Report : Keeping Young Australians Reading

Here is a link to an interesting new report out from the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria, Australia.

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/about/information/publications/policies_reports/keeping-reading.html

From the website :
Keeping Young Australians Reading 2009 is an update of the 2001 report Young Australians Reading. Drawing on research involving young people, parents, teacher-librarians and youth literature experts, it reports on the youth literature landscape in Australia and how it has changed since 2001. It provides insightful and practical information for professionals encouraging young Australians to read for pleasure, and can be used to underpin proposals for increased funding in this area.

The report identifies:

• why it is important to keep young Australians reading
• what the barriers to reading for pleasure are
• how to overcome these barriers
• trends in young people's reading
• challenges for professionals

In summary (page 16):
How do we keep young Australians reading ?
Our research identified six key factors:

1. the ability to read;
   
2. the desire to read;
   
3. social acceptance of reading;
   
4. the time to read;
   
5. access to books,
   
6. and, most important of all, a reading culture at home and/or at school.

From the Executive Summary :
Issues for teachers and librarians

• Addressing the reading drop-off point between primary school and later secondary education
• The difficulty of attracting teenagers into public libraries
• Use of the public library, not just for book borrowing, but as a community living room and internet access point
• Reduction in the numbers of teacher-librarians, particularly in primary schools
• Administration filling what little time teachers and teacher-librarians have outside class-time
• The introduction of the new national curriculum
• Effects of new media and social networking on the young reader
• The need to keep pace with and embrace new technologies

Issues for young readers

• Finding time to read among all their other education, work and leisure commitments
• The increasing focus on exams and testing
• Greater peer acceptance of reading for pleasure
• Use of new media raising content expectations and affecting attention span
• Dependence on parents to buy ‘approved’ books
• Social networking and the desire to collaborate with others rather than spend time alone reading
• Web 2.0 and the push to customise, personalise, remix materials (without having to worry about copyright)
• For young people from diverse cultural backgrounds, finding relevant content
• Access to books and reading for economically disadvantaged young people
• Low literacy levels among Indigenous and very remote communities
• Finding the right book at the right time and having trusted adults to recommend books