Learning from leisure reading: A study of adult public library patrons

Reference and User Services Quarterly

Volumn 46, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 66-79

  Moyer, Jessica E ^a  

^a STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34547373082     PISSN: 10949054     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5860/rusq.46n4.66     Document Type: Review

References (44)

1. Catherine Sheldrick Ross, "Finding without Seeking: What Readers Say about the Role of Pleasure Reading as a Source of Information," Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services 13, no. 2 (June 2000): 72-80.
2. An excellent summation of her research can be found in The Readers' Advisors Companion: Catherine Sheldrick Ross, "What We Know from Readers about the Experience of Reading," in The Readers' Advisor's Companion, ed. Kenneth Shearer and Robert Burgin, (Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 2001), 77-96.
3. Uanghzu Yu and Anne O'Brien, "Domain of Adult Fiction Librarianship," in Advances in Librarianship, vol. 20, ed. I. Godden (San Diego: Academic, 1996), 151-90.
4. Jessica E. Moyer, "Adult Fiction Reading: A Literature Review of Readers' Advisory Services, Adult Fiction Librarianship, and Fiction Readers," Reference & User Services Quarterly 44, no. 2 (Spring 2005): 38-47.
5. Kenneth Shearer, ed., Guiding the Reader to the Next Book (New York: Neal-Schuman, 1996);
6. Kenneth D. Shearer and Robert Burgin, eds., The Readers'Advisor's Companion (Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 2001).
7. Shearer and Burgin, The Readers' Advisor's Companion, 77-96.
8. Juris Dilevko and Lisa Gottlieb, Reading and the Reference Librarian: The Importance to Library Service of Staff Reading Habits (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004).
9. Mary Wilkes Towner, e-mail to author, Nov. 11, 2004;
10. Kristina Daily, e-mail to author, Oct. 28, 2004; Nov. 1, 2004.
11. Anne K. May, Elizabeth Olesh, and Anne Miltenburg, "A Look at Readers' Advisory Services," Library Journal 125, no. 15 (Sept. 15, 2000): 40-43.
12. Donald O. Case, Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior (San Diego: Academic, 2002), 143-46.
13. Kirsty Williamson, "Discovered by Chance: The Role of Incidental Information Acquisition in an Ecological Model of Information Use," Library and Information Science Research 20, no. 1 (1998): 23-40.
14. Case references Williamson on pages 84, 146, 153, 258, 269, 273, 278
15. and 333, and Ross on pages 105-6, 153, 327.
16. Williamson, "Discovered by Chance," 24.
17. Ross, "Finding without Seeking," 72.
18. Case, Looking for Information, 143-44.
19. Ibid., 84-88;
20. Case on Williamson, 272-73.
21. Case, Looking for Information, 152.
22. Stephen D. Weil and Peggy D. Rudd, Perspectives on Outcome Based Evaluation for Libraries and Museums (Washington, D.C.: IMLS). www.imls.gov/pubs/pdf/pubobe.pdf (accessed Oct. 28, 2004).
23. Ibid., 16-23.
24. For outcomes in academic libraries see: Anna H. Perrault, Vicki L. Gregory, and James O. Carey, "The Integration of Student Learning Outcomes with Teaching Effectiveness," Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 43, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 270-82;
25. Ethelene Whitmire, "Academic Library Performance Measures and Undergraduates' Library Use and Educational Outcomes," Library and Information Science Research 24, no. 2 (2002): 107-28;
26. See also vol. 28, issues 1/2 (2002) of the Journal of Academic Librarianship, which focuses on outcome measures. The Oct./ Dec. 2003, no. 230/231
27. issue of ARL also focuses on outcome measures. Library Trends has published an outcomes issue (Winter 2003)
28. which includes one of the better articles addressing outcomes use in public libraries: Glen E. Holt and Donald Elliot, "Measuring Outcomes: Applying Cost-Benefit-Analysis to Middlesized and Smaller Public Libraries," Library Trends 51, no. 3 (Winter 2003): 424-40.
29. Thomas J. Hennen Jr., "Hennen's American Public Library Pvatings." www.haplr-index.com (accessed Oct. 28, 2004).
30. See appendix for the survey.
31. Stephen D. Brown and Robert W. Lent, eds, Handbook of Counseling Psychology, 3d ed. (New York: Wiley, 2000), 161-65.
32. Ibid., 165.
33. All data are reported as whole numbers and due to rounding, not all tables will add up to 100 percent.
34. Roderick P. McDonald, Test Theory: A Unified Treatment (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999).
35. Ibid., 89-90.
36. See appendix for a complete listing of the survey items or table 1 for a listing of survey items and results from the factor analysis.
37. See table 2 for survey results by genre. Values of 1 and 2 were coded as well liked, 3 as neutral, and 4 and 5 as disliked, to correspond to the survey instrument, with 1 = I love it, 2 = I like it, 3 = It's okay, 4 = I'd rather not read it and 5 = I hate it.
38. Mostly anecdotal, though Ross cites several studies about genders of readers, "Finding without Seeking," 72-73. While this type of national demographic study is common in Europe, it is rarely done in the United States as seen in Ross's citations, which have the most recent United States survey from 1983.
39. Categories were developed by author.
40. Ross, "Finding without Seeking," 73.
41. Several of the subjects were asked: "Tell me a little bit about yourself as a reader; what it means to you, what role reading plays in your life, when you read, how often?" This was used as an introductory question in six of the seven interviews.
42. Ross, "Finding without Seeking," 76-79.
43. Ibid., 77.
44. For text of each item see table 1 or appendix.