In her 1995 article, “Sustaining the Culture of the Book: The Role of Enrichment Reading and Critical Thinking in the Undergraduate Curriculum,” MacAdam cites numerous scholars who lament the fact that students are reading less, given how this affects their critical thinking skills.27 She cites the common problems of “greater and more varied demands on libraries, and increasing demands on both material and staff resources at the same time that budgets are static and declining” as factors in the decline of reading promotion, but also notes that students and faculty:
clearly hold differing views on reading. Faculty, including librarians, have chosen to serve a discipline and the literature while college students generally expect that the discipline and the literature must serve them … College students seek the assurance that the material they are asked to read (and the time thus spent) will contribute directly to learning, academic success, and graduation.28
MacAdam lists three ways that academic libraries were attempting to encourage recreational reading: popular reading collections and browsing rooms, programming, and compilation of reading lists.29 MacAdam concludes that while the book is far from dead, academic librarians should be open to the new technologies that students use to engage in the printed word: “Sustaining the culture of the book may mean preserving our stories and fostering the student’s engagement with those stories regardless of the format used to record them.”30
The following survey and interview excerpts explore how promotion of RA has been kept alive in some academic libraries, on the cheap, on the fly, and in collaboration with their faculty and communities. It also explores reasons why it is not promoted more often.
A survey of sixteen questions was created on Surveymonkey and sent to Fiction_L, Collib_L, Colldev_L, and various state discussion lists across the United States. An e-mail request to participate in the survey was also sent to the directors of the 111 academic libraries belonging to the Association of Research Libraries. The survey was answered by 270 people, but not all answered every question. The survey was confidential, but if participants agreed to be contacted for further questions, they consented to be quoted. The full results of the survey can be found at this Web site. The text of the survey and study information sheet can be found in appendix B.
There are some potential flaws with this survey. By sending the survey request to Fiction_L, a group devoted to reading, I may have skewed my survey toward a group with a positive bias on the subject. Furthermore, in my requests sent to library directors, I received some replies stating that since their library did no such programming or promotion, they had chosen to not participate. Their decision to opt out could again skew the survey toward those who already have a favorable bias toward reading. These two issues could especially skew the results of question sixteen, where the participants were asked about their own reading habits and personal attitudes toward promoting extracurricular reading. While I did ask participants to state whether they were from a commuter or residential college, because the survey was anonymous, there is no way to analyze the difference in answers between the answers of the two groups. These issues will be addressed in future research.
Displays and browsing areas are common methods for promoting extracurricular reading. Slightly more than 70 percent (71.4) of those surveyed noted that their library had a browsing area, with 66.2 percent of those who answered “yes” stating that it was kept in a separate room. “We have a cozy seating area just inside the front door surrounded by new books, ‘the browsing collection’–popular books, many of them chosen by a subcommittee of the student senate–and newspapers and popular magazines, all meant to make the library inviting and promote reading,” wrote Barbara Fister of Gustavus Adolphus College Library.31 Librarians at Eastern Illinois University create displays featuring books owned in popular genres such as romance, science fiction, and fantasy as well as bookmarks, wrote librarian Sarah Johnson.32 “Staff favorites” displays are also another way of promoting reading, noted Sara Ranger of the University of Houston Library.33 Librarians at Gwynedd-Mercy College have created a rotating display called “What College Students Are Reading!” The librarians choose the titles from the monthly survey in the Chronicle of Higher Education . “We insert slips that say things such as ‘Pick me! Pick me!’ and ‘Curl up with me tonight–Take me home today!’” wrote Lianne Hartman.34
Paperback collections, whether permanent or informal book exchange programs, are another way that academic libraries can promote popular reading on a shoestring. The Archbishop Alter Library at the College of Mount St. Joseph has had a paperback exchange program for the past eight to ten years, which evolved after the closing of a McNaughton program (a book rental program that allows libraries to rent popular titles with the option to own) that they could no longer afford. The exchange, which has not been that popular with students, has been a low-cost hit with faculty and staff, notes Paul O. Jenkins, director of the library.35 In addition to receiving book donations from library staff to begin their recreational reading collection, the Union University library has been able to maintain the collection with a few purchases and free copies donated from publishers (the titles are then reviewed on the library’s blog), noted Melissa Moore.36
Blogging titles in the popular reading collection have played a role in increased circulation at their library, noted Moore. “It’s common to have people ask for books that have been reviewed on the blog … I do believe that the Web site, and the staff’s commitment to reading and blogging, and the time and dollars invested in the small collection, all played a part in getting those [circulation] numbers turned around.”37
Collaborating with the local public library to bring a new twist to the traditional paperback exchange is something Sweet Briar College Library has been doing since 1987. “The ‘paperback swap’ is thanks to the Amherst County Public Library who gives us their popular romance and detective paperbacks when their shelf life has ended,” wrote Lisa Johnston, librarian. “Students, faculty, and staff leave their pre-read paperbacks and take new titles for pleasure reading.”38 Other academic librarians are exploring the idea of collaborating with their local public library. Traci Moritz of Ohio Northern University noted that she also has been in contact with her local public library about possibly collaborating on a community reads type of program.39
Some college libraries are lucky to have had a long tradition of recreational reading that has been supported by the students throughout the decades. Sweet Briar College’s Cochran Library’s Browsing Room was established by students in 1930 and the “collection was and remains, all recreational reading, with emphasis on mysteries, fantasy, historical fiction, and science fiction,” wrote Johnston. “It is the most popular room in the library.”40
The University of Michigan undergraduate library has had a popular reading collection since 1975. The collection is heavy on general fiction, science fiction, and mysteries. The collection originated as a rent-a-collection and then evolved into an “approve-a-plan” with the original Borders, said MacAdam.41 The Borders program stopped six years ago, but the popular reading collection is still going strong. MacAdam notes, “It is very heavily used by students and library staff.”42
Eastern Illinois University’s Booth Library has two recreational reading collections–a bestseller area featuring hardcovers, and an R&R (read and relax) paperback collection.43 In a circulation study of the fifty-four different types of collections in their library, the R&R collection ranked eighth and the bestsellers third.44 Circulation figures are also very high for the popular reading materials at Butler University Library, noted Renee Reed. “[T]he circulation figures are much, much, higher than for any other area of the library collection except maybe the children’s books and music CD’s.”45
Book lists are another economical way to promote reading on campus, although more than half (55.7 percent) of those surveyed do not use them. “I also frequently distribute various ‘best of’ reading lists to faculty, students, and staff,” wrote Jenkins of the College of Mount St. Joseph.46 The annual book list at the University of Michigan began in 1983 when the Ann Arbor News approached MacAdam and the undergraduate library for a list of books. The admissions office saw the article and asked the undergraduate librarians to continue doing the list each year for incoming students. “Parents and kids love it,” said MacAdam. “Some use it as a poster for their room.”47 The titles for the book list are chosen by the undergraduate librarians, and the selections are varied. “There’s a book for everybody,” said MacAdam. “[W]hether the student is a big reader or not. We try to be inclusive, including sciences, social sciences, titles are accessible and also ‘great reads’–each book has been read by someone on the staff who loves it.”48
Some libraries have added popular book collections after receiving requests from students. “We added the McNaughton program after an article in the student newspaper about where to find extracurricular reading,” wrote Emily Bergman, librarian at the Mary Norton Clapp Library at Occidental University. “This prompted us to look into a way to provide materials to fill this now expressed need.”49 Susan Lee from the University of Great Falls Library also noted that the popular book collection that the library is in the process of putting together came about in part because of a focus group on campus housing needs that reported a need for more popular reading materials, such as science fiction, in the library.50 Butler University’s library added a browsing collection “after repeated requests from students for popular reading material,” noted Reed.51 Wendy Bousfield of Syracuse University libraries noted that the results of their LibQual surveys showed that their students wanted the library to provide popular fiction and nonfiction.52
New book areas are popular not only with students, but also with faculty who wish to read outside of their area, noted MacAdam. Faculty visiting the Science Library at the University of Michigan will often come in daily to check out the new titles, she noted.53
Sweet Briar College Library has revived an extracurricular reading promotion from the past, with their Basbanes Book Collecting Contest (the URL for the contest is in appendix A). The contest was suggested to the library by author Nicholas Basbanes, whose daughter graduated from the college in 2004. The contest began in 2002, and usually has about four to five entries per year, wrote Lisa Johnston, librarian. “The participants tend to be great readers, and the contest inspires them to seek out more books to read and possess.”54
Sometimes collections purchased to support the curriculum end up becoming semi-recreational, such as Eastern Illinois University’s graphic novels collection, which, in addition to supporting coursework in the topic, has become a popular recreational resource, notes Johnson.55
Creating a One Book, One Campus type of program, similar to Nancy Pearl’s community reading programs, is another way academic libraries have attracted extracurricular readers. While not common among college libraries surveyed (10.8 percent noted their library has one), it is effective. When Jessica Moyer was a librarian at Richland Community College in Decatur, Illinois, she led Richland Reads, a campus book club that met twice each semester. Moyer tied the first two titles to an ALA film series that was being shown at the college.56 The Ashland Community and Technical College System Libraries offer several book clubs throughout the year–including a popular banned books club and specialized book discussions for technical students in the culinary arts and automotive technology, wrote Sara Brown.57 The Gwynedd-Mercy College sponsors “GMC Reads,” an annual program featuring discussions on a fiction title (past works include The Secret Life of Bees, The Kite Runner, and Snow Falling on Cedars ) as well as sponsoring films and other events on campus related to the themes in the featured book.58 Fister has compiled a Web site listing college libraries across the United States with such programs.59
In addition to creating on-campus reading programs, some academic libraries also are active participants in preexisting reading programs on their campus. Nearly 20 percent (19.7) of those surveyed noted that they participate in similar campus or community programs. “We do try to participate in and promote the common reading program that is based in student affairs,” wrote Fister.60 Participation in One Book, One Community programs is another method of promoting extracurricular reading. The Mary Norton Clapp Library at Occidental University has held book discussions surrounding Los Angeles’s One Book program in the past.61 Syracuse University has had a strong leadership role in the Central New York Reads program, with a librarian leading the program in 2005, and three librarians currently serving as members of the regional reading program’s consortium.62 Recently, Syracuse University reference librarian Natasha Cooper was named director of the New York Center for the Book, which is headquartered at the university.63
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