First, before I get to the book stuff today, let me just ask, how cool is a bike made from bamboo? It is apparently a smoother ride and a more durable frame than one made from the usual carbon fiber. It’s out of my bike buying price range though. But maybe after more places start making them the price will come down. Shh, don’t tell my trusty “Ninja” (I call my bike Ninja because it is black and silver and oh so quiet, stealthy like a ninja) about my bike lusting, I don’t want there to be any jealousy.
So, on to the books.
An email was sent to all the campus library staff today about a study done on college students and recreational reading. The study was done at Gustavus Adolphus college in St Peter, Minnesota.
A word about Gustavus. It is a small, private Lutheran affiliated college with a good reputation in St Peter, Minnesota. St. Peter is a small town (population about 10,000) an hour south of the Twin Cities Metro. In 1998 an F3 tornado went right through the middle of town taking out most of the downtown area, destroying or damaging most of the college’s buildings and tearing out 2,000 trees. It was devastating. I remember at the time people were speculating whether the town would be able to recover. Now, more than ten years on it is as thriving a community as it ever was.
The study, Reading Matters: Examining the Role of Recreational Reading in Academic Libraries (this links the the PDF ALA presentation), surveyed over 700 Gustavus students across class and major as well as over 300 academic librarians from a variety of colleges and universities about college student leisure reading habits.
The great news is that 92.9% of the students said they enjoyed leisure reading. One question I found particularly interesting asked about barriers to leisure reading – most students said that even though they enjoy leisure reading they spend less than two hours a week doing it. What is so fascinating is the difference between what the librarians perceived as the issue and what the students said was the issue. A good many librarians (43.8) said students didn’t read because they didn’t enjoy it (only 3.3 of the students gave this as a reason). The main reason students say they don’t read for pleasure is because they have too much to read for class.
When students do have time to read they don’t generally get their books from the college library which is probably why librarians have such a misperception about students’ reading habits. Students said they get most of their books from friends or family members and many admitted they didn’t know they could get leisure reading from their college library, or, if they knew, they didn’t know how to find it. Curiously, librarians thought the best way to encourage leisure reading and let students know about books was through book displays (librarians love book displays!). Students, however, want lists and signs. They want to be told what books to read which, given their time crunch makes sense. They don’t have time to browse displays or shelves, they want to go straight to “You liked that book? Then read this book.”
So readers take heart. College students, at least the ones at Gustavus, like to read books. I think it is safe to say that the demise of reading isn’t even a blip on the distant horizon. Let us rejoice and praise our college students.
Wow, this was really interesting to read. I know that when I was in college it took me a long time to realize that I could get leisurely books at the college library – I thought it was filled with nothing but non-fiction! For me, being a history major, I had so much assigned reading to do for my classes that the last thing I wanted to do was pick up another book, even if it was for fun. Thank you so much for posting this!
Ah, there’s nothing like real information! I wonder how hard it would be for libraries to supply “suggested reading” info along with the books themselves, or maybe on checkout slips or along with due date reminder emails? Maybe something like Amazon’s “people who bought this also bought …” or a list of similar titles with high circulation or ratings. Is that a job for a digital library?
How interesting. Perhaps libraries could send monthly emails to students telling them about some of the titles they have on the shelves – but then I can imagine how my students would howl with frustration because they really don’t have time for extra leisure reading. When I was an undergrad, my reading was dominated by course books (as you would imagine, doing a literary course), and I only read for fun during the vacations – and even then I had reading to do in preparation for the next term. I think it’s how to catch students and return them to fun reading once their courses are over that’s the key.
I find that, though I spend a lot of my days reading for my doctoral work in history, leisure reading has such a different quality that it is very refreshing. Sometimes the ideas or written style of a fiction writer can be really inspiring when I’m stuck.
I did the least amount of leisure reading the years when I was in college. However, on one vacation week when I stayed on campus I took advantage of the free time to read, and was amazed at the large fiction selection the college library had. Silly, but since I’d never had time for it before, I’d never looked, and just assumed the stacks were all of reference and non-fiction titles.
Not related to a specific post….but thank you for your wonderful blog! I just started reading several weeks ago and it has become one of the treasures (along with a cup of coffee of course) of the quiet early morning hours…I look forward to reading some of your recommendations. Your passion for reading is contagious!
Last year the browsing collection–the latest library purchases and donated review copies from the local newspaper–was moved to the second floor of the library (where my area is located) and I’ve been quite heartened since then by the fact that students do check out these books for leisure reading.
One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that students are more apt to ask us where the fiction is kept than to ask us if we have a particular title or author even if they’re looking for something specific, and most of the times they are. They’re used to a Dewey Decimal system, though, and they’re not apt to find what they want if they have to go into the stacks for it unless they have the call number–fiction can be found up in the tower, in compact shelving, or the browsing collection or with the curriculum materials. Nothing about it is intuitive.
(I remember having a very Kafkaesque nightmare about being lost in the bowels of the library my first year of college.)
in both college and graduate school it took about a year for me to adjust to the coursework before I could read for pleasure again…it was like at the beginning of the second year each time a light bulb went off and I managed to squeak out some time for pleasure reading before bed each night. That is when I did it though…right before bed. I bet it didn’t total more than three hours a week, if that…
When I was in university, I found it much too easy to find leisure reading in my school’s library – in part because I worked in the library as a shelf reader/shelver and tended to look for books in the PR-PS sections (lit).
Three cheers for college students! Though I’m a bit surprised by the statistic, I remember having frequent conversations with friends in college (the ones who weren’t English majors, but business, accounting, political science, psychology, and education majors) about how important leisurely reading became to their routine. Though we were always admonishing how “people don’t read anymore!” the proof that they do was staring us right in the face the entire time.
I think this point, though, best sums up the student perspective: Students, however, want lists and signs. They want to be told what books to read which, given their time crunch makes sense. They don’t have time to browse displays or shelves, they want to go straight to “You liked that book? Then read this book.”
I would be interested to hear how you propose librarians/libraries can alter their programs to encourage students to use libraries as a greater resource for recreational reading, based on the idea that they look for more definitive, list-based direction.
This is unrelated to the thread but I thought you should know as quickly as possible, Stephanie. I don’t know what to make of it at all!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/13/android-karenina-tolstoy-centenary-upgrade
I heard on the news that Minnesota ranks something like 2nd (behind Washington state/Seattle) for having the most readers–well something like that anyway. I think it was based in part on number of libraries/bookstores/newspapers published. I wonder if the fact that there’s already such a high rate of readers influenced the poll. I hope it’s a trend all over the country, though. I do see students reading what look like novels or other books for pleasure–not all textbooks, which always makes me feel good, too.
When I was in college, I had NO time for leisure reading and would longingly browse the fiction aisles at our university library, as well as the public library I passed on my way home from classes. I saved reading for Christmas breaks and summers (and looked forward to them tremendously). I remember one Sunday after Thanksgiving being so jealous of my sister (who had graduated by then) as she lay around reading for pleasure, while I headed off back to school to face end-of-term papers and exams. Luckily, I was an English minor and got to read lots of good fiction for school (even if I didn’t get to choose it myself).
Thanks for sharing. It gives one great hope, after all the doom and gloom reporting in recent years about how young people don’t read (even about how young people won’t want to read anything other than a digital book). I wonder what would happen if someone were to do a national study.
Tara, LOL, that is a natural assumption! I think we tend to forget how much time and reading is involved in college.
Sylvia, I know, amazing what information can do
You’ve got some good ideas! I think it would be interesting to know what Gustavus does at their library. A those who bought this also bought kind of thing could certainly be done by a techie librarian but it isn’t really digital library territory.
Litlove, my guess is students would just delete the emails. But if suggestions were posted on Facebook, that might get their attention.
Maggie, I know what you mean. When I was in college majoring in English I loved reading scifi and fantasy as a counterpoint to all the usual English major reading. And thanks for the Android Karenina link. Ugh!
Jeane, too funny! I didn’t read much then either but I knew the library had all kinds of books and now and then I’d stroll through the stacks browsing and dreaming about all the stuff I could read on vacation and when I graduated.
Karen, thank you! What a very kind thing to say
Susan, good to know it just isn’t Gustavus students enjoying leisure reading. LC doesn’t make fiction easy to find. Law students don’t ask for particular title either, they just want to know where things like the “con law” books are. What a great nightmare you had!
Courtney, right before bed is a great time to read. I started doing that in college too and I still love it!
Colleen, LOL. I think I would have had the same problem in your shoes
Rebecca, that is funny that you and your friends used to worry about the demise of reading yet all of you were reading! I think libraries could employ social networking to their benefit in the case of recreational reading. I also think having lists of good thrillers or mysteries or other kinds of books the library owns readily available in visible and high traffic areas could work too.
Danielle, yes, we are constantly battling with Seattle for the title of most literate city. I bet it is the long cold winters. There isn’t much to do besides read
Emily, I got to read lots of good stuff to but never of my choosing. Like you I longed to be able to indulge my whims. A national study would be a good next step. I suspect the results would be similar. At least I hope they would be!
I’m not too terribly surprised by the findings about college students and reading; my students sometimes say they don’t read/don’t like to read, but more often than not, they have their favorite books and authors and think about reading positively. I’ve started doing more journal assignments in my classes, and it’s there I hear about how much they read. I love it when they share their favorite authors and they are ones I’ve read myself!
That is actually quite true. I often struggle with balancing course reading and pleasure reading, and I know my friends do as well. When students do read, it’s usually books they find their friends reading or books that have received a lot of hype. Libraries, especially the college ones, are used more to borrow “study” books than general ones.
Stefanie,
My best wishes to you for 2010 (from Belgium).
Visit http://www.Mountaintop.be for more on… bikes and books.
Hardie
I must admit that I was one of the students driving down the school-library-use statistic – I’ve always been a book-buyer, and with Powell’s and my fave indie feminist bookstore right in town, I don’t think I ever checked a pleasure-read out of the college library. I think for me (especially living off-campus), going to a bookstore signalled a fun leisure activity, whereas browsing at the school library felt like an assignment. I’ve always liked a little texture in my life.
Anyway, heartening statistics!
I think my university years were the only ones when I didn’t read for leisure. And, although our campus boasted of having a lot of libraries I don’t think any of them carried any “regular” fiction.
Gotta send the bamboo bike link to my husband. Although I’m sure I’ll regret it because he’ll want one! ha.
Dorothy, I wonder why your students say they don’t read when it is clear from their journal entries that they do? Do you think they have an idea that reading is supposed to be something important like the classics so they think since they might be reading thrillers or mysteries or something that it doesn’t count?
Hazra, what an interesting perspective your friends have that libraries are for studying and not pleasure reading. I can see how spending time in the library studying would make a person associate it with work and desire to go elsewhere for pleasure.
Hardie, thank you and the same to you.
Emily, with Powell’s nearby I can’t blame you for going there to buy books! I would have bought books too in college if I had the money and the room to keep them. I always lived on campus or in a tiny apartment with no room to accumulate. I have since made up for the college book famine
Iliana, it is hard to spend all day reading for school and then be interested in doing more reading even if it is fun. If your husband somehow manages to to get a bamboo bike, you must take photos!
I meant that some of them don’t read and are honest about not liking it, but that many others do read and will write about it in their journals. I do think, though, that many of them feel a little embarrassed about admitting that they like romance novels or mystery novels or whatever it is because they think they will look silly or that I will look down on them. Which isn’t true
I work at UCLA’s main research library, and we have a ton of fiction. I found it very perplexing when reading that so many people didn’t think research libraries had fiction. We have everything from Jane Austen to Stephen King. And we have a lot of fiction in foreign languages. Academic libraries aren’t so stuffy!
Chimes with my experience of uni. I found out I could get novels during my last year and they were all mixed in with the academic English lit section. Great to see people recognising that students aren’t too lazy to read outside of class, just busy.