Viva la revolution!

In Lauren Barack’s article ‘Study: U.K. Kids Reading Less, But Digital Formats Pick Up’ on www.slj.com, she writes of the trend in kids that enjoy reading remaining approximately the same as they did in 2005, but that the multitude of other activities is reducing the time they spend on actually sitting down and reading a book. She also notes the decreasing trends in reading in schools and the apparently increasing trend that 16 year olds would be embarrassed if their friends saw them reading. However, Barack then goes on to state that reading outside of class time has grown in number on digital formats from e-Readers to social media. And just when readers who have gone into this blog looking for information on libraries are thinking “what does this marginally interesting article have to do with libraries and what drugs is google on to send me here?” Barack answers by stating that librarians can use the findings that she has presented in this blog (presumably from actual studies) to redefine reading to match the modern era, and to help eliminate the stigma of reading by helping kids recognize that they are readers everytime they read something on facebook, or on a text message, or on a video game, not just when they sit down with a newspaper or a book and actually set to reading.

And she has a point. I don’t have a problem with reading, I rather enjoy it and I don’t really care if people see me reading because most people think I’m a nerd anyway. But during my time at high school, particularly in years 7-10, I noticed a massive stigma against reading. Reading wasn’t considered “cool”. And in high school, with the puberty happening and everything, everyone thinks that being cool will make it easier, when all it does is turn you into a jackass. But these “popular” people played video games, they read their facebooks and their text messages, never realizing that they were actually reading, nothing particularly substantial, but reading nonetheless. And as a bitter, jaded, anti-popular people potentially hipster person, I rather like the idea that those morons have been massively trolled, and with technology so intrinsic in how people live their day-to-day lives, they won’t be able to escape reading. But I do hope that librarians, English teachers, parents, whoever can teach children that reading texts or facebook or anything with words, does in fact count as reading. I hope that that will help reduce the stigma towards reading, and that it will become more accepted, particularly in schools. And I hope that it will spark ideas in schools that dispel the notions of popularity, kind of like the Enlightenment sparking idea towards revolution, only without all the death and bloodshed.

Information? At least it's not Twilight

In her article ‘What is information and is it still what we do in public libraries?’ blogger Michelle McLean explores the very definition of information, and whether fictional resources (novels, DVDs, etc.) are considered to be information. She does this by questioning whether or not the oft repeated phrase that libraries are all about information, and then recounting the point of view of a friend of hers, as well as that of Hamish Curry. McLean considers the services that the library that she works at offers, and ultimately concludes that, while she still isn’t sure whether or not fiction is actually information, a lot of the services offered by libraries still is, and that is what she will be thinking about the next time someone says that libraries are all about information.

And this fascinates me. For starters, the very idea of fiction being information isn’t something that I’ve questioned much. To me, fiction can be extremely informative, for example ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ by Lemony Snicket. I am a massive fan of these books, in part because of the cynicism that I can derive from the books, and in part because they’re capable of being extremely informative, giving definitions for dozens of words in each book. If a work of fiction is written well, it can be informative and entertaining, as is the case with ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’. The exact opposite of this would be something like ‘Twilight’, which teaches the reader absolutely nothing and it’s my personal belief that to enjoy the books at all, the reader must actually shut off their brain whilst reading. Anyway, before I start a massive rant about the abuse of vampires at the hands of Stephanie Meyer, my point is that the “protagonist” learnt no lessons. In fact, over the course of four books, the only things that she ever learnt about are vampires and werewolves. In comparison, the Baudelaire orphans, the protagonists of ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, suffered repeatedly at the hands of Count Olaf and had to learn about who they were, what they could do and how to defend themselves against Count Olaf, amongst other things. Of course, another thing in their favour is that they, unlike Bella Swan, are actually likable characters that suffer real, endless tragedy. But even discounting works of fiction, of course libraries are all about information. From magazines, to newspapers, to the computers and wi-fi access, to the library staff themselves and so many more services that libraries offer, no-one that I have ever met has doubted that libraries are massive centres of information. Even if they are stupid enough to wonder what the big deal is about books, if they want information and can’t find the information themselves online (because let’s face it, with most people having access to the internet, people are more likely to google the information than go to the library), they know that they can go to the library and get some help to find whatever it is that they want.