My intended topic for my BCM 212 research report into student experience at the University of Wollongong concerns the use of the University library as a source of leisurely reading material for students. I am a regular borrower who enjoys reading in my free time for relaxation and entertainment, and my curiosity is how other students who enjoy reading for leisure obtain their books. This curiosity arises as I rarely see or hear of other students borrowing, and wonder if they have other methods, or if they do utilise the library for this purpose.
I believe this subject is timely as studies have shown that the advent of COVID-19 has led to an increase in reading for leisure in University students, relevant as the library is a resource that the students pay for as part of their tuition fees and if my findings are that students are unaware of this service they may feel it could be improved, and achievable as I have met many students in the BCM degree who enjoy reading and feel as though there are plenty of others that would be worthy interviewees as part of my research.
There has been relevant discourse in recent years concerning the reading habits of University age students in recent years, and I will be looking to draw upon multiple studies in my project. Although they need to be examined with more rigour, I will look to draw upon the following sources;
- Packialaksmi’s research on the reading habits of adolescents during lockdown. I feel this will be a useful source as the researchers target the same core group as me, interviewing 300 undergraduate students in Chennai, India.
- Hu’s analysis of reading behaviour in colleges and universities, and how E-Reading has become more prominent in recent years, and underlines the importance of university libraries for paper and online resources.
- National Literacy Trust research into readers aged 9-18 before and after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this age bracket is slightly lower, I feel it is useful as it is reflective of the reading attitudes of future university students.
- Hughes-Hassell’s study on the relationship between leisure reading and academic performance. I feel this will be useful as it indicates that University students are more likely to read at their leisure in favour of other activities and therefore more likely to be interested in what is offered at the library.
- Nielsen Book’s research into the reading habits of 1,000 adults in the UK in mid-2020. While I don’t have full access to this report I believe that the raw statistics presented in the above article will be useful to my research as they show reading habits from an important period.
As this is an area of University life I am particularly interested in, I feel that I can be reflexive in my approach to both reading and obtaining data from students for this research project. I am hoping that I will be able to obtain data not only about library use, but leisure reading as a whole within our BCM 212 cohort.
References
Packialakshmi, K., Varghese, L.S. and Thenesha, K. (2021). Reading Habits in Digital Era during Lockdown among Adolescent. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, [online] 14(29), pp.2420–2426. Available at: https://sciresol.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/IJST/Articles/2021/Issue-29/IJST-2021-608.pdf.%5BAccessed 21 Mar. 2022]
Hu, J. 1, Meng, L. 1 and Wang, D. 1 1 L. (2019). A Study on the Promotion of College Students’ E-reading Behavior Based on the Reading Behavior of Colleges and Universities. ProQuest. [online] Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2557730704?accountid=15112parentSessionId=otHYWdn0qiROEBXgvzmtV5a%2FDMQP7R0VW%2BRqeBMlJgE%3D&pq-origsite=primo [Accessed 21 Mar. 2022].
Clark, C. and Picton, I. (2020). “It makes me feel like I’m in a different place, not stuck inside.” Children and young people’s reading in 2020 before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. [online] Available at: https://cdn.literacytrust.org.uk/media/documents/National_Literacy_Trust_-_Reading_practices_under_lockdown_report_-_FINAL.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2022].
Hughes-Hassell, S. and Rodge, P. (2007). The Leisure Reading Habits of Urban Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(1), pp.22–33. Available at: https://ila-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1598/JAAL.51.1.3 [Accessed 21 Mar. 2022]
Flood, A. (2020). Research finds reading books has surged in lockdown. The Guardian. [online] 15 May. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/15/research-reading-books-surged-lockdown-thrillers-crime. [Accessed 21 Mar. 2022].
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