Teachers use comics to promote reading

Some parents and teachers regard comics, with their sentences jammed into bubbles and their low word-to-picture ratio, as part of the problem when it comes to low reading scores and the much-lamented decline in reading for pleasure. But a growing number of educators are looking to comics as part of the solution.   Some East Coast educators are using comics in the classroom. (From The New York Times, December 26, 2007. “Superman Finds Fans Among Reading Instructors by Elissa Gootman)

Generation Y, our most avid library users

Take a look around your branch and you’ll probably notice the largest percentage of your customers fall into the category known as Generation Y a technology loving group aged 18 to 30. This article off the Reuters wire details the findings of a recent survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project about library use in 2007.

“These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down,” said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey results.

“Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are most likely to visit libraries,” she said.

You can read the full report here. 

is 2nd good enough?

Seattle is now 2nd in the list of most literate cities.