Vivian Howard

The Importance of Pleasure Reading in the Lives of Young Teens: Self-Identification, Self-Construction and Self-Awareness.

This paper reports on a research study investigating the role of pleasure reading in the lives of 12—15 year old residents of an eastern Canadian regional municipality. Pleasure reading was found to fulfil three broad functions: it enhanced academic performance, social engagement and personal development. In conclusion, the study confirms that teens, like adults, unconsciously use pleasure reading as a means of everyday life information seeking and the reasons for personal salience identified in the foregoing discussion have a strong developmental theme: in their pleasure reading, teens gain significant insights into mature relationships, personal values, cultural identity, physical safety and security, aesthetic preferences, and understanding of the physical world, all of which aid teen readers in the transition from childhood to adulthood.

What Do Young Teens Think about the Public Library

This article reports on a research study investigating the attitude of twelve- to fifteen-year-old residents of an Eastern Canadian regional municipality to the public library. Phase 1, a quantitative survey, analyzes overall satisfaction ratings and frequency of use of the public library. Phase 2 uses qualitative methodology (focus groups) to illuminate and enrich the findings from the initial survey research. This study concludes that although most young teens in this regional municipality have a positive overall impression of the public library, they are not frequent public library users. In particular, teens highlighted the lack of relationships with library staff, appealing facilities, an appealing teen library Web site, and teen involvement and participation as key barriers to library use.

Pleasure Reading Among First-Year University Students

Objectives – This study examines the reading habits and experiences of first-year undergraduate students at Dalhousie University and the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Methods – First-year undergraduate university students (aged 18 to 20) were recruited to take part in focus group discussions and responses were analysed to examine the following topics: (1) the role of reading in their lives, both academic and personal; (2) the development of reading habits from childhood; (3) reading engagement strategies; and (4) selection strategies. Results – This study suggests that reading for pleasure is a well-established habit amongst many first-year undergraduate students. First-year undergraduates primarily read for pleasure in order to relax but also recognize that pleasure reading can play a positive role in their academic performance, enhancing their range of background knowledge as well as their active vocabulary. Conclusions – The conclusions of this research provide recommendations for librarians and university administration to engage students and increase rates of retention in postsecondary institutions. In particular, recommendations related to the importance of pleasure reading collections, campus reading programs, book clubs, readers’ advisory services and quiet and comfortable reading areas in academic libraries are provided.

Collections 2007: Reinvigorating Collection Development and Management

Purpose – This paper seeks to describe the Canadian Library Associations 2007 pre‐conference, Collections 2007: Reinvigorating Collection Development and Management.Design/methodology/approach – This paper summarizes the various papers, describing actual collections practices in a variety of library and information center settings that made up the CLA Collections pre‐conference.Findings – The paper finds that collections development activities in academic, public and special libraries are characterized by a diversity of approaches and methods.Originality/value – This paper provides a brief summary of some of the practical approaches to collections building in a variety of library and information center settings.

Young Adult Use of Ebooks: An Analysis of Public Library Services and Resources

ABSTRACT An online survey distributed to librarians at public libraries across North America established some interesting trends in public librarians’ perceptions of ebooks and teens. Some of the findings of this study are that teen library users strongly prefer to read print books for their recreational reading and show very little interest in ebooks or ebook programs offered by public libraries. Survey respondents indicate that teen library users remain largely unaware of or disinterested in the advantages of ebooks in providing them a convenient, private, and customizable recreational reading experience. Even when public librarians offer ebook programs for teens through school outreach, these programs tend to focus on the titles in the collection and the download process, rather than the specific benefits of ebook reading. More active promotion of these advantages could potentially appeal to teens, especially to non-library users and reluctant readers.

Connecting with Community: The Importance of Community Engagement in Rural Public Library Systems

ABSTRACT While the topic of community engagement in public libraries has been researched in urban public library systems, little research explores community engagement in rural library systems. The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is largely rural and sparsely populated, with a dwindling and aging rural population. This report examines how community engagement can connect Nova Scotia’s rural public libraries with their communities. Librarians from eight predominantly rural library systems across the province were interviewed regarding the community engagement practices currently being used within their libraries and how their patrons (particularly youth) were reacting and responding to these practices. This article synthesizes the information derived from these interviews and provides a summary of the community engagement efforts being made throughout Nova Scotia. This study ultimately determines that while librarians in rural communities face a number of challenges when attempting to implement community engagement (e.g., small budgets and low staffing numbers), they remain extremely passionate about the topic and dedicated to serving their communities in the most meaningful and relevant way possible.

An exploration of the relationship between undergraduate students’ library book borrowing and academic achievement

This exploratory study examines book circulation patterns among undergraduate university students at an English-language University in Istanbul, Turkey, in order to investigate the relationship between students’ academic achievement and discipline of study, gender and book borrowing habits. Overall, this study supports the important role of the academic library’s print book collection in supporting and contributing to student success and demonstrates a significant positive correlation between undergraduate students’ level of academic achievement and the number of books they borrowed from the university library. This positive correlation was found for students in all faculties and fields of study, but was strongest for students studying qualitative disciplines and was particularly strong for students enrolled in English as a foreign language programmes.