The Extent of Library Reading in the Junior High School

Abstract

Several studies of the various phases of library organization, library equipment, and library administration have been made. Because of their very nature these studies deal primarily with the physical characteristics of the library and give little consideration to actual pupil usage. Many studies of local libraries have been made, but these too concern themselves with such factors as expenditures, administration, supervision, equipment, library quarters, and the training and the experience of librarians. The actual use made of the library by the pupils is an important item to be considered when the annual library budget and practical library administration are being considered. A study of the use made of the school library by pupils is too comprehensive to be dealt with in a short article such as this. Many factors need to be considered, such as recreational reading, reference reading, use of periodicals and newspapers, group activity, individual use, departmental use, frequency of attendance, amount of time spent in the library, proportion of the pupils using the library, and extent of the pupils' reading. The present study attempts to determine the extent of the pupils' reading along one particular line. An account was kept of the actual number of library books read or sampled by certain junior high school pupils. Magazine reading and newspaper reading were not considered. An attempt was also made to eliminate all types of reference reading, but in some few cases records were included in which the books may or may not have been reference material. The data were gathered during the second semester of the school year 1931-32 from 7,798 junior high school pupils distributed through the states of Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, and New York. Records were made in twelve junior high schools, all the pupils in each school participating. The pupils were