I stumbled on this great site and want to pass it on. I think Facebook
is an exciting tool for use in libraries. For teens, e-mail is the "old
technology". Here is some more information from an interesting
website:http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/2007/04/some_resources_.html
The Bamboo Project: educate, advocate, innovate, collaborate!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Teens Need Libraries
The National Endowment for the Arts has issued a call to action. A call that the American Library Association intends to take stated ALA president, Loriene Roy.
According to the NEA's literacy study just released called "To Read or Not to Read" : A Question of National Consequence, reading for pleasure has declined for teens and adults. Resulting in lower standardized test scores and poor comprehension skills.
The Public Library Association published a statistical report which stated that only half of U.S. libraries have a librarian dedicated full time to young adult services. Even though, teens who have access to libraries are using them more than ever (30% use libraries more than 10 times a year while, 71% reported use of a library once a month). Young Adult Services Association (YALSA) stated that teens need a teen services librarian who can give the teen the right book at the right time.
The NEA also found that most American adults do not read even one book a year. Good reading habits must be modeled by adults by providing materials, time to read and trips to the library.
As well as vote for legislation to fund and support libraries.
According to the NEA's literacy study just released called "To Read or Not to Read" : A Question of National Consequence, reading for pleasure has declined for teens and adults. Resulting in lower standardized test scores and poor comprehension skills.
The Public Library Association published a statistical report which stated that only half of U.S. libraries have a librarian dedicated full time to young adult services. Even though, teens who have access to libraries are using them more than ever (30% use libraries more than 10 times a year while, 71% reported use of a library once a month). Young Adult Services Association (YALSA) stated that teens need a teen services librarian who can give the teen the right book at the right time.
The NEA also found that most American adults do not read even one book a year. Good reading habits must be modeled by adults by providing materials, time to read and trips to the library.
As well as vote for legislation to fund and support libraries.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
LOVE OF READING-LOST?
Here is an article from Education Week regarding a study of reading habits by today's youth. The study was conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts. It is alarming. Reading habits are often formed from an early age. With so much competition for the attention of children and teens (T.V., Internet, video games, music, ipods, sports, etc.) leisure reading may be a low priority. As librarians, we often think and plan reading programs for children and teens, but, how can we have the far reaching effects of T.V. the Internet-etc.? Maybe, we use these to promote reading-What do you think?
Published Online: November 19, 2007
Young People Seen Losing Love of Reading
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
American youths are reading less in their free time than a generation ago, a statistic that bodes poorly for their academic performance, job prospects, civic participation, and even social well-being, a report by the National Endowment for the Arts says.
Increasing use of electronic media is largely to blame for a decline in pleasure reading among young people, says the report, released today. But the failure of schools to instill a love of reading is also a contributing factor, according to endowment Chairman Dana Gioia.
“The study shows that reading is endangered at the moment in the United States, especially among younger Americans … and not merely the frequency of reading, but the ability to read as well,” Mr. Gioia said in a telephone conference call with reporters before the report’s release. The emphasis in many schools on bolstering reading skills and preparing students for tests, he added, is insufficient for nurturing an appreciation of reading.
“This functional approach to reading,” he said, “is not adequate to instill a lifelong love of the subject.”
The report, “To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence,” analyzes data from surveys—including the endowment’s 2004 survey on literary reading—as well as national assessments, independent reports, and other federal statistics. It synthesizes information on the nation’s teenagers and adults ages 18 to 24.
The report draws “three unsettling conclusions,” stating: “Americans are spending less time reading”; “reading-comprehension skills are eroding”; and the “declines have serious civic, social, cultural, and economic implications.”
A Successful Habit
Fewer than one-fourth of 17-year-olds, for example, read almost every day for fun, and young people 15 to 24 read 10 minutes or less a day, on average, according to various federal statistics. During their voluntary reading time—time spent reading texts not required for school or work—middle and high school students regularly watch television, listen to music, or use other media.
The report notes that those shifts in voluntary reading have occurred at a time when scores on national assessments have remained flat and large proportions of secondary students have failed to demonstrate proficiency in the subject.
Reading appears to have a significant correlation with success in school and the workplace, the report says.
“People who read outside of school or work volunteer at twice the rate of those who don’t, they are three times more likely to participate in the arts, they earn higher wages, they are twice as likely to exercise, they vote at one and a half times the level of people who don’t read,” Mr. Gioia said. “Among people who read, there is not merely a cultural transformation going on,” he said, “the habit of reading does seem to awaken something in the individual.”
The findings repeat those found in the earlier survey by the endowment, which looked primarily at how frequently young people read literature, but the new report adds data on other genres.
Even so, some observers say the study leaves an incomplete picture, because it does not consider the kind of reading young people are asked to do in high school and college.
Will Fitzhugh, the founder and president of the Concord Review, a scholarly journal that publishes exemplary history-research papers by high school students, has been promoting the need to assign more nonfiction reading to middle and high school students, particularly history texts. He has found little support among foundations or government agencies for launching a study of nonfiction reading among high school students. Such reading is an indicator, he believes, of how well they are prepared to do college-level work.
The endowment’s report “still leaves open the big question of what kind of reading is assigned in school and college,” and whether it is adequate for challenging kids intellectually, Mr. Fitzhugh said. “The consequences for employment and adult reading habits are at least as much the result of the [required] reading done in high school and college as pleasure reading, but that’s what’s left out.”
Vol. 27
Back to Top
November 20, 2007 Receive RSS
Most Viewed Stories
1. 2007 NCLB Prospects Are Fading
2. Top-Achieving Nations Beat U.S. States in Math and Science
3. No Easy Answers About NCLB’s Effect on ‘Poverty Gap’
4. Commentary: Accountability Tests’ Instructional Insensitivity: The Time Bomb Ticketh
5. Ed. Dept. Web Site Seeks to Link Research, Practice
Related Stories
“Commentary: Technology Can Transform Schools,” May 2, 2007.
“Dark Themes in Books Get Students Reading,” March 30, 2007.
“Studies Connect Behavior, Reading,” February 22, 2006.
For more stories on this topic see Reading.
Published Online: November 19, 2007
Young People Seen Losing Love of Reading
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
American youths are reading less in their free time than a generation ago, a statistic that bodes poorly for their academic performance, job prospects, civic participation, and even social well-being, a report by the National Endowment for the Arts says.
Increasing use of electronic media is largely to blame for a decline in pleasure reading among young people, says the report, released today. But the failure of schools to instill a love of reading is also a contributing factor, according to endowment Chairman Dana Gioia.
“The study shows that reading is endangered at the moment in the United States, especially among younger Americans … and not merely the frequency of reading, but the ability to read as well,” Mr. Gioia said in a telephone conference call with reporters before the report’s release. The emphasis in many schools on bolstering reading skills and preparing students for tests, he added, is insufficient for nurturing an appreciation of reading.
“This functional approach to reading,” he said, “is not adequate to instill a lifelong love of the subject.”
The report, “To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence,” analyzes data from surveys—including the endowment’s 2004 survey on literary reading—as well as national assessments, independent reports, and other federal statistics. It synthesizes information on the nation’s teenagers and adults ages 18 to 24.
The report draws “three unsettling conclusions,” stating: “Americans are spending less time reading”; “reading-comprehension skills are eroding”; and the “declines have serious civic, social, cultural, and economic implications.”
A Successful Habit
Fewer than one-fourth of 17-year-olds, for example, read almost every day for fun, and young people 15 to 24 read 10 minutes or less a day, on average, according to various federal statistics. During their voluntary reading time—time spent reading texts not required for school or work—middle and high school students regularly watch television, listen to music, or use other media.
The report notes that those shifts in voluntary reading have occurred at a time when scores on national assessments have remained flat and large proportions of secondary students have failed to demonstrate proficiency in the subject.
Reading appears to have a significant correlation with success in school and the workplace, the report says.
“People who read outside of school or work volunteer at twice the rate of those who don’t, they are three times more likely to participate in the arts, they earn higher wages, they are twice as likely to exercise, they vote at one and a half times the level of people who don’t read,” Mr. Gioia said. “Among people who read, there is not merely a cultural transformation going on,” he said, “the habit of reading does seem to awaken something in the individual.”
The findings repeat those found in the earlier survey by the endowment, which looked primarily at how frequently young people read literature, but the new report adds data on other genres.
Even so, some observers say the study leaves an incomplete picture, because it does not consider the kind of reading young people are asked to do in high school and college.
Will Fitzhugh, the founder and president of the Concord Review, a scholarly journal that publishes exemplary history-research papers by high school students, has been promoting the need to assign more nonfiction reading to middle and high school students, particularly history texts. He has found little support among foundations or government agencies for launching a study of nonfiction reading among high school students. Such reading is an indicator, he believes, of how well they are prepared to do college-level work.
The endowment’s report “still leaves open the big question of what kind of reading is assigned in school and college,” and whether it is adequate for challenging kids intellectually, Mr. Fitzhugh said. “The consequences for employment and adult reading habits are at least as much the result of the [required] reading done in high school and college as pleasure reading, but that’s what’s left out.”
Vol. 27
Back to Top
November 20, 2007 Receive RSS
Most Viewed Stories
1. 2007 NCLB Prospects Are Fading
2. Top-Achieving Nations Beat U.S. States in Math and Science
3. No Easy Answers About NCLB’s Effect on ‘Poverty Gap’
4. Commentary: Accountability Tests’ Instructional Insensitivity: The Time Bomb Ticketh
5. Ed. Dept. Web Site Seeks to Link Research, Practice
Related Stories
“Commentary: Technology Can Transform Schools,” May 2, 2007.
“Dark Themes in Books Get Students Reading,” March 30, 2007.
“Studies Connect Behavior, Reading,” February 22, 2006.
For more stories on this topic see Reading.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
California Fires Pose Threat To Libraries
The recent fires in California posed a significant threat to libraries.
The October 2007 fires in southern California burned hundreds of thousands of acres and destroyed thousands of buildings, and libraries were among those threatened. Helen Fried of the Orange County Public Library and Margaret Todd of the County of Los Angeles Public Library spoke to AL Focus on October 26, as the fires were still raging. They stated that libraries were being used by the fire departments as a base of communication and that library staffs were standing by for assistance. Three libraries were closed during the fires. The Malibu library came very close to burning but survived. Margaret Todd stated that she was so impressed with the level of dedication of library staffs in all areas and their willingness to go out in bookmobiles and provide services even with the threat of danger.
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The October 2007 fires in southern California burned hundreds of thousands of acres and destroyed thousands of buildings, and libraries were among those threatened. Helen Fried of the Orange County Public Library and Margaret Todd of the County of Los Angeles Public Library spoke to AL Focus on October 26, as the fires were still raging. They stated that libraries were being used by the fire departments as a base of communication and that library staffs were standing by for assistance. Three libraries were closed during the fires. The Malibu library came very close to burning but survived. Margaret Todd stated that she was so impressed with the level of dedication of library staffs in all areas and their willingness to go out in bookmobiles and provide services even with the threat of danger.
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