1. The Cultures of Reading Reading as Social Practice
Image credit: Victor GAD
585 Reading Interests of Adults
The Cultures of Reading Reading as Social Practice
History / Ethnography of Reading
Marija Dalbello
Rutgers
School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies

2. ‘Reading as a form of behavior is operating as a complex intervention in the ongoing social life of actual social subjects’
ENTERTAINMENT / INFORMATION
USES & GRATIFICATIONS
Richard Gerrig discusses the experience of reading from his research into aspects of what he terms “two metaphors” - that of being transported, and that of performance.
In a series of experiments with different texts telling the same “real-world” story, he found that those stories that were most suspenseful transported readers in ways that made them lose access to the details of he real world, even when these details might normally be expected to influence the moment-by moment experience of the narrative. In successive studies, he found that even when readers knew the real-world outcome of a story, they re-plotted it cognitively hoping for a different outcome even when they already knew it was unlikely. In other words, the organization of narrative can influence feelings in readers, even when they know they are responding to a story that is not real.
In contrast, emotions, emotions aroused by fiction can subsequently affect real-life situations, which may be why fiction so often inspires readers to reflect on their own lives as an effect of fiction.
This research calls into question the presumption that non-fiction self-help/informational books are more “helpful” than fiction, and also raises the issue of a possibly therapeutic, if incidental, real-world significance effect of fiction. Chelton, 1989, p. 44

3. Outline
______________________________
Approaches to the Study of Reading
Ethnography of Reading
Reading in Applied Contexts: Library as ‘Reading’ Institution

4. ___________________________________
Studies of Reading
___________________________________
(Wiegand 1997)
Literacy studies (contexts of literacy practices, rise of the vernacular, authorship)
Print culture history (reading practices affect production & distribution of texts; reading rooted in ‘print as artefactual object’)
Reader-response theory (reading act as process of interpretation, reading integrated with life history)
Ethnography of reading (reading as communal activity, practiced in shared institutions and shared interpretive frameworks)

5. Ethnographic approach to reading ___________________________________
(Boyarin 1992)
Reading as sociocultural act & localized practice - specific to particular contexts and times
Biblical / Talmudic reading
Practice of reading in the European context (monastic reading vs. reading for pleasure)
Pre-literate to literate societies
study of texts reflecting these practices
study of formative processes

6. “Reading” as spoken and described in the Bible
________________
Boyarin: Placing Reading
reading as speech act
Perlocutionary force of the act of reading
Reading as speech act of command, with perlocutionary effect of obedience
Reading as proclamation, declaration, a summons
Searle, Austin “taxonomy of speech”

7. “Reading” as spoken and described in the Bible
________________
Boyarin: Placing Reading
reading as speech act
Literal obligation to read a document
Reading as public act
Collectivity and orality in reading

8. “Reading” as practiced in European culture
_______________
Boyarin: Placing Reading
reading as passive reception
Reader consuming text (silently or orally) alone
Act of reading has no immediate public consequences
Silent reading
Transference of reading from public to private spaces
Saenger, Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading

9. “Reading” as practiced in European culture
________________
Boyarin: Placing Reading
reading as site of erotic tension
Ill-fated readers Paolo & Francesca (Dante)
Moral implications of reading for pleasure (in opposition to monastic?)
vs. tradition of reading as monastic study

10. Ethnographic study of reading
Ethnographic characterization of reading in European culture suggests that reading occupies a socio-cultural space entirely different from the one that it did in the Biblical and Rabbinic culture. It is not a speech-act, public, and liturgical in nature, but passive, private or semi-private, and belonging to the sphere of leisure and pleasure.
Ethnographic study of reading
________________
Boyarin: Ethnography of Reading, p. 24

11. Reading in Applied Contexts ___________________________________
(Wiegand 1997)
Role of libraries in promoting reading RA
Programming
Understanding of readers and their uses of and gratifications from reading
Role of LIS programs in teaching about reading
‘Information’ allows to avoid complexities involving matters of race, class, sexual orientation, age and gender distinctions
Content of information vs. access to information (‘library as reading institution’)
Role of research in understanding the process of reading as
Form of behavior operating as a complex intervention in the ongoing social life of actual social subjects

12. “Can you help me find a good book?”
Library as ‘Reading Institution’
___________________________________
“Can you help me find a good book?”
Reader’s Advisory
Historically, scorn for pleasure reading (even today, RA not advertised)
History of RA services
Pre-WW2: adult education program, self improvement
Post-WW2: disappeared
Recent years: renaissance
From didactic activity aimed at moral transformation to fiction guidance with no attempt to improve patrons’ reading tastes

13. “Ask here for a good book”
Library as ‘Reading Institution’
___________________________________
“Ask here for a good book”
Reader’s Advisory
Tools, methods of conducting RA interview, staff training, promotion of the service to the patrons
Programming: passive vs. active methods
Passive methods: eliciting reader tastes (circulation, surveys?), book recommendations, consultation with colleagues, new fiction racks, book reviews/patron popularity, posting of a best sellers list, genre shelving, book displays, notices announcing new arrivals/new fiction, bookmarks, booklists, and annotated bibliographies, newsletters, sponsored book clubs
Active methods: RA interview (in-depth process, follow-up, use of tools)
Neutral Questioning (Dervin 1981)
Process of “sense-making” in the context of a reference interview: situations - gaps - uses model. What are the universal aspects of uniqueness of that process in which information-seeking occurs?
Reference interview questioning: closed - open - neutral
Neutral questions are a subset of open questions. Open in form they guide the conversation along dimensions that are relevant to all information-seeking situations. The neutral questioning strategy directs the librarian to learn from the user about the nature of the underlying situation, the gaps faced, and the uses (three elements of the sense-making model.
Closed: yes/no, this/that answer
Open: Tell me more about topic X
Neutral: Tell me the kind of problem you are working on, I’ll have a better idea on how to help you.
Neutral questions may seem too prying and may offend the user. Make distinction bw the “why” questions that sound judgmental and neutral questions that elicit the “why” but leave the user in control.
Examples:
What kind of help would you like?
What have you done about this so far?
What would you like this book to do for you?
Handout for reader advisory from Sarick - with elements of readers advisory.
Advisory techniques:
Long-term interviews to be able to advise from a user’s perspective
Provide a way for readers to “search by analogy” (find a book like the one they’ve enjoyed)
Read-alike book lists distributed to patrons.
Returned book shelves.

14. Library as ‘Reading Institution’ ___________________________________
Reader’s Advisory
Tools: NoveList ( EBSCO dbase, by subscription); Pearl, Now Read This; Genreflecting; Reader’s Robot ( Reader’s Advisor, etc. (cf. ‘online sources’ page)
Interview: neutral questioning technique, closing the interview with invitation for feedback, longitudinal, librarian’s knowledge of fictional genres and titles