Reading engagement influences students' literacy attainment. School library professionals provide resources, environments and guidance to promote reading for pleasure, but little is known about how this role is currently supported or challenged. Drawing on mixed methods survey responses from 971 school library professionals from 63 countries,…

The Reading Seed Programme (RSP), an in-house literacy program inaugurated by Sarawak's State Library (PUSTAKA Negeri Sarawak, Malaysia), has the potential to become the country's primary literacy initiative, particularly in terms of fostering a reading culture. The purpose of this paper is to empirically establish the reliability of survey…

Although it has been argued that school libraries are important for supporting the reading engagement of pupils who receive free school meals, to date there has been little analysis of the extent to which use of school library spaces is related to these pupils' reading behaviors. We analyzed data from 6,264 children and young adults in the United…

Children have a right both to read and to see their lives mirrored in books. In this study we explored young Papua New Guinean children's reading preferences of 500 digital books. The books were created as part of a large project aimed at improving elementary (Preparatory to Year 2) children's literacy skills in Papua New Guinea. Reading materials…

This study aimed to employ machine learning techniques to uncover the pivotal determinants influencing the reading proficiency of fourth-grade students across 65 regions, as participants in the PIRLS 2021 assessment. The primary objective was to discern and assess key factors at the student, family and school levels that predict high and low…

Popular culture images of reading tend to portray readers as solitary individuals deeply immersed in reading a single text in a quiet, undisturbed spot. Yet, in our documentation of adolescent students reading in Singapore secondary schools, we find that there are many ways and modes of reading, much of which is social in nature. Through the use…

Leisure reading is important for personality development and mental growth of children. Reading habits developed during early childhood are likely to continue rest of the life. The main purpose of this study was to investigate leisure reading habits and preferences of young children in Singapore. A questionnaire was used for data collection and…

We compared students from schools with an enriched school library--that is, one with a larger and more up-to-date book collection--with students from schools with a typical school library. We tested effects of an enriched school library on reading motivation, reading frequency, and academic skills. Fourth- and fifth-grade students of 14 schools…

Each night, around 20,000 people--both adults and children--make the streets of Dhaka (the capital city of Bangladesh) their home. Living amongst the noise, rubbish, and traffic, thousands of families walk down the streets of Dhaka, looking for a safe place to rest for just a few hours each night. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, the…

The emphasis on schools' providing reading materials for students at home is very much on the primary school years, when the skill of reading is being acquired. Little consideration has been given to the impact of curtailing school-mediated access to books beyond this point. Regular recreational reading offers a wide range of benefit, and is…

In this paper the author relates how the thing he enjoys most about his job as a school librarian is nurturing lifelong readers, in particular readers of children's literature. In talking about nurturing lifelong readers and, referring to students, staff and school librarians, the author discusses: (1) The Southwell Library Programme; (2) The Lit…

Research tells us that reading is correlated to academic achievement but how do we motivate students to read? How can schools build reading cultures? Through the case study of a government secondary school in Singapore, I examine how attention to the invisible network of resources that support reading can provide insight into students' resources…

The National Literacy Trust's Premier League Reading Stars has now been running for 10 years. During this time, hundreds of thousands of children and families have been inspired by the power of football to develop a love of reading. Although the programme has grown and evolved over this period, the premise remains the same: harnessing the…

Boys' literacy has been, and continues to be, an area of concern for educationalists at all levels. The decline in boys' reading, which may have negative consequences for their learning, becomes more marked as they get older. This project examined possible reasons for this and implemented strategies designed to increase Year 13 boys' reading. The…

The Reading Agency has been backing and building a movement in libraries called reader development. The movement is creating a livelier, more interventionist reading service that's both much more attractive and socially relevant. A focus on reader development is changing the way public libraries work, and transforming people's lives in the…