Keep the books on the shelves: Library space as intrinsic facilitator of the reading experience

James M. Donovan

doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102104

Keep the books on the shelves: Library space as intrinsic facilitator of the reading experience

James M. Donovan

Rosenberg College of Law

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Library literature frequently reports projects to remove print collections and replace them with other amenities for patrons. This project challenges the untested assumption that the physical library itself serves no useful function to its users unless they are actively consulting books from the shelves. The alternative hypothesis is that readers benefit from the mere act of studying while in a book-filled environment. To test this possibility, ten subjects completed SAT-style reading comprehension tests in both a traditional library environment, and a renovated chapel that strongly resembles library space except for lacking books. Results provide a reasonable basis to support an expectation that readers perform better on reading comprehension tasks performed in book-rich environments.

Original language	English
Article number	102104
Journal	Journal of Academic Librarianship
Volume	46
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102104
State	Published - Mar 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project was funded by an American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Academic Law Libraries Special Interests Section (ALL-SIS) Research Grant. The author thanks Ellen Lycan for her invaluable assistance on the statistical analyses. An earlier draft benefited from comments during the AALL Joint Scholarship Committee Virtual Colloquium.

Funding Information:
This project was funded by an American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Academic Law Libraries Special Interests Section (ALL-SIS) Research Grant. The author thanks Ellen Lycan for her invaluable assistance on the statistical analyses. An earlier draft benefited from comments during the AALL Joint Scholarship Committee Virtual Colloquium.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author

Funding

This project was funded by an American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Academic Law Libraries Special Interests Section (ALL-SIS) Research Grant. The author thanks Ellen Lycan for her invaluable assistance on the statistical analyses. An earlier draft benefited from comments during the AALL Joint Scholarship Committee Virtual Colloquium. This project was funded by an American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Academic Law Libraries Special Interests Section (ALL-SIS) Research Grant. The author thanks Ellen Lycan for her invaluable assistance on the statistical analyses. An earlier draft benefited from comments during the AALL Joint Scholarship Committee Virtual Colloquium.

Funders	Funder number
ALL-SIS
American Association of Law Libraries

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Library and Information Sciences

Access to Document

10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102104

https://uknowledge.uky.edu/law_facpub/682

Cite this

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title = "Keep the books on the shelves: Library space as intrinsic facilitator of the reading experience",

abstract = "Library literature frequently reports projects to remove print collections and replace them with other amenities for patrons. This project challenges the untested assumption that the physical library itself serves no useful function to its users unless they are actively consulting books from the shelves. The alternative hypothesis is that readers benefit from the mere act of studying while in a book-filled environment. To test this possibility, ten subjects completed SAT-style reading comprehension tests in both a traditional library environment, and a renovated chapel that strongly resembles library space except for lacking books. Results provide a reasonable basis to support an expectation that readers perform better on reading comprehension tasks performed in book-rich environments.",

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Keep the books on the shelves: Library space as intrinsic facilitator of the reading experience

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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