Online Book Clubs Article Discussion

Did the findings prove statistically and Practically significant?

Online Book Clubs for PReteens and Teens

Chase Barton MEDA 5950

Background

The article "Online Book Clubs for Preteens and Teens" discusses the use of online book clubs by the Hennepin County Library in Minnesota. I feel like the idea is a great idea, in theory, to maybe help young readers to get into reading a bit more than they might. The article discusses the decline of reading as teens age. I can see that the discussion is relevevant and that there is a need to increase interest in reading for the targeted age groups. I wanted this article to really show shed some light on ways to get teens to read more, but I feel like the findings were rather disappointing. The article shares results of two book clubs that were held by the library, which will be discussed next.

The article shares that there was high interest in this group, with registration filling up quickly. They share that 17 girls total with 14 of those participating in pre and post-club surveys. The results of the surveys showed positive results, with all 14 surveyed girls stating that they would participate in another book club held by the library.

Girls only Preteen Book Club

These results were favorable. However, I feel that data shared about the study did not show favorable participation. The article states that everyday participation was only around 50% Monday-Friday. The book club also offered two live chat activities to encourage discussion. Disappointingly, attendance for those were small, with only 4-5 girls participating. For these reasons, I would say that findings based of this book club are not significant statistically.

Teen Online Book CLub

I feel like the data shared for this club was also not very statistically significant either. They discuss the participation and how the time of year the book club was held (March) may have hindered success, so they suggest a summer session instead. They also discuss that the book that was used for the bookclub was not very exciting and that the use of a different title may draw more participation. While the results were not statistically significant, I feel as though the results from this book club may lend some pratical results that could be used to hopefully bring success to future book clubs.

Resource

• SCHARBER, C. M., MELROSE, A., & WURL, J. (2009). Online book clubs for preteens and teens: Web 2.0 and gaming in libraries. Library Review (Glasgow), 58(3), 176–195.