A librarian’s strategies to nurture reading books
Print Edition
I have an obsession with providing authentic experiences where readers continue to cherish and protect their reading life. In the role of a librarian the act of growing readers described in the latter is by modeling such. I don’t model by sitting on my bum cuddling and smooching on a book. Rather, modeling happens in several different ways. The three I want to highlight are: advertisement, fans, and programming.
Advertisement: My favorite form of advertisement is the old-fashioned book talk. I carefully select seven to eight books across genres for each grade level and deliver each with great enthusiasm and empathy within six to eigth minutes. Book talks provide an opportunity for you to get kids drooling, agonizing and literally stampeding for books! It is also a unique opportunity to stimulate intimate relationships between readers and books within a public setting.
Fans: My target fans are teachers, team leaders, coaches, parents, principals, and other adults. Recently, one of our teachers suggested broadcasting bins of teacher’s favorites for Dr Seuss’ birthday. Young readers loved it. They are fascinated with the snapshot of an adult’s reading journey, which, in turn, creates an opportunity for them to grow and diversify their reading bank.
Programming: This involves both advertisement and fans. Aside from the yearly ritual programs like Book Week, I attempt monthly program engagements. For the month of March I enlisted individuals all over the school to share some of their favorite books, short stories, poems, and articles with our elementary students in the library. Again, students were enthralled with these guest readers and on all occasions checked-out the piece of reading that was shared.
While these strategies provide some insight into the ways I nurture the love of reading, I truly value reading as a treasured intimate experience, unique to each reader. We have an obligation to share in abundance our experiences with literature, with a central reminder that our experience with a book is not going to be the same as another’s — don’t take it personally. After all, while we can empathize with someone’s emotional connection with a text, we simply cannot relive his or her experiences because it is, for lack of a better word, theirs. The overall way to nurture the love of reading, is by respecting each reader’s reading life and journey and valuing it as such.
Happy reading!
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