Beginning Readers, Mass Media, and Libraries

How does a child select a book? What must a child know in order to find reading material? What skills must the child have in order to use a library satisfactorily? What is the role in mass media in acquiring reading skills? By observing children's spontaneous actions at Haifa University's Laboratory for children's Librarianship in Israel, the author has attempted to answer these and related questions. Beginning readers with varied socio-economic and cultural backgrounds participated in the study; some 900 children from seven schools in Haifa were observed in the Laboratory. Beginning Readers, Mass Media, and Libraries describes the use of libraries from the point of view of a child in the process of acquiring reading skills. Preschoolers, first-graders, and second-graders, whose curiosity and interests are much greater than their skill at deciphering text, can be lost as readers and library users if their special difficulties and lack of experience are not taken into account by the libraries serving them. Sever suggests that library collections and services, including the use of mass media, can be created to help the beginning reader enjoy reading, be able to scrutinize mass media critically, and become an enthusiastic library user.