Libraries and Reading Habits Among Elementary School Children: The Concept of the Classroom Collection

Abstract

The elementary school regards the development of reading skills and the cultivation of free reading among students as one of its tasks. one of its ways of achieving this is to operate libraries in the school. Some schools provide only a central library. Some societies or locales, however, also believe in operating classroom collections in the elementary grades, so as to increase children' a exposure to books and reading. The reading habits of 301 fourth-grade students in Israel were examined. The sample included: (a) children who participated in a class library project in grades 2-3, with a central library also existing in the school; (b) children who participated in a class-library project in grades 2-3, with no central library in the school; and (c) children who did not participate in a class-library project, while having a central library in the school. Certain contribution of the class library project emerges, but the realization of this contribution depends on the existence of a central library in the school. A class library is not a substitute for a central collection. It can only constitute one approach among different approaches that can encourage children reading.