associate books with delight throughout their lives.
We also tell parents, caregivers, and preschool teachers to let kids know that you think books are special. Let them know that you love to read. Let them see you reading on your own. Take every opportunity to remind kids that someday they will know how to read books all by themselves. Take your child to the library and treat each visit as a special outing.
Then there are the books themselves. Choose lots of humorous ones, get everyone laughing. Use books that encourage kids to participate, books like Rod Campbell's Dear Zoo (Little Simon, 1982), Roberta Grobel Intrater's Peek-a-Boo,You! (Scholastic, 2002), and Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt (McElderry, 1989). Books like these draw young listeners into the storytelling and guarantee that they have a good time.
Below is a short list of our all-time favorite books to share with preschoolers. They are our favorites, of course, because they have been so much fun to read aloud, again and again over the 25 years we've each been working with children. They are books we couldn't live without (even though some of them, alas, are now out of print). We'll have lots more to say in upcoming columns about what makes a book work well with different ages of preschoolers. But in the meanwhile, remember to do what the early literacy research advises: make reading fun, and everything else will follow.
Author Information
Renea Arnold is coordinator of early childhood resources for the Multnomah County Library in Portland, OR. Nell Colburn is MCL's early childhood librarian.
SMLP
Library conference highlights programs for children from PreK–12
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 4/1/2004
Parents of children who participate in early literacy programs at the public library improve their own reading skills, and as a result, significantly boost the reading levels of their kids. Moreover, attendance at these programs also leads to increased library use regardless of ethnicity, income, and education levels. That's the finding of a recent nationwide study of more than 1,800 parents and caregivers and 30,000 children under age five unveiled at the Public Library Association's (PLA) 10th national conference held in Seattle from February 24–28.
"The Early Literacy Project," a two-year study sponsored by PLA and the Association of Library Service to Children, also found that teenage parents and those with low education and income levels showed "impressive significant gains across the board," especially when it comes to reading to children 0–23 months old and gaining a better understanding of age-appropriate books.
Public libraries have also been instrumental in closing the digital divide by providing free, public access to computers and the Internet, particularly to those without access at home or work. "Toward Equality of Access: The Role of Public Libraries in Addressing the Digital Divide," a report released at the conference by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, says that 95 percent of libraries now offer Internet access, which is being used by 14 million Americans. In contrast, only 28 percent of libraries offered public access to computers in 1996.
This year's PLA conference drew a record 8,700 librarians, exhibitors, authors, and guests, and there were plenty of sessions dealing with emergent literacy, teens, and technology. Librarians packed a huge ballroom to hear Clay Roberts of the Seattle-based Search Institute speak about "New Directions for Serving Young People in Libraries." Clay, along with Carmen Martinez of the Oakland Public Library and Wendy Schaetzel of the Maryland-based Youth Activism Project, outlined ways to work with teens, develop community partnerships, and prepare library staff for serving young adults.
Carole Fiore, a youth services consultant at the State Library of Florida, and other presenters from state libraries in Oregon, Washington, and Maryland, spoke at the "State Involvement in Early Learning and Emergent Literacy" session about innovative programs based on research that proves the importance of early learning. And Kimberly Bolan Teney, author of Teen Spaces: The Step-by-Step Library Makeover (ALA, 2003), showed librarians how a little creativity and a lot of teen involvement can turn a drab room into a bustling teen center.
Some librarians were treated to a tour of the new Seattle Public Library, a nearly 363,000-square-foot building with a dramatic glass exterior designed by architect Rem Koolhaas. The library, set to debut in May, will hold more than 1.4 million books and materials and feature more than 400 public computers. A 275-seat auditorium, the building's centerpiece, connects the two main entry levels.
SMLP
Kids Just Wanna Have Fun
The best way to encourage early literacy is also the most amusing
By Renea Arnold and Nell Colburn -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2004
We think fun is a key word when it comes to early literacy. Learning to read is hard work for most children—and kids, like adults, enjoy things that bring them pleasure. So as professionals who work with young children, our job is to make sure that kids discover the joy of books. And one of the best ways to do that is by providing children with exciting, memorable reading experiences.
In the past two years, the Public Library Association and the Association of Library Service to Children (a division of the American Library Association) have joined forces with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to disseminate the latest research findings on how children learn to read. The research pinpoints six emergent literacy skills—the building blocks that kids need in order to learn to read and write successfully when they begin school.
The first essential skill is "print motivation," defined by NICHD as "a child's interest in and enjoyment of books." In other words, kids must be motivated if they are to become readers. In the future, we'll be writing about all six of the emergent literacy skills. But underlying all that we say is the notion of print motivation—all of the other skills are built upon it.
When we work with parents and caregivers, we encourage them to start with the youngest kids. We tell adults: surround babies with board books. Let them handle them, and don't worry if they chew on them. This is a baby's way of enjoying a book. Make a fuss over the books. Make book sharing a special time. At home or in a child-care center, the pleasure of being nurtured by a loving adult with a book in hand will encourage children to associate books with delight throughout their lives.
We also tell parents, caregivers, and preschool teachers to let kids know that you think books are special. Let them know that you love to read. Let them see you reading on your own. Take every opportunity to remind kids that someday they will know how to read books all by themselves. Take your child to the library and treat each visit as a special outing.
Then there are the books themselves. Choose lots of humorous ones, get everyone laughing. Use books that encourage kids to participate, books like Rod Campbell's Dear Zoo (Little Simon, 1982), Roberta Grobel Intrater's Peek-a-Boo,You! (Scholastic, 2002), and Michael Rosen's We're Going on a Bear Hunt (McElderry, 1989). Books like these draw young listeners into the storytelling and guarantee that they have a good time.
Below is a short list of our all-time favorite books to share with preschoolers. They are our favorites, of course, because they have been so much fun to read aloud, again and again over the 25 years we've each been working with children. They are books we couldn't live without (even though some of them, alas, are now out of print). We'll have lots more to say in upcoming columns about what makes a book work well with different ages of preschoolers. But in the meanwhile, remember to do what the early literacy research advises: make reading fun, and everything else will follow.
Author Information
Renea Arnold is coordinator of early childhood resources for the Multnomah County Library in Portland, OR. Nell Colburn is MCL's early childhood librarian.
SMLP
Enviado por: Francheska Brito (Grupo 4)
BIBLIOTECA ESCOLAR CENTRO DE RECURSOS PARA LA ENSEÑANZA Y EL APRENDIZAJE Transformación de la Biblioteca Escolar en Centro de Recursos para la Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje
http://www.xtec.es/crp-girones/puntedu/documents/article_JUNTAANDALUCIA.pdf
Bibliotecas escolares: en un lugar de la lectura
http://www.aab.es/pdfs/baab75_76/75a13.pdf
http://www.xtec.es/crp-girones/puntedu/documents/article_JUNTAANDALUCIA.pdf
Bibliotecas escolares: en un lugar de la lectura
http://www.aab.es/pdfs/baab75_76/75a13.pdf
Enviado por: Bermari Rios (Grupo 4)
"¿Qué podemos ofrecer los bibliotecarios a los niños y jóvenes? O cómo las necesidades no tienen nada que ver con el tamaño de las personas"
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00014538/
LA BIBLIOTECA ESCOLAR COMO RECURSO CENTRAL DEL APRENDIZAJE: PROPUESTA DE FORMACIÓN EN EL CENTRO EDUCATIVO
http://www.um.es/ojs/index.php/analesdoc/article/view/2241/2231
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00014538/
LA BIBLIOTECA ESCOLAR COMO RECURSO CENTRAL DEL APRENDIZAJE: PROPUESTA DE FORMACIÓN EN EL CENTRO EDUCATIVO
http://www.um.es/ojs/index.php/analesdoc/article/view/2241/2231
Enviado por: Jubeise De Leon (Grupo 4)
Artículo núm. 1
DE LAS BIBLIOTECAS ESCOLARES A LAS BIBLIOTECAS UNIVERSITARIAS : REFLEXIONES SOBRE ALFABETIZACIÓN INFORMACIONAL
http://www.aab.es/pdfs/jba14/Comunicaciones/Mercedes.pdf
Artícuo núm. 2
Las bibliotecas escolares ¡funcionan!
http://www.bibliotecas-cra.cl/docs/recursos/Importancia%20de%20la%20biblioteca.pdf
DE LAS BIBLIOTECAS ESCOLARES A LAS BIBLIOTECAS UNIVERSITARIAS : REFLEXIONES SOBRE ALFABETIZACIÓN INFORMACIONAL
http://www.aab.es/pdfs/jba14/Comunicaciones/Mercedes.pdf
Artícuo núm. 2
Las bibliotecas escolares ¡funcionan!
http://www.bibliotecas-cra.cl/docs/recursos/Importancia%20de%20la%20biblioteca.pdf
Enviado por: Grupo 1
Best of the Education Blog’ Awards
http://webtech.cherokee.k12.ga.us/creekview-hs/MediaCenter/best_of_the_ed_blogs.pdf
Este es un documento que posee varios enlaces interesantes, no dejes de verlo.
BLOGS IN EDUCATION
http://tep.uoregon.edu/shared/blogswikispodcasts/BlogsInEducation.pdf
http://webtech.cherokee.k12.ga.us/creekview-hs/MediaCenter/best_of_the_ed_blogs.pdf
Este es un documento que posee varios enlaces interesantes, no dejes de verlo.
BLOGS IN EDUCATION
http://tep.uoregon.edu/shared/blogswikispodcasts/BlogsInEducation.pdf
Enviado por: Ana Rivera
LA FORMACIÓN EN COMPETENCIA INFORMACIONAL: EL BIBLIOTECARIO EN EL AULA
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00002479/01/279.pdf
Las bibliotecas en las Misiones Pedagógicas
http://www.aab.es/pdfs/baab74/74a4.pdf
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00002479/01/279.pdf
Las bibliotecas en las Misiones Pedagógicas
http://www.aab.es/pdfs/baab74/74a4.pdf
Enviado por: Lydia Alvarez (Grupo 3)
Public Libraries – Community Organizations Making Outreach Efforts to Help Young Children Succeed in School:
http://www.adi.org/journal/ss08/MartinezSpring2008.pdf
LA BIBLIOTECA ESCOLAR COMO CENTRO DE ALFABETIZACIÓN INFORMACIONAL Y DE RECURSOS PARA EL APRENDIZAJE. LA REALIDAD DE LA COMUNIDAD DE CASTILLA-LA MANCHA
http://www.anabad.org/archivo/docdow.php?id=152
http://www.adi.org/journal/ss08/MartinezSpring2008.pdf
LA BIBLIOTECA ESCOLAR COMO CENTRO DE ALFABETIZACIÓN INFORMACIONAL Y DE RECURSOS PARA EL APRENDIZAJE. LA REALIDAD DE LA COMUNIDAD DE CASTILLA-LA MANCHA
http://www.anabad.org/archivo/docdow.php?id=152
Enviado por: Brenda Rivera
Bibliotecas infantiles y juveniles aportación a la política bibliotecaria de Vasconcelos, de Juana Manrique de Lara, primera bibliotecaria mexicana:
http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/ibi/vol16-33/IBI03303.pdf
¿Qué podemos ofrecer los bibliotecarios a los niños y jóvenes? O cómo las necesidades no tienen nada que ver con el tamaño de las personas:
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00014538/01/EncuentroPombalFinal.pdf
http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/ibi/vol16-33/IBI03303.pdf
¿Qué podemos ofrecer los bibliotecarios a los niños y jóvenes? O cómo las necesidades no tienen nada que ver con el tamaño de las personas:
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00014538/01/EncuentroPombalFinal.pdf
Enviado por: Grupo 4
Sistema informacional, lectura y conocimiento: Gerenciando el flujo de una herramienta cognitiva hacia la alfabetización informacional:
http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/ibi/vol22-44/IBI002204406.pdf
Las mujeres, que leen, son peligrosas:
http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/ibi/vol22-44/IBI002204413.pdf
http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/ibi/vol22-44/IBI002204406.pdf
Las mujeres, que leen, son peligrosas:
http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/ibi/vol22-44/IBI002204413.pdf
10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library
By Mark Y. Herring
Dean of library servicesDacus LibraryWinthrop UniversityRock Hill, South Carolina
Reading, said the great English essayist Matthew Arnold, “is culture.” Given the condition of reading test scores among school children nationwide, it isn’t surprising to find both our nation and our culture in trouble. Further, the rush to Internetize all schools, particularly K–12, adds to our downward spiral. If it were not for the Harry Potter books one might lose all hope who languishes here. Then, suddenly, you realize libraries really are in trouble, grave danger, when important higher-education officials opine, “Don’t you know the Internet has made libraries obsolete?” Gadzooks! as Harry himself might say.
In an effort to save our culture, strike a blow for reading, and, above all, correct the well-intentioned but horribly misguided notions about what is fast becoming Intertopia among many nonlibrarian bean counters, here are 10 reasons why the Internet is no substitute for a library.
Not Everything Is on the Internet
With over one billion Web pages you couldn’t tell it by looking. Nevertheless, very few substantive materials are on the Internet for free. For example, only about 8% of all journals are on the Web, and an even smaller fraction of books are there. Both are costly! If you want the Journal of Biochemistry, Physics Today, Journal of American History, you’ll pay, and to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Needle (Your Search) in the Haystack (the Web)
The Internet is like a vast uncataloged library. Whether you’re using Hotbot, Lycos, Dogpile, Infoseek, or any one of a dozen other search or metasearch engines, you’re not searching the entire Web. Sites often promise to search everything but they can’t deliver. Moreover, what they do search is not updated daily, weekly, or even monthly, regardless of what’s advertised. If a librarian told you, “Here are 10 articles on Native Americans. We have 40 others but we’re not going to let you see them, not now, not yet, not until you’ve tried another search in another library,” you’d throw a fit. The Internet does this routinely and no one seems to mind.
Quality Control Doesn’t Exist
Yes, we need the Internet, but in addition to all the scientific, medical, and historical information (when accurate), there is also a cesspool of waste. When young people aren’t getting their sex education off XXX-rated sites, they’re learning politics from the Freeman Web page, or race relations from Klan sites. There is no quality control on the Web, and there isn’t likely to be any. Unlike libraries where vanity press publications are rarely, if ever, collected, vanity is often what drives the Internet. Any fool can put up anything on the Web, and, to my accounting, all have.
What You Don’t Know Really Does Hurt You
The great boon to libraries has been the digitization of journals. But full-text sites, while grand, aren’t always full. What you don’t know can hurt you:
1. articles on these sites are often missing, among other things, footnotes;
2. tables, graphs, and formulae do not often show up in a readable fashion (especially when printed); and
3. journal titles in a digitized package change regularly, often without warning.
A library may begin with X number of journals in September and end with Y number in May. Trouble is, those titles aren’t the same from September to May. Although the library may have paid $100,000 for the access, it’s rarely notified of any changes. I would not trade access to digitized journals for anything in the world, but their use must be a judicious, planned, and measured one, not full, total, and exclusive reliance.
States Can Now Buy One Book and Distribute to Every Library on the Web—NOT!
Yes, and we could have one national high school, a national university, and a small cadre of faculty teaching everybody over streaming video. Let’s take this one step further and have only digitized sports teams for real savings! (Okay, I know, I’ve insulted the national religion.) Since 1970 about 50,000 academic titles have been published every year. Of these 1.5 million titles, fewer than a couple thousand are available. What is on the Net are about 20,000 titles published before 1925. Why? No copyright restrictions that cause prices to soar to two or three times their printed costs. Finally, vendors delivering e-books allow only one digitized copy per library. If you check out an e-book over the Web, I can’t have it until you return it. Go figure, as they say. And if you’re late getting the book back, there is no dog-ate-my-homework argument. It’s charged to your credit card automatically.
Hey, Bud, You Forgot about E-book Readers
Most of us have forgotten what we said about microfilm (“It would shrink libraries to shoebox size”), or when educational television was invented (“We’ll need fewer teachers in the future”). Try reading an e-book reader for more than a half-hour. Headaches and eyestrain are the best results. Besides, if what you’re reading is more than two pages long, what do you do? Print it. Where’s a tree hugger when you really need one? Moreover, the cost of readers runs from $200 to $2,000, the cheaper ones being harder on the eyes. Will this change? Doubtless, but right now there’s no market forces making it change. Will it change in less than 75 years? Unlikely!
Aren’t There Library-less Universities Now?
No. The newest state university in California at Monterey opened without a library building a few years ago. For the last two years, they’ve been buying books by the tens of thousands because—surprise, surprise—they couldn’t find what they needed on the Internet. California Polytechnic State University, home of the world’s highest concentration of engineers and computer geeks, explored the possibility of a virtual (fully electronic) library for two years. Their solution was a $42-million traditional library with, of course, a strong electronic component. In other words, a fully virtualized library just can’t be done. Not yet, not now, not in our lifetimes.
But a Virtual State Library Would Do It, Right?
Do what, bankrupt the state? Yes, it would. The cost of having everything digitized is incredibly high, costing tens of millions of dollars just in copyright releases. And this buys only one virtual library at one university. Questia Media, the biggest such outfit, just spent $125 million digitizing 50,000 books released (but not to libraries!) in January. At this rate, to virtualize a medium-sized library of 400,000 volumes would cost a mere $1,000,000,000! Then you need to make sure students have equitable access everywhere they need it, when they need it. Finally, what do you do with rare and valuable primary sources once they are digitized? Take them to the dump? And you must hope the power never, ever goes out. Sure, students could still read by candlelight, but what would they be reading?
The Internet: A Mile Wide, an Inch (or Less) Deep
Looking into the abyss of the Internet is like vertigo over a void. But the void has to do not only with what’s there, but also with what isn’t. Not much on the Internet is more than 15 years old. Vendors offering magazine access routinely add a new year while dropping an earlier one. Access to older material is very expensive. It’ll be useful, in coming years, for students to know (and have access to) more than just the scholarly materials written in the last 10 to15 years.
The Internet Is Ubiquitous but Books Are Portable
In a recent survey of those who buy electronic books, more than 80% said they like buying paper books over the Internet, not reading them on the Web. We have nearly 1,000 years of reading print in our bloodstream and that’s not likely to change in the next 75. Granted, there will be changes in the delivery of electronic materials now, and those changes, most of them anyway, will be hugely beneficial. But humankind, being what it is, will always want to curl up with a good book—not a laptop—at least for the foreseeable future.
The Web is great; but it’s a woefully poor substitute for a full-service library. It is mad idolatry to make it more than a tool. Libraries are icons of our cultural intellect, totems to the totality of knowledge. If we make them obsolete, we’ve signed the death warrant to our collective national conscience, not to mention sentencing what’s left of our culture to the waste bin of history. No one knows better than librarians just how much it costs to run a library. We’re always looking for ways to trim expenses while not contracting service. The Internet is marvelous, but to claim, as some now do, that it’s making libraries obsolete is as silly as saying shoes have made feet unnecessary.
This article originally appeared in American Libraries, April 2001, p. 76–78.
Enviado por: Nylkia Santos (Grupo 1)
Dean of library servicesDacus LibraryWinthrop UniversityRock Hill, South Carolina
Reading, said the great English essayist Matthew Arnold, “is culture.” Given the condition of reading test scores among school children nationwide, it isn’t surprising to find both our nation and our culture in trouble. Further, the rush to Internetize all schools, particularly K–12, adds to our downward spiral. If it were not for the Harry Potter books one might lose all hope who languishes here. Then, suddenly, you realize libraries really are in trouble, grave danger, when important higher-education officials opine, “Don’t you know the Internet has made libraries obsolete?” Gadzooks! as Harry himself might say.
In an effort to save our culture, strike a blow for reading, and, above all, correct the well-intentioned but horribly misguided notions about what is fast becoming Intertopia among many nonlibrarian bean counters, here are 10 reasons why the Internet is no substitute for a library.
Not Everything Is on the Internet
With over one billion Web pages you couldn’t tell it by looking. Nevertheless, very few substantive materials are on the Internet for free. For example, only about 8% of all journals are on the Web, and an even smaller fraction of books are there. Both are costly! If you want the Journal of Biochemistry, Physics Today, Journal of American History, you’ll pay, and to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Needle (Your Search) in the Haystack (the Web)
The Internet is like a vast uncataloged library. Whether you’re using Hotbot, Lycos, Dogpile, Infoseek, or any one of a dozen other search or metasearch engines, you’re not searching the entire Web. Sites often promise to search everything but they can’t deliver. Moreover, what they do search is not updated daily, weekly, or even monthly, regardless of what’s advertised. If a librarian told you, “Here are 10 articles on Native Americans. We have 40 others but we’re not going to let you see them, not now, not yet, not until you’ve tried another search in another library,” you’d throw a fit. The Internet does this routinely and no one seems to mind.
Quality Control Doesn’t Exist
Yes, we need the Internet, but in addition to all the scientific, medical, and historical information (when accurate), there is also a cesspool of waste. When young people aren’t getting their sex education off XXX-rated sites, they’re learning politics from the Freeman Web page, or race relations from Klan sites. There is no quality control on the Web, and there isn’t likely to be any. Unlike libraries where vanity press publications are rarely, if ever, collected, vanity is often what drives the Internet. Any fool can put up anything on the Web, and, to my accounting, all have.
What You Don’t Know Really Does Hurt You
The great boon to libraries has been the digitization of journals. But full-text sites, while grand, aren’t always full. What you don’t know can hurt you:
1. articles on these sites are often missing, among other things, footnotes;
2. tables, graphs, and formulae do not often show up in a readable fashion (especially when printed); and
3. journal titles in a digitized package change regularly, often without warning.
A library may begin with X number of journals in September and end with Y number in May. Trouble is, those titles aren’t the same from September to May. Although the library may have paid $100,000 for the access, it’s rarely notified of any changes. I would not trade access to digitized journals for anything in the world, but their use must be a judicious, planned, and measured one, not full, total, and exclusive reliance.
States Can Now Buy One Book and Distribute to Every Library on the Web—NOT!
Yes, and we could have one national high school, a national university, and a small cadre of faculty teaching everybody over streaming video. Let’s take this one step further and have only digitized sports teams for real savings! (Okay, I know, I’ve insulted the national religion.) Since 1970 about 50,000 academic titles have been published every year. Of these 1.5 million titles, fewer than a couple thousand are available. What is on the Net are about 20,000 titles published before 1925. Why? No copyright restrictions that cause prices to soar to two or three times their printed costs. Finally, vendors delivering e-books allow only one digitized copy per library. If you check out an e-book over the Web, I can’t have it until you return it. Go figure, as they say. And if you’re late getting the book back, there is no dog-ate-my-homework argument. It’s charged to your credit card automatically.
Hey, Bud, You Forgot about E-book Readers
Most of us have forgotten what we said about microfilm (“It would shrink libraries to shoebox size”), or when educational television was invented (“We’ll need fewer teachers in the future”). Try reading an e-book reader for more than a half-hour. Headaches and eyestrain are the best results. Besides, if what you’re reading is more than two pages long, what do you do? Print it. Where’s a tree hugger when you really need one? Moreover, the cost of readers runs from $200 to $2,000, the cheaper ones being harder on the eyes. Will this change? Doubtless, but right now there’s no market forces making it change. Will it change in less than 75 years? Unlikely!
Aren’t There Library-less Universities Now?
No. The newest state university in California at Monterey opened without a library building a few years ago. For the last two years, they’ve been buying books by the tens of thousands because—surprise, surprise—they couldn’t find what they needed on the Internet. California Polytechnic State University, home of the world’s highest concentration of engineers and computer geeks, explored the possibility of a virtual (fully electronic) library for two years. Their solution was a $42-million traditional library with, of course, a strong electronic component. In other words, a fully virtualized library just can’t be done. Not yet, not now, not in our lifetimes.
But a Virtual State Library Would Do It, Right?
Do what, bankrupt the state? Yes, it would. The cost of having everything digitized is incredibly high, costing tens of millions of dollars just in copyright releases. And this buys only one virtual library at one university. Questia Media, the biggest such outfit, just spent $125 million digitizing 50,000 books released (but not to libraries!) in January. At this rate, to virtualize a medium-sized library of 400,000 volumes would cost a mere $1,000,000,000! Then you need to make sure students have equitable access everywhere they need it, when they need it. Finally, what do you do with rare and valuable primary sources once they are digitized? Take them to the dump? And you must hope the power never, ever goes out. Sure, students could still read by candlelight, but what would they be reading?
The Internet: A Mile Wide, an Inch (or Less) Deep
Looking into the abyss of the Internet is like vertigo over a void. But the void has to do not only with what’s there, but also with what isn’t. Not much on the Internet is more than 15 years old. Vendors offering magazine access routinely add a new year while dropping an earlier one. Access to older material is very expensive. It’ll be useful, in coming years, for students to know (and have access to) more than just the scholarly materials written in the last 10 to15 years.
The Internet Is Ubiquitous but Books Are Portable
In a recent survey of those who buy electronic books, more than 80% said they like buying paper books over the Internet, not reading them on the Web. We have nearly 1,000 years of reading print in our bloodstream and that’s not likely to change in the next 75. Granted, there will be changes in the delivery of electronic materials now, and those changes, most of them anyway, will be hugely beneficial. But humankind, being what it is, will always want to curl up with a good book—not a laptop—at least for the foreseeable future.
The Web is great; but it’s a woefully poor substitute for a full-service library. It is mad idolatry to make it more than a tool. Libraries are icons of our cultural intellect, totems to the totality of knowledge. If we make them obsolete, we’ve signed the death warrant to our collective national conscience, not to mention sentencing what’s left of our culture to the waste bin of history. No one knows better than librarians just how much it costs to run a library. We’re always looking for ways to trim expenses while not contracting service. The Internet is marvelous, but to claim, as some now do, that it’s making libraries obsolete is as silly as saying shoes have made feet unnecessary.
This article originally appeared in American Libraries, April 2001, p. 76–78.
Enviado por: Nylkia Santos (Grupo 1)
Title: from literacy support to literacy leadership
By: Rosenfeld, Esther, Teacher Librarian,
14811782, Feb2007, Vol. 34, Issue 3
Database: Professional Development CollectionHTML Full Textfrom literacy support to literacy leadership
Section: notebook
As teacher-librarians, we have long seen ourselves to be an essential support for the overall literacy program in our schools. Traditionally, we have promoted the love of reading and have nurtured the lifelong reading habit by providing access, developing excellent print collections, and promoting independent reading in a variety of ways. In schools where we have been able to work in a collaborative culture, we have been literacy teaching partners with classroom teachers. However, in recent years, with the increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, some schools and school districts have developed literacy plans that provide for specialist literacy teachers and the funding and development of "literacy bookrooms" and classroom libraries without funding better school library collections. In some schools, there has even been a movement to label all books in the school library according to reading levels. Such literacy plans have sometimes relegated the school library and the teacher-librarian to a peripheral role and, in worst-case scenarios, with the teacher-librarian not even included as part of the school's literacy leadership team.
To reverse such scenarios, it is imperative that we teacher-librarians see ourselves as literacy leaders rather than as supporters of literacy programs. In addition, we must ensure that the school library be an essential part of the school's literacy program, by assuming a literacy leadership role. In her article "Eight Ways Your Librarian Can Help Promote Literacy," Jane Fenn (2005) shows high school principals how the teacher-librarian can be a literacy leader in the school by
• offering books that teenagers want to read;
• promoting reading for pleasure;
• providing appropriate resources in subject areas;
• collaborating with teachers to integrate literature and technology into the curriculum;
• providing online resources to foster literacy in curriculum areas;
• developing special events and programs promoting reading; and
• modeling lifelong learning and reading for pleasure.
For years, teacher-librarians have used the work of researchers such as Stephen Krashen (2004) and Jeff McQuillan (1998) on Free, voluntary reading to promote the value of independent reading in developing literacy skills that result in higher achievement. In the past 2 years, several major education associations have released reports on adolescent literacy. The concept that a positive attitude toward reading, fostered through independent reading, results in higher literacy levels and higher achievement has been highlighted in some of these reports. In its report to the Carnegie Corporation entitled Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy, the Alliance for Excellent Education (2006) identifies 15 key elements of effective adolescent literacy programs. These key elements include a comprehensive and coordinated literacy program, teacher teams, extended time for literacy [including independent reading), and a diversity of reading materials. The report discusses the need to promote motivation and greater student enjoyment of reading through independent reading of self-selected material. The National Association of Secondary School Principals' report Creating a Culture of Literacy (2005) offers a similar blueprint for creating school plans. The International Reading Association's Archive for Adolescent Literacy (2006) also offers a discussion of issues and practice that are positive about the role of independent reading.
The New York Life Foundation's Revitalizing High School Libraries Initiative (2005) was a pilot project conducted between 2003 and 2005 to provide an infusion of funds to four high schools in three states to "create library media centers that are true centers of teaching and learning and foster a school culture that values and promotes high levels of adolescent literacy" (p. 1).
• Funds were earmarked to have teacher-librarians work in collaboration with other teaching staff, public library staff, and students to update school library collections to provide students access to a range of high-interest and developmentally appropriate reading materials.
• The project also Funded improvements to the physical space of the pilot school libraries.
• Teacher-librarians at the pilot schools engaged in marketing campaigns to showcase their new resources and functional spaces.
• Each of the pilot school libraries focused on encouraging independent reading and on engaging reluctant readers.
• Each of the schools reported that the teacher-librarian assumed an expanded role and that this resulted in a larger amount of collaboration with classroom teachers.
Preliminary results from a 2005 large student survey in the pilot schools indicate that these students are reading more for fun as well as for class, are talking more about books and reading with family and friends, and are developing positive attitudes toward reading. Furthermore, students are conducting deeper inquiry into subject areas in research projects and are reporting increased reading levels, especially in comprehension and new vocabulary.
We have much to do to assert our role as literacy leaders. We hope that this issue of Teacher Librarian will provide you with fresh insights and strategies.
REFERENCES
Alliance for Excellent Education. (2006). Reading next: A vision for action and research in middle and high school literacy (2nd ed.). Retrieved November 11, 2006, from www.all4ed.org/publications/ReadingNext/Fifteen.html
Fenn, J. (2005, February). Eight ways your librarian can help promote literacy. Principal Leadership, 49-51.
International Reading Association. (2006). Archive for adolescent literacy. Retrieved November 12, 2006, from http://blog.reading.org/archives/cat_adolescent_literacy.html
Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading: Insights from the research (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
McQuillan, J. (1998). The literacy crisis: False claims, real solutions. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
National Association of Secondary School Principals. (2005). Creating a culture of literacy. Retrieved November 12, 2006, from http://www.principals.org/s_nassp/sec.asp?C1D=621%26D1D=62
New York Life Foundation. (2005, September). Lessons from New York Life Revitalizing High School Libraries Initiative 2003-2005. Adolescents Read! p. 1. Retrieved November 11, 2006, from http://www.publiceducation.org/pdf/Publications/High_School/Adolescents_Read.pdf
By Esther Rosenfeld
Artículo enviado por: Grupo 4
14811782, Feb2007, Vol. 34, Issue 3
Database: Professional Development CollectionHTML Full Textfrom literacy support to literacy leadership
Section: notebook
As teacher-librarians, we have long seen ourselves to be an essential support for the overall literacy program in our schools. Traditionally, we have promoted the love of reading and have nurtured the lifelong reading habit by providing access, developing excellent print collections, and promoting independent reading in a variety of ways. In schools where we have been able to work in a collaborative culture, we have been literacy teaching partners with classroom teachers. However, in recent years, with the increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, some schools and school districts have developed literacy plans that provide for specialist literacy teachers and the funding and development of "literacy bookrooms" and classroom libraries without funding better school library collections. In some schools, there has even been a movement to label all books in the school library according to reading levels. Such literacy plans have sometimes relegated the school library and the teacher-librarian to a peripheral role and, in worst-case scenarios, with the teacher-librarian not even included as part of the school's literacy leadership team.
To reverse such scenarios, it is imperative that we teacher-librarians see ourselves as literacy leaders rather than as supporters of literacy programs. In addition, we must ensure that the school library be an essential part of the school's literacy program, by assuming a literacy leadership role. In her article "Eight Ways Your Librarian Can Help Promote Literacy," Jane Fenn (2005) shows high school principals how the teacher-librarian can be a literacy leader in the school by
• offering books that teenagers want to read;
• promoting reading for pleasure;
• providing appropriate resources in subject areas;
• collaborating with teachers to integrate literature and technology into the curriculum;
• providing online resources to foster literacy in curriculum areas;
• developing special events and programs promoting reading; and
• modeling lifelong learning and reading for pleasure.
For years, teacher-librarians have used the work of researchers such as Stephen Krashen (2004) and Jeff McQuillan (1998) on Free, voluntary reading to promote the value of independent reading in developing literacy skills that result in higher achievement. In the past 2 years, several major education associations have released reports on adolescent literacy. The concept that a positive attitude toward reading, fostered through independent reading, results in higher literacy levels and higher achievement has been highlighted in some of these reports. In its report to the Carnegie Corporation entitled Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy, the Alliance for Excellent Education (2006) identifies 15 key elements of effective adolescent literacy programs. These key elements include a comprehensive and coordinated literacy program, teacher teams, extended time for literacy [including independent reading), and a diversity of reading materials. The report discusses the need to promote motivation and greater student enjoyment of reading through independent reading of self-selected material. The National Association of Secondary School Principals' report Creating a Culture of Literacy (2005) offers a similar blueprint for creating school plans. The International Reading Association's Archive for Adolescent Literacy (2006) also offers a discussion of issues and practice that are positive about the role of independent reading.
The New York Life Foundation's Revitalizing High School Libraries Initiative (2005) was a pilot project conducted between 2003 and 2005 to provide an infusion of funds to four high schools in three states to "create library media centers that are true centers of teaching and learning and foster a school culture that values and promotes high levels of adolescent literacy" (p. 1).
• Funds were earmarked to have teacher-librarians work in collaboration with other teaching staff, public library staff, and students to update school library collections to provide students access to a range of high-interest and developmentally appropriate reading materials.
• The project also Funded improvements to the physical space of the pilot school libraries.
• Teacher-librarians at the pilot schools engaged in marketing campaigns to showcase their new resources and functional spaces.
• Each of the pilot school libraries focused on encouraging independent reading and on engaging reluctant readers.
• Each of the schools reported that the teacher-librarian assumed an expanded role and that this resulted in a larger amount of collaboration with classroom teachers.
Preliminary results from a 2005 large student survey in the pilot schools indicate that these students are reading more for fun as well as for class, are talking more about books and reading with family and friends, and are developing positive attitudes toward reading. Furthermore, students are conducting deeper inquiry into subject areas in research projects and are reporting increased reading levels, especially in comprehension and new vocabulary.
We have much to do to assert our role as literacy leaders. We hope that this issue of Teacher Librarian will provide you with fresh insights and strategies.
REFERENCES
Alliance for Excellent Education. (2006). Reading next: A vision for action and research in middle and high school literacy (2nd ed.). Retrieved November 11, 2006, from www.all4ed.org/publications/ReadingNext/Fifteen.html
Fenn, J. (2005, February). Eight ways your librarian can help promote literacy. Principal Leadership, 49-51.
International Reading Association. (2006). Archive for adolescent literacy. Retrieved November 12, 2006, from http://blog.reading.org/archives/cat_adolescent_literacy.html
Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading: Insights from the research (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
McQuillan, J. (1998). The literacy crisis: False claims, real solutions. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
National Association of Secondary School Principals. (2005). Creating a culture of literacy. Retrieved November 12, 2006, from http://www.principals.org/s_nassp/sec.asp?C1D=621%26D1D=62
New York Life Foundation. (2005, September). Lessons from New York Life Revitalizing High School Libraries Initiative 2003-2005. Adolescents Read! p. 1. Retrieved November 11, 2006, from http://www.publiceducation.org/pdf/Publications/High_School/Adolescents_Read.pdf
By Esther Rosenfeld
Artículo enviado por: Grupo 4
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