This article shares the voices of preadolescent girls as they participated in an eight-month book selection study which enabled them to be active agents in their book and reading experiences. The girls, school-identified as struggling readers and self-identified as resistant readers, complicate current notions of reading, as influenced by…

An ecological approach, emphasizing the importance of understanding multiple contexts for learning, underpins this study of libraries as activity spaces for young children's literacy participation. Five libraries serving a diversity of communities were the subject of ethnographic investigation incorporating participant observation, visual…

Discusses user-centered thinking and lessons from reader-centered theory. Reviews findings from studies by literary theorists on user-centered approaches to information and uses these findings to support and offer two analogies: (1) an analogy between reader and library user; and (2) an analogy between information and the library. (Author/JMV)

Although many foresee the end of books with the rise of computers, there are good reasons to believe that books will survive, including their permanence, their value as historical records, and ergonomics. Librarians should continue to sponsor summer reading programs and book groups, serve as reader advisors, and prepare and post book lists. (PEN)

The author achieved something that he had been striving to do for several semesters when, in 2002, he revised his survey course on the history of the United States up to Reconstruction by replacing most of the photocopied readings he had assigned in the past with online texts. Readings on the web now provided the basis for 10 of the 12 weekly…

It's not that boys can not read, they just do not read. Study after study reveals that boys read less than girls. And according to the U.S. Department of Education, school-age boys tend to read a grade and a half lower than girls. How can librarians get guys to turn the page? For starters, they need to move beyond their traditional "here is a book…

The Tanganyika Library Service (TLS) was the national public library service set up in Tanzania, East Africa, in the 1960s. By the end of the decade, it was generally regarded as a model of Western-style public library development in Africa. This is an account of its establishment and early years based on accessible documentary sources in Tanzania…

Drawing on thousands of "reading autobiographies," in which generations of students wrote about their experiences with reading, this book investigates what makes young people want to read. Chapters include: (1) Growing with Books; (2) Learning To Read; (3) Literature and the Human Voice; (4) Reading Habits and Attitudes: When, Where, and…