A Good Comparison Piece

I came across an interesting study that is along the same lines and similar in scope to the research I'd like to propose.  The study, called "How do adult new readers locate high-interest, easy-to-read books?" (Scates, Public Libraries, 1999), compares five public libraries in Texas, examining the literacy efforts of each.  Specifically, the author/researcher looks at the number of adult new reader books held by the library, the existence of a literacy program, and the knowledge of the staff about whatever program may exist.

It struck me upon reading this paper how similar part of Scates' methodology was to that in the study I have been forming in my head over the past few weeks.  At first my reaction was, "Oh no, someone has already done the research I want to do," but after a careful examination, it turns out there are many differences between what I would like to do and what Scates has done.  Seeing this paper published in Public Libraries made me feel like my ideas are legitimate ones and worthy of putting into action.

Scates searched each library's OPAC for the existence of books from a list of recommended titles for Adult New Readers from the Public Library Association (PLA) for 1993-1997.  She also compared the location of each title on the shelf.  She produced tables showing the number of titles each branch collected and the number of titles located in Juvenile, Young Adult, Adult, New Adult Reader, and Easy sections.  The libraries differed greatly on the number and location of titles.  Only one of the five libraries had a section specifically set aside as "New Adult Reader".

This process is something I would like to implement in my own study, although I may use a different list for the comparison.  I also wish to look at the collection of non-literary materials instead of just books.

The most interesting part of Scates' study was her method of finding out how knowledgeable the staff at each branch was about their literacy collection.  She worked on the assumption that a new reader or illiterate adult would call the library only once for information on their literacy collection, and would not make a second attempt if they did not receive the information or assistance they were searching for.  Based on this idea, she made one informal phone call to each library branch and asked the same general questions to the person who answered the phone: "Does the library system have a literacy program?"; "Do you know of any materials in your collection for adult new readers?"; etc.  Surprisingly, four of the five libraries surveyed were unhelpful and could offer no literacy program or book recommendations.

Scates refers to this part of her study as the "survey".  I would contend that this part of her methodology was not a true survey and would certainly not be scientific enough to please Robson.  By only surveying one staff member from each library, the results are perhaps more unfavorable than they would have been had the researcher surveyed all staff members.  However, for Scates' non-scientific purposes, I think the survey she conducted was valuable and enlightening.  If she had conducted a full, formal survey of all staff members, they would probably have caught on to what was being asked and been better prepared to respond with answers that make themselves look informed.  My own study will likely be more formal and scientific than hers, but it does make for an interesting comparison piece.

Next Steps

So far my research proposal is coming along alright.  The last few chapters of Robson's text have contained good, useful information on administering surveys and interviews.  I have not yet decided whether to use a structured, survey-type interview or a more in depth, unstructured interview for my sample of illiterate/aliterate adult patrons.  I am leaning toward arranging a sit-down conversation with those individuals, and perhaps utilizing a more structured, paper survey to garner the library staff's opinions and suggestions.

What I really need to focus on at this point is exploring literature, opinion pieces, literacy facts and figures, and other research proposals I can use as models or to get ideas for what works.  Much of the existing research focuses on what the library can do to improve literacy in the community or to rid the community of illiteracy.  I have not come across much data or opinion pieces on serving the illiterate population "as is".  The piece by Cram which I cited in an earlier post is the only thing I have seen to indicate that this line of thought even exists.

I have, however, come across some literature that I should be able to put to good use.  One of these offers a sample list of good adult new reader material, which could also useful for establishing a collection for ESL students and patrons with learning disabilities (Hibbets McCaffery, "Growing the Literary Collection", 1995).  The collection should include recreational and informational materials, plus materials for teachers or tutors.  The materials are listed based on their Fry Reading Level, which can be calculated based on the average number of sentences and syllables in a 100-word passage.  This article and other similar pieces could be useful in establishing whether the library system contains the listed materials or other comparable texts for adult new readers.  Additionally, I would like to find a piece that lists suggestions for good A/V materials to include in a collection for non-readers.

I also found an opinion piece, the subject of which I would like to explore further.  In "Mission Aborted?" (2008), Grosso expresses doubts over the transition of libraries toward a place geared toward multimedia/gaming/entertainment materials rather than books.  The author claims that the average library's collection is now two-thirds multimedia materials, which he sees as an extremely negative direction for the library industry to be heading.  I have no doubt that there are other similar opinion pieces about the perceived degradation of the library's purpose in our society.  These types of opinions may be seen as in direct conflict with my research purpose and proposal.  However, I think that our purposes can be consolidated.  What I want is not necessarily to increase the non-literary portion of the collection, but to see whether we are choosing the right non-literary and low-level literary materials for our collection.  This means ensuring that the available materials are not solely of entertainment value, but also contain educational and instructional material as well.

Onward....

Flexible Design - Oh Yeah!

As I suspected, a flexible design seems like much more my style.  I like the concept of triangulating to combine many methods of data collection.  I think my design will ultimately fall somewhere in the realm of a case study/grounded theory study.  I especially like the idea of the grounded theory study, which will allow me to continually collect bits and pieces of information in the field, mull it all over, and go back to see what else I can find.

Possible methods of data collection I have been considering include:

--> A detailed analysis of the library collection and materials - not just counting the number of non-literary materials available, but also examining the collection with an eye for purpose, usefulness and depth of the non-literary collection.  Is the collection of DVDs, audio CDs, and books on tape or CD mainly geared toward recreational purposes or does it also contain educational and practical materials (such as a DVD on car repair)?   Is the non-literary and the early adult reader collection diverse and varied in subject matter and medium?  Does the library provide access to a DVD or CD/tape player that can be used onsite by patrons?

--> Interviews with library staff regarding their views toward illiteracy and the library's involvement with the non-literate community.  What do they see as the purpose of the library?  Who is it there to serve?  I would also get their thoughts on the diversity of the library collection, the collection guidelines they follow, and their organization-wide practices toward and treatment of minority groups.

--> Interviews with non-literate members of society.  [Note:  I have started using the term "non-literate" as a way to encompass the idea of illiterate adults as well as those who are aliterate, or simply do not read, even though they can.  All my research will be focusing on adults and will not include children who have not yet learned to read.]  These interviews would attempt to gather information on how these people feel the library serves them (or does not serve them).  Do they ever go to the library?  If no, why not?  Would they go if they knew the library had materials they could use?  Are they interested in DVDs, CDs, media, computer programs, adult picture books, books on tape or CDs?  Would their interest level change if the library provided means for watching DVDs or listening to CDs?  If they do go to the library, why do they go?  How do they feel they are treated there by staff and other patrons?

--> Other possible interview candidates might include politicians; members of NGOs, organizations and associations that advocate for education rights, illiteracy reduction, etc.; volunteers such as ESOL or adult education teachers; or members of library associations such as the ALA or SCLA.

--> Literary research on the history of thought and philosophies surrounding the purpose of the government-funded community library.  Who is it there to serve, what kind of materials should it offer, and how have these ideas changed in recent years with the advent of technology and the emphasis on collecting non-book materials?  There are some pretty strong opinions out there about the fact that books have been fading to the background in most library systems these days.  If my research considers whether there is a need to add more (or better) non-literary materials to a collection, these are viewpoints I will need to consider.

-->  I've also considered possibly doing a role-play type activity in the library, where myself and other volunteers or recruits would enter an unfamiliar library and attempt to take on the mindset of someone who cannot read.  This might include trying to find certain materials without reading signs, asking library staff for assistance, and filling out an application for a library card as someone who cannot read or write.  Then I would interview candidates to find out their experiences in this activity - how they felt they were treated, if they were comfortable in the library, if they were able to find their way around or if staff was willing to assist them, etc.  This type of thing may be too unscientific for a legitimate research proposal, but I thought it might be an interesting thing to try.

One of the main challenges I face so far has been trying to determine the best way to pick out interview candidates that are unable to read or only read at a very low level.  Although illiteracy is widespread in America, it is not something that is typically broadcast openly, and even if I ask, I cannot be sure that people will honestly admit such a thing.  I definitely think I would need to conduct this study in a fairly large, urban library, at least the size of the Richland County Main Library.  I volunteered for RCPL for a little while and noticed a lot of patrons who clearly are not coming to the library to read.  It is largely well-known and accepted in Columbia that many homeless people and people who may not have air conditioning in their homes come to the library as a place to hang out in indoor comfort, especially in the summertime.  These patrons could make good interview candidates if I were able to get some of them to open up to me.

That is all for now - thanks for reading.

Possibilities of Fixed Designs (or Lack Thereof)

Up to this point, I have been thinking a flexible design would really be ideal for the type of research I'd like to perform.  I still think that will probably be my ultimate choice, but it's nice to know after reading about fixed designs that some type of experiment would not be an off-the-wall approach to studying a social issue such as the treatment of a non-literate minority group in a library geared towards readers.

Any experiment I might design to answer my questions so far will have to be a small-scale operation, working with limited resources and relatively few participants.  I would likely be looking at something like a two-group RCT design with a pre-test and a post-test administered.  This could take the shape of a comparison between two libraries or two library systems, one in which nothing is changed and one in which a treatment is given consisting of the implementation of an outreach program to non-readers.  This might include establishing greater use of icons and picture maps to demonstrate where materials are located; and increasing materials that illiterate or low-literate adults can use, such as adult materials on a lower reading level, audio materials in different languages, magazines and adult picture books; and performing some type of community outreach.  

I am honestly not crazy about this design because it presents a lot of challenges in data collection methods and establishing validity.  I could probably get usage statistics fairly easily, so I could figure out whether the materials for the targeted minority group were being used, but I cannot think of any easy way to find out if the person using the materials is illiterate or has a low reading level.  The only way I can come up with to identify patrons who are illiterate, short of asking every person in the library whether they can read or not, would be to somehow incorporate members of a literacy class, as Dr. Solomon suggested in his comments.  I could certainly perform some sort of verbal survey on the students in order to glean their thoughts and ideas on the availability of materials for non-readers in the library.  Perhaps that would give me a better idea of where I want to head with the experiment and what questions I am actually trying to answer with all this.

All this is to say, I am just about ready to learn more about flexible designs and hope that I am able to come up with something a little more sensible and practical.  We'll see.

Rethinking Illiteracy

I’ve been gathering my thoughts thus far in a notebook (actually in a couple of random notebooks), so it is probably past time for me to get organized and write some of this stuff down in a coherent, cohesive format.  Already my concept of research, especially the type of research we will find most useful as librarians/information specialists/media specialists/etc., has been altered by the content we’ve encountered so far.  I began this semester thinking of “research” as exploring online databases, narrowing down keywords, using truncation and wildcards and all that other good stuff, with the ultimate goal of locating information that already exists.  These are great skills to have, but “real world” research is not necessarily about finding the data that already exists, but about collecting the data that has not been collected and answering the questions that have not yet been answered.

As my understanding of the material has begun to come together, so has my research proposal begun to take shape.  I started with the desire to research some aspect of literacy within libraries – obviously a very broad topic.  Efforts to teach literacy in libraries and schools are already well documented.  The problem of adult illiteracy has been looked at from just about every angle possible – as a class issue, a race issue, an immigrant issue, a fault of our education system, and so on.  I have no desire to complete the same research someone else has already done, so I have been brainstorming to come up with a different angle.

Public library systems often make great efforts to teach adult literacy classes, as well as adult computer literacy, information literacy, media literacy and the like.  These are good and high-minded endeavors, but I have found myself thinking about how adults who are unable to read must feel upon stepping into a public library.  The first step to being able to reduce adult illiteracy is to get illiterate people to step through the front door.  This must be an incredibly intimidating action for most of them.  Let’s face it, libraries don’t exactly cater to the comforts of people who are unable to read. 

I found an interesting piece by Jennifer Cram called “Potential Unexploited: Public Libraries and Adult Literacy” that I think I will use as a base for my research theory.  Cram says that libraries and librarians have the mindset of catering to “Homo Typographia, Typographic Man, a kind of sophisticated subspecies of Homo Sapiens.” (Progressive Librarian, no. 18, p. 40).  This means that libraries view illiteracy largely as something undesirable that cannot be tolerated and needs to be corrected.  The materials that libraries do offer which illiterate or non-literate users could take advantage of are offered on the premise that they are being offered for those too young to read, for those with visual impairment, for those who can read but perhaps want to listen to a book on CD or tape in their car, for those just learning to read, etc.  What Cram is saying, and what I agree with, is that libraries really only treat illiteracy as a temporary issue that can, and should, be rectified.  Hence, libraries do not cater to the needs of the illiterate as a permanent minority group, as they do other minority groups such as the elderly and the handicapped.  I think, however, it is important to recognize that there are illiterate adults who will never learn to read, or who may not even feel it is something they want to do.  This does not mean they deserve to be ignored as a population with special needs.

With this theory in mind, my research would pick one community as a case study and seek to answer questions such as:

                What is the percentage of illiterate/aliterate/non-literate adults in a community?

                How many of these adults use the library compared with attendance by other minority groups?

What information sources does a typical library system offer that can be used by the illiterate/aliterate/non-literate population?

What are the views of library staff, library users, and library benefactors/donors toward illiterate users?

How do illiterate users view the availability of materials that they can use in the library?

What steps can be taken to be more welcoming to this minority group?

Thanks for reading - more to come.