Young Adults and Reading in the Focus of the Regional University of Culture

Abstract

The article considers the work of the Department of Library-Information Resources (LIR) of the East-Siberian State Institute of Culture (VSGIK), aimed at supporting the reading of young people. The purpose of this article is to reveal the experience of the Department of Library-Information Resources in the implementation framework of the project “Self-realization of young people in the journalistic creativity as the basis of psychological preventive health care”. The authors consider the stages of project implementation: conducting the contest of journalistic materials, publication of miscellany containing the best journalistic works of pupils of secondary schools, distribution of miscellany in school and university libraries of the Republic of Buryatia, implementation of different preventive events with VSGIK students and school pupils basing on the publication materials. The authors characterize the expert evaluation of competition works of pupils of senior school, based on the use of qualitative and quantitative criteria. The contest was held in two categories: “Best analytical materials” and “Best information materials”. The article describes the results of voting in the nomination “Popular vote Winner” in the social network “Vkontakte” on the VSGIK official web page. The authors describe the stage of work associated with publication of miscellany “On the threshold of adulthood: reflections of schoolchildren on literature, creativity and life”, which includes 28 competition works.The article highlights the most interesting works of senior school students, rich in reasoning, reflecting the emotional state of person, empathy for the main characters and clearly expressed life positions. The miscellany received feedback from library staff of the Republic of Buryatia, Irkutsk Region, Trans-Baikal Region, which gave high assessment of the overall level of published materials and emphasized the wide readership of the publication. Based on the feedback of library specialists and school pupils, the article concludes about the main results of the project: there were created interesting creative works containing the authors’ arguments and reference to their own, though small life experience. Students revealed the role of book in their lives and disclosed how the book forms the personality of a person.The authors present the quantitative and qualitative indicators of project performance. Distribution of the miscellany in 368 school libraries of the Republic of Buryatia makes it possible to ensure its wide application in the educational process.