The World of E-Books

I really enjoyed reading the articles this week, because they were really relevant to what I do and the resources that I use on a daily basis. It's ironic that I jumped the gun with my surveys that you will see in my response on your blog. I did those before I read these articles. I was interested in surveying students after reading about transliteracy as well as the questions that you posed for your blog. 

My surveys were right on with Jones & Brown's Reading Engagement (2011). My 3rd graders
indicated a preference for e-books when given a wide selection of choices and the freedom to make their own choices.  Students like being able to see definitions, word pronunciations, automatic page turning (one student even said that his fingers got tired turning pages in a real book), and the option of choosing the read-aloud. My surveys did not indicate that teen prefered e-books, but the survey was based on reading for pleasure.

The study in Jones & Brown's Reading Engagement (2011) found that the cultural practices established by parents as well as the reading material that parents keep in their home greatly influenced the reading achievement of the children. I see this as being on point. Many of my students have NO books at home. Being in a 1 to 1 district, our students take their MacBooks home beginning in third grade. This is a huge advantage for us when reading materials aren't available at home. This is also why I am adamant that students check out books. My TA and I go round and round about library fines for lost books. Sure, I want to recover the books or the fee, but what is most important? In my opinion, a book in a child's hand is more important than retrieving the money if that means that the child won't have a book. 

With the movement towards computer based books, this helps hugely in our nonfiction reading. It is often hard to keep up with changes in the nonfiction collection, and e-books are current and at our fingertips. 

Pattee’s Rethinking Library Collections (2014) state that  librarians serving young adults must also advocate for teen access to the technological tools that allow them to participate in an increasingly connected world. This applies to younger students as well. One of the reasons that I became a librarian/media specialist is my love of technology and children’s literature. I see it as the best of both worlds. I love connecting my students to the world through global projects, skype, google hangouts, flipgrid projects, and google collaborations. It adds such a richness to their world, gives them experiences that they haven’t had before. 

We do need to think about developing young adult library collections of the future and engaging our teens in all aspects. In LIB 5060 this past summer, my group focused on teen culture. The library that we chose for our project had many great teen activities to engage teens. The library also made areas inviting for teens. As Patte (2014) states, “Paradigm shift: will be the name of the game."
Survey - 2nd and 3rd Grade



Survey - High School Students

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