Teenagers reading

I’m a PhD candidate at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia. I’m investigating the information habits of teenagers, including their recreational reading and internet use, and methods to encourage library use among teenagers, particularly through graphic novel collections in public and school libraries in Australia.

My supervisors are Dr Maggie Exon and Dr Helen Merrick from the Department of Information Studies.

clare.snowball (at) postgrad.curtin.edu.au

Research proposal

Teenagers have been found to be reluctant to read in their leisure time, the importance of recreational reading necessitates methods to encourage teenagers to read. One format that has been discussed as a possibility to engage teenagers in reading is the graphic novel.

The objective of this research is to investigate the inclusion of graphic novels in library collections and whether this format encourages teenagers to use libraries and read in their free time. Graphic novel collections in Australian public libraries were investigated through a survey of Australia-wide Young Peoples’ Services (YPS) librarians. Interviews with Western Australian public and school librarians provided further insight into their library’s graphic novel collections and the librarians’ perceptions of the graphic novel format and graphic novel use by teenagers. Teenagers’ views on public libraries, their levels of recreational reading and thoughts on the graphic novel format were determined through focus groups. The difficulties in finding teenagers to participate in the research was overcome by selecting participants from local high schools, accessible through the researcher’s network of contacts.

You can find further details of my research here.