The role of school librarians in encouraging reading for pleasure

By school librarian, Terri McCargar

Reading for pleasure is a reward in itself, but there are other benefits as evidenced by many studies, including higher academic attainment, fostering empathy and emotional intelligence, and supporting well-being. The librarian’s role in promoting reading is not primarily about text comprehension and analysis or even literacy (important though those are). School librarians are uniquely placed to help students to discover the joy of reading, because both our role and the breadth of our book knowledge extends beyond the curriculum. We haven’t read every book in the library (and you’d be amazed how often we get asked this), but we know enough of contemporary and classic works to champion a selection to suit all tastes, levels of literacy and emotional maturity.

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1 June 2022

How to keep secondary school students reading for pleasure

By school librarian, Claire Marris

Reading develops rich vocabulary, improved grammar and enriched expression through the written word. Books are an amazing route into discussing many social, emotional and topical issues. We live in a technological world where scrolling and hunting for likes have a negative impact on attention span. Reading is a skill and one that needs to be harboured at an early age.

In my experience, the majority of students arriving in Year 7 are keen readers and it is then the responsibility of both school and parent to foster and nurture this reading habit. Reading can be compared to sport: the more you practice the better you become.

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1 June 2022