Learning about immigrant and migrant readers, transforming libraries: Spanish-speaking readers in North America

Drawing on data from the qualitative survey study of avid immigrant and migrant Spanish-speaking readers residing in Canada and the U.S., this paper looks at their use of libraries, specifically, in the context of leisure reading. Acknowledging a gap in current research on Spanish-speaking immigrants/migrants, the study focuses on avid lifelong readers rather than information seekers; achieves an understanding of their reading practices and interactions with libraries in the context of their pre-migration experiences; and highlights readers’ suggestions for the improvement of collections, spaces, services, and community engagement. Practical suggestions are made for public, academic, and special libraries.

An Evolutionary Textual Environment

This article introduces the notion of evolutionary textual environment as the outcome of a digital experiment. The experiment consisted of transforming a digital archive of Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet into a changing textual space sustained by role-playing interactions. As conceptual and technical artifact, this living archive expresses an innovative model not only for the literary acts of reading, editing and writing, but also for reimagining the book as a network of reconfigurable and dynamic texts, structures, and actions. The programmed features of the LdoD Archive can be used in multiple activities, including leisure reading, study, analysis, advanced research, and creative writing. Through the integration of computational tools in a simulation space, this collaborative archive provides an open exploration of the procedurality of the digital medium itself. The “unfinished machine” metaphor suggests the open-endedness both of the evolving textual environment and of the computational modeling of literary performativity that sustains the whole experiment.

A survey of narrative listening behaviors in 8-13-year-old children

Leisure reading confers significant benefits to children in both social and academic domains. However, the number of children who read for pleasure is decreasing and has been recently shown to drop off significantly between the ages of 8 and 9. Despite the rising popularity of audiobooks and podcasts, research on children listening to spoken stories remains in its infancy. Thus, the present study explores how children engage with these novel media. Fifty-two parents of children aged 8-13 years completed an online survey which asked about their children’s listening habits. Results showed that 74% of children listen to spoken stories, with the vast majority (92.5%) listening at least 1-2 times a week. While the survey revealed children are indeed engaging with both podcasts and audiobooks, being read aloud to continues to be the most popular format for story listening in this age group (77.4% of listeners). Across platforms, the genre most frequently listened to was fantasy stories (84.9%; more detailed descriptions of popular themes and sub-themes are described). In sum, access to technology is becoming an increasingly important part of children’s lives. The data described here provide a timely perspective and provide a basis for informed studies of listening engagement in children.

Children’s Leisure Reading in the Nahḍah

Children made up a substantial segment of the literate public that emerged during the Arab nahḍah period. Of these, an apparent minority applied skills they acquired in school to reading for pleasure or satisfying juvenile curiosity. This study explores the novel practice of Arab youth leisure-time reading as reported in retrospective memories and autobiographies. It reveals that during the nahḍah’s early decades, the inventory of Arabic readings fit for children was strikingly limited—unlike the multitude of books that were available to adults—a reality that forced curious boys and girls from different classes to make do with adult books for their after-school reading. This article examines cultural factors for that scarcity (primarily the status of children in society) and economic ones (e.g., publishers’ business concerns) and considers its implications. Probing a seemingly marginal section of a wider scene, it sheds light on hitherto neglected facets of the Arab transition from widespread illiteracy to extensive literacy at this point in history.

True Stories: New Zealand Narrative Nonfiction: A Bibliography Based on Appeal Theory

<p>Research problem: Readers’ advisory services are generally recognised as a core service offered in New Zealand public libraries. Currently no readers’ advisory resources or tools exist based solely on New Zealand content, either for narrative nonfiction or fiction. The aim of this bibliography was to provide librarians with a tool to find New Zealand narrative nonfiction books within the context of a readers’ advisory framework. Methodology: The bibliography is based on appeal theory and takes the approach of creating a narrative nonfiction readers’ advisory tool. 112 New Zealand narrative nonfiction books are described, classified by genre and identified by their appeal elements, characteristics that give readers insight into a book’s qualities: character, mood, pacing and story line. Results: The development and dissemination of a readers’ advisory tool increases awareness of New Zealand narrative nonfiction genres and content. It offers a New Zealand point of reference that supports nonfiction leisure reading and promotes narrative nonfiction readers’ advisory services. Implications: The organisation of the bibliographic records into a library using Zotero referencing software enables the material to become an online New Zealand narrative nonfiction readers’ advisory tool. An online environment increases the utility by broadening the scope of access to librarians, readers or other individuals with an interest in sourcing references relating to New Zealand narrative nonfiction writing.</p>

True Stories: New Zealand Narrative Nonfiction: A Bibliography Based on Appeal Theory

<p>Research problem: Readers’ advisory services are generally recognised as a core service offered in New Zealand public libraries. Currently no readers’ advisory resources or tools exist based solely on New Zealand content, either for narrative nonfiction or fiction. The aim of this bibliography was to provide librarians with a tool to find New Zealand narrative nonfiction books within the context of a readers’ advisory framework. Methodology: The bibliography is based on appeal theory and takes the approach of creating a narrative nonfiction readers’ advisory tool. 112 New Zealand narrative nonfiction books are described, classified by genre and identified by their appeal elements, characteristics that give readers insight into a book’s qualities: character, mood, pacing and story line. Results: The development and dissemination of a readers’ advisory tool increases awareness of New Zealand narrative nonfiction genres and content. It offers a New Zealand point of reference that supports nonfiction leisure reading and promotes narrative nonfiction readers’ advisory services. Implications: The organisation of the bibliographic records into a library using Zotero referencing software enables the material to become an online New Zealand narrative nonfiction readers’ advisory tool. An online environment increases the utility by broadening the scope of access to librarians, readers or other individuals with an interest in sourcing references relating to New Zealand narrative nonfiction writing.</p>

The Relation Between Television Viewing Time and Reading Achievement in Elementary School Children: A Test of Substitution and Inhibition Hypotheses

Research has focused on the relations between television (TV) viewing time and children’s reading achievement. Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain this relation. The substitution hypothesis proposes that TV viewing distracts students from activities that are important for their learning. The inhibition hypothesis proposes that watching television inhibits important affective/cognitive skills. In this study, we test both hypotheses by estimating the relation between TV viewing time and reading achievement. We use the frequency of students’ leisure reading and the frequency of interactions between students and their parents as potential mediators to test the substitution hypothesis, whereas for the inhibition one, we use students’ intrinsic motivation to read and their level of inattention. Data come from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD). Designed by the Institut de la statistique du Québec, QLSCD covers a wide range of themes. The QLSCD is representative of children in Québec and contains 2223 participants who were followed from 0 to 21 years old. The four structural models tested are built as follows: the TV viewing time at 6 years old predicts the four mediating variables at 8 years old, which in turn predicts reading achievement at 10 years old. In addition, we have tested models’ gender invariance. Results indicate that TV viewing time is not directly or indirectly associated with reading achievement. Specifically, it is not associated with the mediating variables of child-parent interactions, intrinsic motivation, and inattention. However, the frequency of leisure reading is negatively associated with the time spent watching TV. This association is very small (−0.07) and has no indirect effect on reading achievement. Finally, results do not vary according to the gender of the participants. Our results are in line with those of previous studies in the field and cast some doubts on the potential negative effects of TV viewing time on reading achievement.

Beyond the Educational Context: Relevance of Intrinsic Reading Motivation During COVID-19 Confinement in Spain

What role could have intrinsic motivation toward reading in an extraordinary situation like the recent confinement? This research examines the relationship between intrinsic reading motivation (IRM) and reading habits in an adult population considering types of reading (for leisure, work/study, social networks, and news), gender, and distress generated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Participants were 3,849 adults from Spain who were surveyed about their reading practices: before, during the first weeks, and after several weeks of confinement. Linear mixed effects models (LMMs) were used to analyze data. Results showed a three-way interaction between reading frequency, IRM, and type of reading. Also, distress seems to pose a differential impact depending on the type of reading. The higher the IRM, the lesser the time devoted to study/work reading and the more to social and news reading (at the beginning of confinement). In this sense, IRM can function as a protective factor of reading behavior but only for leisure reading. Results support previous findings of the importance of consciously promoting this type of motivation in all individuals beyond educational contexts, since it seems to be positively related to well-being. Other results and implications are discussed.

The Globe on Saturday, the World on Sunday: Toronto Weekend Editions and the Influence of the American Sunday Paper, 1886–1895

Between 1886 and 1895, the Sunday newspaper in U.S. cities became a cauldron for an emerging mass, popular culture—one with reach into Canada. The concurrent development of weekend newspapers in Toronto, Canada, distinguished local innovations against the unspecified, general influence of the “American Sunday paper.” The Sunday World and the Saturday Globe followed and refuted, respectively, the ideal set by the American Sunday paper, but together defined Canadian weekend leisure reading. The reference in Canadian newspapers to an idealized American Sunday model offers an example of an emergent continental mass popular culture where cultural forms circulated, and were transformed, producing interesting local specificities.