CONCLUSIÓN PRINCIPAL

People who worry about the future of reading in the United States might do well to find hope in the case studies presented here. Clearly, recreational reading plays an important role in these media centers. Media specialists looking for ideas for promoting reading will find successful models in the examples of the media centers in this study. These four schools in North Carolina demonstrate recreational reading programming, readers’ advisory, and public relations activities that other school libraries could implement. If the media specialists interviewed are indicative of a general trend, it is obvious that school librarians remain dedicated to promoting recreational reading. In addition, each librarian mentioned students that recreationally read fiction, nonfiction, and magazines from the school media center.

Currently, many public libraries provide extensive services and collections for young adults, meeting a variety of needs for information, education, and recreation. Young adult programming at public libraries often includes book groups and poetry slams, and readers’ advisory services include reference sources, booklists, and suggestions from librarians. Indeed, some overlap exists between the recreational reading activities at the four schools in this study and those at public libraries.

Partnerships between public libraries and school media centers might provide an exciting avenue to combine resources and expand current programs for promoting recreational reading among young adults.

However, because this study focused on four high schools, it is impossible to generalize conclusions to larger groups of media centers, media specialists, or students. More extensive studies of media center practices and attitudes towards recreational reading would help elucidate the state of reading promotion in high school libraries. In addition, this study relied solely on the media specialist for information; future research could incorporate observation and student, teacher, and other library staff interviews. Indeed, there are many other factors that could affect recreational reading that have not been addressed here. Funding level, school and regional culture, and administration attitudes could affect recreational reading. Also, it would be interesting to examine student achievement as related to the role of recreational reading in the school media center. High school seems different from primary education in that students read less due to busy academic and extracurricular schedules; however, it would also be intriguing to compare the role of recreational reading across elementary, middle, and high schools. Answers to these questions will continue to shed light on the current state of recreational reading in school media centers.

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Appendix A: Consent Form