Teens and pleasure reading: A critical assessment from Nova Scotia

This paper reports on the first phase of a two-part research study into the role of pleasure reading in the lives of Nova Scotia teenagers. Phase one, a quantitative survey, provides essential background context for the second phase, which uses qualitative methodology to illuminate and enrich the findings from the preliminary survey research. Résumé : Cet article présente la première phase d’une recherche en deux parties étudiant le rôle de la lecture de loisir dans la vie des adolescents de Nouvelle -Écosse. La première phase, un sondage quantitatif, offre un contexte essentiel pour la deuxième phase, qui utilise une approche méthodologique qualitative pour éclairer et enrichir les résultats du sondage préliminaire. 1. Background A 1995 survey by the National Center for Educational Statistics in the United States, Services and Resources for Children and Young Adults, concluded that almost 25% of public library users are teenagers; in other words, one out of eve ry four individuals entering a public library is between the ages of 12 and 18. (U.S. Department of Education, 1995). Clearly, teens are an important public library user group, with needs and concerns very distinct from those of either children or adult users. However, as Virginia Walter (2003) very effectively demonstrates in her recent article “Public library service to children and teens: A research agenda,” the research community has spent little time investigating either the information needs or the information-seeking behaviour of teens. This gap is certainly as true for Canadian teens as it is for their American counterparts. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, in the early years of the phenomenon known as young adult literature, several researchers (Landy, 1974; Lewis, 1976; Burdenuk, 1979; Amey, 1981) undertook studies of Canadian young adult reading habits. These studies reached several important conclusions: • Girls read more than boys • Television, sports, movies, and radio are all more popular than reading • TV or movie tie-ins can dramatically increase a book’s popularity • Friends are very influential in determining teens’ reading choices • Librarians, both school and public, exert very little influence on teens’ reading choices