Librarians Respond to Decline in Reading
New report's findings confirm the need to support a love of reading in this digital age
By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2004
While most Americans were alarmed by a recent finding that 18- to 24-year-olds showed the steepest decline in literary reading over the last decade, librarians weren't shocked at all. "It's something that librarians have known for decades," says Ginger Bush, the director of patron services at the Minneapolis Public Library.
The report, "Reading At Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America" (www.arts.gov/pub/readingatrisk.pdf), had educators and publishers abuzz. For the first time in modern history, the report noted, "less than half of the adult population now reads literature, and these trends reflect a larger decline in other sorts of reading." But even more disheartening was the fact that the rate of decline for the youngest adults—those 18 to 24—was 55 percent greater than that of the total adult population.
What's to blame? The proliferation of the Internet, e-mail, iPods, and Blackberries, says Mark Bauerlein, project manager of the report, which was released by the National Endowment for the Arts. His concern is that in 10 years, that same group of 28- to 34-years-olds will pass on their apathy toward reading to their own kids.
Indeed, promoting a love of reading is a challenge in this "visual, digital generation," says Dawn Vaughn, president of the American Association of School Librarians, but media specialists mustn't feel discouraged. Her school, Cherry Creek High School in Denver, CO, allows its 3,600 students to take out an unlimited amount of books over the summer. And as a result, the number of summer participants has exploded to 500 students from 150 in just three years. Vaughn also suggests meeting with individual students to explore their interests and then recommending books. Flexible scheduling, colorful displays, extending after-school hours, and booktalking with teachers are other great ways to promote reading, she adds.
Karen Louise Boothe, a spokesperson for the Minneapolis Public Library, also points out that the public needs to understand that the definition of literature has broadened beyond the standard classics to include other genres—even Japanese manga.
So can this downward trend in literary reading by young adults be reversed? Perhaps, but librarians must recognize that they play a huge role. "Part of the solution is that we are held accountable as well," Bush says. "Young people today have competing forces in their lives, so we have to build on their interests in all mediums to enhance their lives. But we have to keep asking ourselves, 'have we done enough to integrate all these mediums; have we done enough to electrify and engage them in reading?'"
