SCHOOL LIBRARIES WORLDWIDE

Volume 9, Number 2, 2003, 62-72.

Theme: Adolescents' Information Seeking and Use

Picking the Flowers in the 'Fair Garden': The Circulation, Non-Circulation and Disappearance of Young Adult Non-Fiction Materials [PDF file]
Jennifer Burek Pierce
Research and practitioner publications offer indications of the importance of nonfiction materials to young adult information needs. The present study attempts to discern patterns of adolescent information seeking by analyzing reports of unused and underused materials in the young adult collections of an individual library system. Such an approach contributes to a fuller picture of adolescent information-seeking behaviors by complementing existing survey or interview-based research. The analysis shows high use of materials in areas which are nonetheless flagged by computer analysis as non-circulating. Collection analysis indicates there is evidence that high-use items disappear from the collection at significant rates, that these items have monetary value, and cover topics ranging from sex and drugs to rock stars.

Copyright of works published in School Libraries Worldwide is jointly held by the author(s) and by the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL).The author(s) retain copyright of their works, but give permission to IASL to reprint their works in collections or other such documents published by or on behalf of IASL. Author(s) who give permission for their works to be reprinted elsewhere should inform the editor of School Libraries Worldwide and should ensure that the following statement appears with the article: Reprinted with permission, from School Libraries Worldwide, <issue volume, number, date, pages>.

Last updated 8 July 2008 (KSB)