Library Land Weblog

Creating a Community of Readers and Thinkers October 5, 2009

Posted by sgrimes in AASL Standards for 21st-Century Learner, comprehension strategy instruction, Library Media Specialist.
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 Excerpted from Reading Is Our Business: How Libraries Can Foster Reading Comprehension

     There is something sacred about the role of librarian, about our profession.  We are, and always have been, keepers of the gate, guardians and guides to the ark of human knowledge.  Entrance through our doors admits one to infinite worlds, magical kingdoms, and the treasure trove of knowledge created by our world’s best thinkers, artists, and scientists. But the pool of those seeking entrance is shrinking in part because of a national decline in reading comprehension scores.[1]  On the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress, “38 percent of 4th graders and 28 percent of 8th graders could not demonstrate basic reading skills for their grade-level.” (Education Week 9/15/2004)  Equally as disturbing are the findings from Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America which show that “Literary reading is in dramatic decline with fewer than half of American adults now reading literature.” (National Endowment for the Arts 2004)  The trend is even more prevalent in poor, urban neighborhoods as evidenced by decreasing circulation rates;[2] data from “The Facilities and Services Plan for Enoch Pratt Free Library” shows that materials circulation decreased by 32.24% between FY 1998 and FY 2002.  In-house use of materials during the same period decreased by 33.03%.  The correlation between poverty and low reading achievement is well-documented.  In Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: A Conceptual Framework (2004) the United Nations defines “being excluded from the world of reading and communication” as one of the three fundamental elements of human poverty. (13) 

     Equally well researched is the link between passive readers and poor comprehension skills.  Passive readers are not engaged in meaningful ways with the text.  In addition, these less than proficient readers do not utilize comprehension strategies to either increase understanding or engagement.  For libraries, both public and school, to increase their patron base[3] much needs to be done to transform passive readers into actively engaged members of a community of strategic readers and thinkers; however, the benefits of transforming our libraries into communities that nurture reading and thinking extend far beyond simply increasing our patron base.  What books, how and to whom we choose to present them determines who enters the kingdom and the consequences of our choices have serious economic ramifications. Forty-three percent of those with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty, while seventy percent of prison inmates read at the lowest proficiency levels (U.S. Department of Education 2001). 

 

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[1] Other causes that have been widely cited are an increase in internet use and a decrease in the amount of time available for recreational activities like reading.

[2] Several researchers have argued that surveys that identify types and levels of use are a better indicator than circulation statistics of the vitality of a library branch in low income neighborhoods. (Koontz 2005)

[3]“Surely,” I can almost hear someone comment,  “school libraries do not need to worry about a shrinking patron base.  After all, the patron base of a school library is the population of the school.”  In an age of diminishing funds for education, school libraries which do not justify their existence by increasing engagement, comprehension, and test scores will surely feel the ax.