Independent Reading

Independent reading has dramatically increased here at Mepham High School thanks to some innovative teachers that are now "teaching the reader, and not the book." Independent reading is student's reading of texts - mostly fiction, but some have chosen non-fiction - that they have chosen themselves. Some of this reading is done in class and some is assigned for homework. 

What has this meant for the Mepham High School Library? Independent reading has translated to record-number circulation statistics. In fact, from circulation statistics culled from September 1 - February 1 of last year and compared to the same time frame for this year, it shows that our circulation has doubled. DOUBLED! Not only that, but our fiction selections have tripled. TRIPLED! 

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We have had a resurgence of reader's advisory. Like J.K. Rowling has said, “If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” We are working hard here to pair the right books to the right readers. This has been the most fun challenge. We have had some amazing success with this. Students are reading. ACTUALLY READING. Some for the first time in a long time. And reading A LOT. Some are reading 6-7 books and it's only February! We have also has some failures. But we always ask students to come back and try again if they do not like their original selection. 

This means that we need to change the way we approach purchasing books. In the past, I have used the bulk of our budget (3/4) to purchase non-fiction books that support the curriculum. Recognizing that the many databases we subscribe to do an outstanding job of this already and are updated so frequently, we have shifted our focus to fiction, short stories, and memoirs. More fiction books checked out means that we need more books on the shelves for students to choose from. Hardcover fiction books typically cost between $15-20, that's 1/4 of the price of many non-fiction books. So, if fiction books are cheaper, that means that I can stretch our book budget and purchase more books. We have had to weed our fiction section to make room for newer titles and have been able to replace older favorites with newer copies, making them more enticing to our readers.     

With this increase in independent reading, comes more overdue notices, lost books, and tracking students down for their books because other students want to check them out. But these are problems I will take any day! 

Like our clock wall says, "So many books, so little time."