WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ... READING : Hanging on word every
Posted on Monday, November 17, 2008
Daily Record photograph by Charles Fowler Josiah Martin, 9, read in the Bentonville Public Library during a recent trip by Thomas Jefferson Elementary School students.
A2004 survey by the National Endowment for the Arts, “ Reading at Risk, ” described a nationwide, very steep downward trend in book consumption in almost all demographic areas in general and, specifically, the reading of poetry, fiction and drama.
Using 2002 data from the U. S. Census Bureau, the four-year-old survey found the following:
• The pace at which the nation is losing readers, especially young ones, was increasing.
• The consumer pool for all books had diminished.
• Fewer than half of Americans 19 or older read novels or poetry or plays or short stories.
• Americans increasingly relied on electronic media rather than on books as a primary information source.
But, even assuming the survey data was correct, a trend about the habit of reading, like any other trend, may continue, or it may not. So, some four years later, it’s fair to ask: Whatever became of the habit of reading ?
Two experts say it’s doing just fine, thanks.
Myra Moran formerly owned a bookstore in Little Rock and still sells books after moving to Rogers. She sees reason to hope that even in today’s busy, fragmented and multimedia world, reading will always be a part of many people’s lives, Moran said.
She has long observed many kids taking a lot of interest in reading books — for instance, when the Harry Potter series came out, and since then — and, even in tough economic times, sells books to dedicated adult readers from all over the world, she said.
And at least in Bentonville, at the city’s public library, reading is, in fact, still quite popular among kids and others, and efforts are ongoing to encourage reading, said Sue Ann Pekel, children’s librarian.
She’s grateful for the chance her job provides her to encourage the life-changing habit of reading in young people, she said.
“ I think that working with children is a very special opportunity to instill a lifelong love of reading at an early age. It’s an educational opportunity for the children and often for myself, ” Pekel said.
At the library, there are programs for all children, from infants to seniors in high school. The library does six preschool programs a week — one for infants, two Toddler Story Time programs for 2- and 3-year-olds, and three Preschool Story Times — and one recent day featured four programs, she said recently.
“ Early this morning we had a Babies and Books program for infants. And we read very simple stories — concept books and very simple stories, and it’s interspersed with many rhymes, finger plays and songs. And the object of working with such young children is to have them start to enjoy books. One of the early literacy skills is called print motivation. We want children to feel motivated to pick up books at a very early age and derive enjoyment from the experience, ” Pekel said.
“ We definitely introduce them to books. We relate. We will retell a story or complement a story with puppets and rhymes and finger plays and songs — visuals in that format. But we don’t, at that age, use any type of projected video on a screen or anything, ” she said.
The program for infants was followed by Preschool Story Time for 3- to 5-yearolds, she said.
“ Once again we are working to help the children learn to enjoy books, and we want them to learn many different things: directionality of how to turn pages; rhyme, rhythm, repetition — lots of skills that you want to install in a child that are called prereading skills. They’re early literacy skills, and what you do is get them ready to tackle the skills of reading, ” Pekel said.
The library encourages the reading of traditional books and new technology like socalled ebooks, in the belief that all kinds of new media can powerfully encourage kids and others to open and read both electronic and traditional books, she said.
“ We understand that the face of literacy is changing, and we do understand that in the library world — that people are receiving information in many, many different formats. But I — in my environment of a public library — do not see a reduction in the interest in the printed word. Rather, I think what we do is try to retain the viability of books being an important part of people’s lives, in concert with the other information they are receiving — through television, through computer Internet, through art, through music, ” she said.
In the end, there’s something about holding a book in your hand that just can’t be replaced with reading off a screen, Pekel said.
“ That’s certainly not to say that there isn’t a viable place for ebooks in the world today, but I don’t think it has to be an either-or situation, ” she said.
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