Graphic novels through the lens of Goodreads reviews: Artistic, textual, or blend of both?

In this study, a textual analysis of the linguistic characteristics of Goodreads user-generated reviews associated with popular graphic novels revealed reviewers’ rich evaluations of both textual and visual characteristics of the novels as well as the embodied orientation of the reviewers’ narrations, wherein positive emotions associated with the reading experience dominated. Overall, the blend of users’ unique perceptions of textual and visual characteristics of graphic novels contributes to the genre’s vivid representation and discoverability. The machine analysis of user-generated reviews revealed a high rate of function words, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs, which may suggest reviewers’ social orientation. This high rate of function words and the overall positive tone of the reviews may also be interpreted as reviewers’ attempts to promote their reviews and influence others’ reading choices.

Peningkatan Minat Baca dengan Program Generasi Masyarakat Gemar Membaca di RPTRA Cililitan Jakarta Timur

Reading has many benefits, one of which is opening the world. PISA research shows a low level of Indonesian literacy compared to countries in the world. Needs to be done to foster interest in reading from an early age and apply it to the community. Based on the initial survey, The Cililitan RPTRA has good facilities, such as the availability of a library room. The number of visitors to the library room is small. We can see that there is a low interest in reading at The Cililitan RPTRA visitors. This activity purpose to achieve a high interest in reading in The Cililitan RPTRA, East Jakarta. The method of activity is community development, encapsulated under the name of The Generation of Reading Fondness Program. Based on interviews with The Cililitan RPTRA visitors this program can increase reading interest. Socialization about the importance of reading needs to be done continuously. Other activities that can upgrade interest in reading such as storytelling and educational games. Procurement of books can be a solution to increase reading choices for visitors to The Cililitan RPTRA.

Renaissance’s Accelerated Reader: Does It Really Work?

The school library is an open place for students to learn, imagine, and be free to research information of their choosing. Renaissance’s Accelerated Reader is a reading level-based program that assigns point values to books when students pass the quiz assigned to each book. Accelerated Reader unfortunately promotes censorship and invasion of privacy due to how the program is structured. This paper examines the flaws with Accelerated Reader to help examine if the program is beneficial to students. The American Association of School Librarians’ position statement will be used to help emphasize the point of the paper being that Accelerated Reader is inefficient. Collaboration between school librarians and teachers would be more beneficial instead of computerized reading level programs. Accelerated Reader’s structure unfortunately causes censorship of materials and invasion of privacy for children’s reading choices.

Recommendations for reading and their educational function in the light of selected Polish guides for librarians and catalogs of books published in the years 1918-1939

In the interwar period about 50 different types of guides for librarians and bookselling guides were published in Poland. Many of them contained mainly advices on setting up libraries, organizing them and gathering collections, but both types contained information on selection of books in terms of their educational function. 1) The aim of the research is the presentation of selected guides issued in Poland in 1918-1939, which were addressed to employees of various types of libraries: public, school, parish, home, etc. and their lists of books and recommenda­tions depending on the targeted reader. 2) Materials and methods: selection of guides, comparative method, literature analysis, bibliographic method. 3) Applications are the answers to the following questions: Were the reading recommendations in the analyzed manuals addressed only to the book professionals, as an aid in completing book collections and making reading choices, or to the readers as well? Which educational models were most important, to what extent they referred to the curricula in schools? Whether censorship was taking place (they included titles that should not be read), etc.?

School library as an integrated information and educational space of the modern school

Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) are established to become an experimental platform that develops, monitors, studies, analyzes, tests, and implements modern models of educational programs by levels. Accordingly, as an important part of the school, one of the main goals of NIS libraries is to comply with international standards of school libraries, to improve professional qualifications, to facilitate the implementation of the mission and objectives of the school. For this, it is necessary to shift away from traditional methods and established stereotypes and raise libraries to the modern international level. This article offers an introduction to working methods of the libraries of the Intellectual Schools, which include developing students’ reading skills, use of games to motivate students to read, the development of critical thinking skills of students. NIS librarians use game methods, festivals and activities to promote reading among students, which enables the teacher-librarians to raise children's confidence and gain pleasure from reading, discover reading choices, provide children with opportunities to share their reading experience and to raise the status of reading as a creative activity. There are also various library projects, clubs and actions, which motivate students to read and instill in students the love of reading. The libraries provide students with resources for learning and reading. They are welcoming and flexible, reader-friendly environments including different zones for research, independent and collaborative work with colours, materials and layout designed to provide safe and accessible places conducive to learning and reading.

Investigation of Goodreads’ reviews: Kakutanied, deceived or simply honest?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of Goodreads’ user-generated book reviews from a linguistic perspective for insights into the psychological aspects of reviewers’ perceptions and behaviors. This examination of users’ language and perspectives may shed light on the role and value of user-generated reviews in complementing the traditional representation of resources and facilitating the discoverability of cultural objects. Design/methodology/approach This study involved a textual analysis of 474,803 unique reviews of Goodreads’ 2015 top-rated books generated by 9,335 Goodreads’ reviewers. In order to better understand the nuances of user-generated reviews, a content analysis was applied to 2,500 reviews of each of the five top-ranked titles in Goodreads’ Fiction Literature genre category. Findings The analysis of user-generated reviews demonstrates that language is a quite stable and reliable dimension across Goodreads’ users. The high rate of function words utilized, in particular I-words, coupled with positive emotion words, suggests that reviewers tended to convey their opinions in order to influence other individuals’ reading choices, or in Bourdieu’s (1985) terms, influence cultural production. In line with previous studies of user-generated reviews, the prevalence of positive reviews may also imply their unreliable nature. This study supports the importance of transparency regarding inclusion of user-generated reviews in traditional systems of knowledge representation, organization and discovery, such as WorldCat. Originality/value This study contributes to better understanding of linguistic characteristics of Goodreads’ reviews, including the role and value of user-generated reviews in complementing traditional representation of resources and facilitating discoverability of cultural objects.

Book Reading Choices of University Students in Jordan

It is widely believed that today’s university students are so enamoured of social media and other online attractions that book reading is no longer included in their leisure-time activities, particularly in the Arab world where smartphone penetration is high and interest in reading is perceived to be low. As teachers, we have an obligation to ensure our students are reading books of their own choosing. This study investigates the book-reading choices of a convenience sample of 100 male and female students attending a private university in Jordan to determine 1) what those choices are, 2) what patterns we can detect among their choices and 3) what language and format they prefer to read in. Results show that students look West for most of their book choices, at the expense of their own literature and authors, that their gendered choices reflect many of the patterns already established in the literature, that they prefer to read printed rather than digital books and that third-person narrator voice is most commonly used in the novels they read. The study also suggests that book choice may have less to do with book-based appeal factors (such as, author, protagonist, etc.,) and more to do with the overall reading experience, and that the narrator voice used in the novels students read can contribute to the richness and overall value of that reading experience.

Female Emirati University Students’ Book Reading Choices: An Investigation

The inescapable link between college students' reading habits and their academic success suggests the importance to educators of investigating their students’ reading interests and preferences. The study reported here was an open investigation into the book reading choices of first-year female Emirati university students to see what genres, authors, main protagonists and book settings they preferred. Book titles were mined from data which was gathered during a larger in-depth research on students’ reading habits over a period of two years, through interviews, journal entries, surveys, emails and conversations. Results showed that, while students had a preference for fiction, they also had a comparatively high interest in nonfiction, particularly self-help books. Gender did not appear to be a major factor in their preferences although male authors were popular. Geography, including author and protagonist nationality and book setting, appeared to be more important, with students showing a preference for American and British authors, protagonists and settings. With students’ overall choice of Arab authors and titles at little more than one tenth of their total choices, availability of interesting books would appear to be of paramount importance. There are implications for the Arabic book publishing industry, in general, and the Emirati book publishing industry, in particular. Findings will be of interest also to educators, librarians and others who wish to promote leisure reading among college students in the Arab world and augment the limited literature on Arab students' reading choices.