How Does Electronic Reading Affect Comprehension?

Nicole Myerscough

Jones, J.  (2013, November 5).  How does electronic reading affect comprehension?  Retrieved from http://dmlcentral.net/blog/john-jones/how-does-electronic-reading-affect-comprehension

The brain prefers paper? Screens drain mental resources? I understand the argument and concern regarding comprehension with electronic devices, especially as popular as they have become within the past few years. I think it's more that weren't not as adapted to electronic over paper. I believe screen drain my eyes more than my mind. The debate of electronic vs. paper is ultimately is a personal preference.

The article presents an interesting argument and examples their perspective using text message sizes to measure comprehension and a very outdated electronic screen vs. paper comprehension reading test study. I think it's really important in the LIS community to recognize that 2005 is not current enough in regards literacy studies with mobile technology... screen resolution was horrid compared to what we have today. I preferred paper over electronic back then too.

Promoting eBooks in School Libraries

Jessica King            

McCrea, B. (2013, March 14). Making digital libraries work, with or without BYOD. The Journal. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/03/13/how-schools-are-making-digital-libraries-work-with-or-without-byod.aspx

            In this article McCrea examines the attempts of two different school districts to bring eBooks to their schools and their students. The two school districts approached the idea from different standpoints and received varying results. In one school district the schools gave the students the devises preloaded with the books and received issues when students took those devises home and hooked them up to their personal computers. This, of course, resulted in a number of the devises having their data removed, which led the school to realize that devises are very personal. So, while letting the students use them at school could work, this did not transition to at home use because these devises were not the students. After that attempt the district tried a new approach through a school account on OverDrive, to allow students to access the eBooks on whatever devise works best for them. 

Another school brought eBooks to their students by creating a school Amazon account that they supplied school owned Kindles for and that allowed students with their own Kindle’s to borrow from. This school took an interesting approach by also engaging in patron-driven acquisitions with their eBooks and Kindle account. They encouraged students to look at the eBooks that were available for purchase as well as the ones the library already owned. Instead of focusing their eBooks on just curriculum support this district really dove into the recreation aspect. Although this system is working for that school now, they do caution that they have not done enough research to determine the long-term feasibility of it.

I found this to be an interesting article to read through because of the examples on how these schools are approaching eBooks. Most especially, in regards to how they were really pushing for their students to use the eBooks. It is one thing to purchase the books but another entirely to make students aware of them and involve them in the process. There is this idea that just because the book is electronic, a student will want to read it and this has led schools to purchase those strictly curriculum driven eBooks. I really liked the idea of having the students be involved by having that patron-driven aspect. This is not something every school can do or should do, but it does involve the students and makes them want to look through the collection to give their ideas on what needs bolstering. 

An all-digital library --BiblioTech

Lauren Frederick

Cottrell, M.(2013, September 18) Paperless libraries, American Libraries Magazine. Retrieved on September 30, 2013 from 
http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/article/paperless-libraries

This article caught my eye, even though its about a public library in Texas. Bexar County opened an all-digital library, called BiblioTech. This facility is bookless and serves an unincorporated area outside of San Antonio, "offering more than 10,000 titles available for digital download and 100 e-readers on loan, as well as computer stations, digital literacy classes, and a coffee shop."

With access to technology and no print, it allows for the county to spend less money and have less space, allowing the librarian to help patrons connect with information as opposed to circulation.

The reason I thought this to be relevant to the Learning Commons, is that the learning environment is much more fluid. At The University of Texas at San Antonio they opened a digital library as well, and in this space the computer stations and modular furniture can be moved to accommodate groups. In school libraries, with the books on the wall and the stations similar to this, a Learning Commons can exist. The access to all the technology would allow for this as well. I am not sure how beneficial the lack of books would be to the schools, but upping the ante with additional e-readers and computer stations could definitely help any library.

“What I’m seeing is this movement acknowledging that these services libraries provide are as important as the books. Libraries are being acknowledged as to how central they are to communities.”

Moving to a digital-only school library collection

Sinclair, Kimberly

Corbett, T.  (2011).  The changing role of the school librarian’s physical space.  School Library Monthly, 27, 5.  Retrieved from http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com

         In this article, Corbett discusses the transformation of the physical library space at Cushing Academy, a private high school in Massachusetts, whose staff unanimously voted to focus on building a 21^st Century Leadership curriculum—a decision equated with moving towards becoming “bookless,” as accomplished through three major phases:

o   Moving away from the traditional Integrated Library System toward a newer, better integrated software platform

o   Developing an improved acquisitions policy that capitalizes on the best aspects of digital content

o   Transforming the library's physical space into a collaborative work area for students and staff

            This radical decision was made after staff documented that, although the Cushing library previously maintained a collection very balanced between digital and physical resources, students significantly and consistently bypassed the print materials in favor of accessing the library’s computers and digital materials. While such a drastic shift initially strikes as sacrilegious to most librarians, Corbett reports that, to date, the Cushing library is experiencing a large degree of success since the transformation of its physical library space: database usage by students has increased exponentially, participation and circulation is thriving, and the library has developed an interactive website for the learning commons that appears to be effective and popular amongst users. He also adds that, with more than 175,000 copyrighted academic e-books and 1,000 popular reading titles recently added to the collection, the school’s circulation statistics prove that reading “long-form reading and digital resources are not mutually exclusive” of one another (Corbett, 2011). While the successes listed by Corbett are impressive, he does acknowledge that the school’s library continues to have room for improvement. Specific issues requiring further attention include: overcoming barriers to using copyrighted, subscription-based resources rather than the (simpler) default of free resources on the Internet; increasing student instruction regarding more vigorous selection/evaluation of digital information sources; and managing finances to guarantee there are a sufficient number of e-readers for all students available.

            Although I can readily acknowledge the benefits of e-readers and other digital resources in terms of space and 24/7 accessibility, I cannot help but think that a complete switch to these formats in place of physical materials, is rash, considering sufficient time has not elapsed since the widespread emergence of e-readers for researchers to gauge the long-term effects of primarily reading books on e-readers as opposed to print. I feel extremely old-fashioned even stating this doubt, but am simply being the devil’s advocate by pointing out the lack of evidence supporting such a drastic switch. While I have not come yet come across any hard evidence indicating that reading books primarily on e-readers has a detrimental effect, I have heard a little about some early studies that suggest e-readers may be a distraction, at least among younger students still acquiring reading fluency. In these instances, children tended to focus on the capabilities of the e-reader device itself, rather than on the content of the text, resulting in less information recall afterwards. However, the study (which, unfortunately, I have as yet been able to locate again!) admittedly only identified a correlation—rather than a causal relationship—between the presence of the e-readers and a decline in reading attention/factual recall; the negative correlation could be the result of various other causes. For example, the decline in attention could stem from the fact that the students with lower recall were already struggling readers who may have used the device as a distraction, resulting from an already-existing lack of engagement. Alternately, those students who focused more on the e-reader device than the text may have come from homes less technology-rich than the children who remained focused, such that their distraction resulted out of the e-reader being a much more novel and attractive device.

            In spite of any personal apprehension about chucking out a library’s entire print collection (although, to be fair: the Cushing Academy donated these materials to local schools and libraries, happily), I readily admit that this scenario represents a very intriguing experiment. And, as much as I mention there not being sufficient data to warrant a “e-reader only” approach to academic materials, I also understand that experiments such as this have to be taken in order for researchers to have data to analyze, so I am far from considering it a wholly negative model. However, I cannot help but think that, while relying wholly on digital materials may be economically feasible for a small, private high school setting such as Cushing Academy, this set-up still smacks as unrealistic for the average elementary school (where young readers are still learning how to wash their hands without prodding and how to handle materials responsibly) and/or public school library in a lower socio-economic neighborhood. In the latter scenario, a student may be able to repay the seven dollars needed to replace a lost chapter book, but can their family be expected to repay the hundred plus dollars to replace a lost or damaged Kindle? Until e-readers become far more affordable and much more durable than they currently are, it seems doubtful that moving to a digital only collection is an efficient—or even realistic—goal for the majority of public schools.