Effect of a program of recreational activities made available in a junior high school library upon use of library materials by students

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a program of recreational activities made available in the junior high school library, designed to increase student use of the library, would bring about an increase in student use of library material. This study was undertaken as an investigation into a possible method for stimulating student use of the junior high school library, even in the absence of administrator and/or teacher commitment to the library's role as the center of the school's curriculum.

The study was conducted at Christenberry Junior High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, an inner-city school with a textbook centered curriculum and little teacher or student use of the library. A program of recreational activities was made available to the students during the school 's lunch period, and students were allowed to go to the library during this time. Before introducing the recreational activities, a record of normal student use of the library was maintained for six weeks. The recreational program was introduced and allowed to operate for four weeks. After the introductory period, the lunch-time library program continued to operate while records were again maintained of normal student use of the library for six weeks. Records were also maintained of the number of items of library material borrowed by each student during both periods of observation.

The data indicated that even though the number of student visits to the library did increase during the second data collection period, the increase was not statistically significant, but there was a significant increase in the number of items of library material borrowed by the students. Additional findings included the information that the borrowing of library material was lowest during each observation period for boys, with only 28% of the seventh grade boys borrowing material during the first period and 33% of the ninth grade boys borrowing material during the second period. The group with the highest percentage of students who borrowed material in both observation periods was eighth grade girls, with 58% of this group borrowing material during the first period and 75% of the group borrowing material during the second period.