Guys Read library programming
I've mentioned our Bronco Time programming several times in previous posts. It's a 30ish minute block during the school day three days a week when students with passing grades can choose to go to whatever session they'd like in the school building. We try to do a new session (or a very popular session that we're repeating) every time Bronco Time is offered.
Tomorrow we've got a session that seemed like a good idea at the time when we drew up all our plans at the start of the year, but as I was pulling books to prepare for the session today, I was questioning whether or not the "Guys Read!" program is such a great idea. Is it sexist? Are we promoting a stereotype that guys don't read, therefore we do the program that guys do read to say it's ok to be seen with a book? The fact is, a lot of guys do read. Not all, but many. But we've also got a whole lot of young men who claim to have no interest whatsoever. And to be fair, there are a number of young women with the same attitude. We try to instill a love of reading in all our students. But we've not yet done a program titled "Girls Read!" We did have a program slated for Chick Lit, but like a number of other programming ideas (great sci-fi, DIY home repair, and many more), it hasn't made the schedule yet. Perhaps the fact that most of our book-related programs are attended by girls suggests that girls are reading, or at a minimum, we're providing book-related programming for girls already.
On one hand, we have all sorts of evidence that supports the fact that young women read more than young men. Since this is a blog post and not a research paper, I'm going to beg off citing specific studies. I seem to remember seeing research numbers at some point while investigating similar topics. But this is more speculation and thinking out loud (a blog post) than scholarly research. Such is the Web. Citing rarely reliable anecdotal information, I'll offer that almost anyone who works in a high school library will tell you young women check out 75% or more of the novels, unless they're at an all-boys school, in which case it might be closer to 50-50. I say that facetiously, but I am suddenly curious about the circulation stats of an all-boys library versus a similar sized all-girls school. That might settle my mind a little more, but finding an accurate comparison might be difficult. The all-boys school might require more independent reading than the all-girls school, which might artificially inflate the numbers of what students are checking out on their free time for pleasure reading. But I digress.
Do we need Guys Read! programs, or READ posters highlighting our male students holding a book? The high school library in which I work as a librarian has two male librarians (I am one). The middle school that feeds students to us has a male librarian. We all encourage reading, of course, and each of us could tell stories about young men who tell us they don't read, only to leave our charge years later as fans of reading. It's not that we seek out young men to tutor. I have more conversations with young women about books than I do with young men. Our clerk and student assistants check out more books to young women than young men. But, in doing book talks to classes, I can almost always get a young man excited about reading a book after talking with him for a few minutes. Sometimes it takes a few more suggestions before we settle on the right one, but most of the time we can come up with something that the student can be excited to read. It simply takes finding the right book one time, and then another, and another... Those success stories are great. It reinforces the theory I'm always telling students: it's not that you don't like to read. You just don't have the right book. Find that, and you'll rediscover the love of reading.
That, I suppose, is why we do need the Guys Read! programming and posters. As I walked through the fiction stacks randomly pulling books that might appeal to a reluctant young male reader, I kept getting excited about the prospect of talking about all sorts of books. And I kept pulling more books. Without realizing it, I had four huge stacks of books -- plenty more than we'd need for this 30ish minute program. Hopefully that excitement about the stories and reading comes through. I'm sure it does. The bigger issue, I suppose, isn't whether we should promote books that young men would like to read. For us, the bigger issue is getting those young men into the library to tell them about all the books that will help them rediscover a love of reading. And after all this, after the doubts about whether we should be doing this at all, I'm quite excited to get back into the library tomorrow morning and start selling books to teenagers. Being a librarian is the greatest job in the world.
Tomorrow we've got a session that seemed like a good idea at the time when we drew up all our plans at the start of the year, but as I was pulling books to prepare for the session today, I was questioning whether or not the "Guys Read!" program is such a great idea. Is it sexist? Are we promoting a stereotype that guys don't read, therefore we do the program that guys do read to say it's ok to be seen with a book? The fact is, a lot of guys do read. Not all, but many. But we've also got a whole lot of young men who claim to have no interest whatsoever. And to be fair, there are a number of young women with the same attitude. We try to instill a love of reading in all our students. But we've not yet done a program titled "Girls Read!" We did have a program slated for Chick Lit, but like a number of other programming ideas (great sci-fi, DIY home repair, and many more), it hasn't made the schedule yet. Perhaps the fact that most of our book-related programs are attended by girls suggests that girls are reading, or at a minimum, we're providing book-related programming for girls already.
On one hand, we have all sorts of evidence that supports the fact that young women read more than young men. Since this is a blog post and not a research paper, I'm going to beg off citing specific studies. I seem to remember seeing research numbers at some point while investigating similar topics. But this is more speculation and thinking out loud (a blog post) than scholarly research. Such is the Web. Citing rarely reliable anecdotal information, I'll offer that almost anyone who works in a high school library will tell you young women check out 75% or more of the novels, unless they're at an all-boys school, in which case it might be closer to 50-50. I say that facetiously, but I am suddenly curious about the circulation stats of an all-boys library versus a similar sized all-girls school. That might settle my mind a little more, but finding an accurate comparison might be difficult. The all-boys school might require more independent reading than the all-girls school, which might artificially inflate the numbers of what students are checking out on their free time for pleasure reading. But I digress.
Do we need Guys Read! programs, or READ posters highlighting our male students holding a book? The high school library in which I work as a librarian has two male librarians (I am one). The middle school that feeds students to us has a male librarian. We all encourage reading, of course, and each of us could tell stories about young men who tell us they don't read, only to leave our charge years later as fans of reading. It's not that we seek out young men to tutor. I have more conversations with young women about books than I do with young men. Our clerk and student assistants check out more books to young women than young men. But, in doing book talks to classes, I can almost always get a young man excited about reading a book after talking with him for a few minutes. Sometimes it takes a few more suggestions before we settle on the right one, but most of the time we can come up with something that the student can be excited to read. It simply takes finding the right book one time, and then another, and another... Those success stories are great. It reinforces the theory I'm always telling students: it's not that you don't like to read. You just don't have the right book. Find that, and you'll rediscover the love of reading.
That, I suppose, is why we do need the Guys Read! programming and posters. As I walked through the fiction stacks randomly pulling books that might appeal to a reluctant young male reader, I kept getting excited about the prospect of talking about all sorts of books. And I kept pulling more books. Without realizing it, I had four huge stacks of books -- plenty more than we'd need for this 30ish minute program. Hopefully that excitement about the stories and reading comes through. I'm sure it does. The bigger issue, I suppose, isn't whether we should promote books that young men would like to read. For us, the bigger issue is getting those young men into the library to tell them about all the books that will help them rediscover a love of reading. And after all this, after the doubts about whether we should be doing this at all, I'm quite excited to get back into the library tomorrow morning and start selling books to teenagers. Being a librarian is the greatest job in the world.
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