Even librarians reading less?
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 11:25AM My professorial friend Mary Ann Bell sent an urgent notice out on both her blog and to LM_Net not long ago urging librarians to read Thomas Washington's editorial "Kids Reading Less and So Am I" that appeared in the February 9th Washington Post. In the piece, this school librarian reflects:
Who isn't having trouble concentrating [on reading] these days? Who doesn't find it nearly impossible to stick with a 450-page novel? I've come down with the same virus as the kids — the very group I criticize for ignoring the library's "new arrivals" book display.
I felt the same thing as blog reading became a habit and opined that I was reading differently in my column The Decline of Reading in October of 2006. As long ago as 1994, Birkerts in his book The Gutenberg Elegies complained that electronics was dooming reading and Professor Naomi Baron in a Los Angles Times opinion piece “Killing the written word by snippets” (Nov 28, 2005) bemoaned:
Will effortless random access [to snippets of books made available through Google Book Search] erode our collective respect for writing as a logical, linear process? Such respect matters because it undergirds modern education, which is premised on thought, evidence and analysis rather than memorization and dogma. Reading successive pages and chapters teaches us how to follow a sustained line of reasoning.
What looks like may be another nail in the coffin of sustained reading can be found in an observation in the British Library and JISC's study, Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future. (All educators, not just librarians, should read 
this very interesting and well-done report.) Although the purpose of the study was to study the information habits of the "Google" generation, it also reported:
While we have highlighted differences amongst scholarly communities in this paper it would be a mistake to believe that it is only students’ information seeking that has been fundamentally shaped by massive digital choice, unbelievable (24/7) access to scholarly material, disintermediation, and hugely powerful and influential search engines. The same has happened to professors, lecturers and practitioners. Everyone exhibits a bouncing / flicking behaviour, which sees them searching horizontally rather than vertically. Power browsing and viewing is the norm for all.
So young and old alike are changing their reading/research habits, perhaps as a technique to survive the information avalanche, the data tsunami, the ... well, supply your own natural disaster metaphor here.
To degree, my adult readers, do exhibit some of these behaviors outlined in the British Library's report?
The main characteristics of digital information seeking behaviour in virtual libraries are:
- Horizontal information seeking A form of skimming activity, where people view just one
or two pages from an academic site and then `bounce’ out, perhaps never to return. ...- Navigation People in virtual libraries spend a lot of time simply finding their way around: in fact they spend as much time finding their bearings as actually viewing what they find.
- Viewers The average times that users spend on e-book and e-journal sites are very short: typically four and eight
minutes respectively. It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense, .... It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.- Squirreling behaviour Academic users have strong consumer instincts and research shows that they will squirrel away content in the form of downloads, especially when there are free offers. ... there is no evidence as to the extent to which these downloads are actually read.
- Diverse information seekers Log analysis reveals that user behaviour is very diverse...: One size does not fit all.
Checking information seekers Users assess authority and trust for themselves in a matter of seconds by dipping and cross-checking across different sites and by relying on favoured brands (e.g. Google).
Are you becoming more like the students you teach? (Heaven help you, middle school teachers!) Without the ability or inclination to "to follow a sustained line of reasoning" is civilization going to hell in a hand basket? Or are we all just learning to snow plow through the knowledge blizzard?
Reader Comments (11)
It couldn't possibly be due to the sheer amount of crap being published, could it? The number of copycat books I've been trying to read (sorting wheat from chaff, or gold from dross) is simply stupifying.
Hi Lazy,
I chalk it up to simply being more discriminating in my old age ;-)
But yes, I have less patience with poor quality books - and movies. And I watch no TV at all. Maybe it is the recognition that life is too short to waste time on junk?
Doug
I still read! I read henry James, George Eliot, Michael Ondaatje! I LOVE Sven Birkerts -- he's my guru (though I like online stuff a lot more than he does...). I have more problem with the newspapers interfering with my book reading -- I love the New York Times. But I'm old school.
Yeah, I also don't watch TV, just movies occasionally. When teachers say "I don't have time to read" I keep my mouth shut but think about how they talk about TV shows....
My problem is not a lack of time to read, it's that there is too much to read! Blogs, wikis, web pages, magazine and journal subscriptions (at last count I had 4 in print), stuff on my igoogle page, at least 3 or 4 books on the go at once, other school-related professional reading, etc.... And I really don't have time to do fluff (well maybe a little - I do have my horoscope and pictures of Hawaii on igoogle; oh and I can't wait until winter break where I will absolutely ditch the serious stuff and read trashy beach novels).
The point is, because of the glut of information, I find myself displaying some of the behaviors you listed above just to get through the sheer volume of reading. I definitely see myself 'squirreling' - I sometimes forget what great stuff I have sitting in my computer (and paper) files.
Paper research is one thing, but the dollar vote is another. Interesting article here in the NYTimes on HarperCollins decision to post free books which they say will lead to more sales.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/business/media/11harper.html?ex=1360386000&en=0f38d788aaec1246&ei=5124&partner=delicious&exprod=delicious
Here is my problem with the article and many of the hand wringing conversations about reading - it confuses literary reading with information texts, and never truly draws a distinction - which you sort of do by bringing up the British study (I have BIG problems with that too, but that is not the point.) I understand the difference in reading for pleasure, reading literary works, and reading for information, but the media clearly doesn't - often breathlessly reporting on the literacy crisis without clarifying the difference, and frankly this guy didn't either. So as a teacher librarian I read - for pleasure, for information, for comfort. There are differences in how I read - and the attention I pay to what I am reading, the distractions I allow, and how much time I spend completely reading and following an argument, or a plot. As for my students - I worry about their ability to either scan effectively, or follow a sustained academic argument but then they surprise me - and do both successfully. Not all, not every time, and they need much work with academic articles but when I was their age - I did too.
Hi Jane,
You say you are "old school" but I am finding my reading habits (as the column and study suggest) more like my kids than my parents.
It is an interesting time to be alive!
Doug
Hi Edi,
Earlier this week, Joyce Valenza blogged about the HarperCollins move as well as Random House's plan to sell books one chapter at a time!
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1060021706.html?nid=3714
I think this is fascinating. Thanks for leaving the comment and the link to the article!
All the best,
Doug
Hi Mary Ann,
I think you make an excellent point about not confusing literary reading with reading in general. I tend to distinguish between "grazing" type reading and sustained reading. Glad to hear your students are still able to follow a longer argument.
Really appreciate you comment. Thanks!
Doug
Mary Ann -- Great distinction! One that I'm very aware of but didn't think of last night. I skim for information, and I read fiction for deep pleasure (of various kinds, depending on whether it's a mystery or something else.