The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens
The University of London’s Institute of Education (IOE) has released a study showing that children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better at school than their peers. The study, which is one of the first to examine the effect of reading for pleasure on children’s cognitive development over time, finds that children who read for pleasure made more progress in learning math, vocabulary, and spelling between the ages of 10 and 16 than those who rarely read.
A good library orientation can make the rest of the year easier for students and teachers, as well as for you and your staff. Make it fun and the facts will be more memorable. This year, the Guybrarian is using the scavenger hunt method, with a few tech twists.
According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released today, college enrollment in fall 2012 plunged by half a million (467,000) from one year earlier. This decline, which includes both graduate and undergraduate enrollment, follows a period of substantial growth (3.2 million) between 2006 and 2011. INFOdocket editor Gary Price examines the data, including relevant K–12 statistics.
How to counter the “summer slide”? Simple, kids during the out-of-school months should read more books, according to journalist and author Annie Murphy Paul. And libraries play a critical role
Emily Gover and Caity Selleck, information literacy librarians and content developers for EasyBib and its new platform, ResearchReady, posit that libraries should stay open later hours in order to serve students’ research needs.
Tech-savvy younger Americans are more likely than older adults to have read printed books in the past year, are more likely to appreciate reading in libraries, and are just as strong supporters of traditional library services as older adults, a new national report from the Pew Research Center shows. And, according to the survey of Americans ages 16–29, a majority of young adults say it is “very important” for libraries to have librarians and books for borrowing.
Only one in three parents of children ages eight and under reads stories to their kids each night, according to a new survey by the literacy organization Reading is Fundamental (RIF) and Macy’s.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading today unveiled a new report on the role of museums and libraries in early learning, and issued a call to action for policymakers, schools, funders, and parents to include these institutions in comprehensive early learning strategies.
Here at last! The numbers our readers have been waiting for—the list of average book prices for 2012 and 2013 to date—are finally available.
The significant decline in reading skills many students experience over the summer is no secret, but it’s particularly damaging for children in low-income neighborhoods. ‘Summer Reading: Closing the Rich/Poor Reading Achievement Gap,’ edited by Richard L. Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen, offers an in-depth look at this disparity and offers solutions that go beyond recommended reading lists.
What does a good school library look like? What role does a good school library play in educating New Jersey students? These are the questions Ross Todd, Ph.D., and Carol Gordon, Ph.D., co-directors of the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries (CISSL), sought to define in a recent two-phase study they conducted in public elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the state. In an interview with SLJ,Todd and Gordon share some of their most surprising and illuminating findings, along with the steps they are taking to promote the research this year and their best practices recommendations for how other schools can build successful libraries.
Teenagers are revealing more about themselves on social media than ever before, but they’re also taking more steps to protect their privacy online, according to “Teens, Social Media, and Privacy,” a May 21 report issued by Pew Internet. The report also found Twitter use among teens—especially African Americans—is rising, while teens’ fondness for Facebook is on the decline.
A recent national report from the Pew Research Center that stated that most parents consider libraries important for their children has attracted some criticism from the library community, which is concerned that the findings are based on a skewed sample and put too much emphasis on reading.
SLJ’s 2013 job satisfaction survey reveals widespread happiness among librarians, but challenges persist.
SLJ wants you… to complete our technology survey. And who knows? You might make our cover.
Read News Bites for some great ways to connect with your students—learn more about the immigrant experience with the Smithsonian’s education conferences and offer students Shmoop’s video analysis of dozens of literature favorites.
An important new study of Pennsylvania’s schools shows that students in schools with full-time librarians score substantially higher on reading and writing tests than their counterparts in schools that lack librarians.
The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies has introduced a program to encourage research, discovery and creative collaboration with project-based learning. Smithsonian Quests awards online digital badges to students (and teachers!) upon completion of their activities. The projects are aimed at students of various grade levels, and can be done as part of classroom lessons or independently.
Cool Tools columnist Richard Byrne presents some free options for research that don’t require a login, along with a few quick tips to aid student searches.
The Pew Internet & American Life Project, in collaboration with the Berkman Center at Harvard University, has recently released “Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy”. The report—the first in a Pew/Berkman Pew logoseries with a focus on youth privacy issues—combines a number of quotes taken from focus group interviews conducted by Berkman’s Youth and Media team with Pew data from a nationally representative phone survey of parents and their teens, with a focus on the use of social networking sites. The report is fully downloadable, and may be searched online as well.
