Sustaining the culture of the book: the role of enrichment reading and critical thinking in the undergraduate curriculum - The Library and Undergraduate Education

* reading lists compiled often in collaboration with faculty.

Christensen (1984) describes the Brigham Young University browsing collection and his analysis of circulation statistics which led to collection changes including: more paperbacks, emphasis on fiction especially science fiction, fantasy, and romance (which had been found to be the most popular subjects). He notes the problem of selecting titles for popular reading collections, often little more than a guessing game in many libraries. A literature search on the subject produced no substantive sources, and "gut feelings" seemed to guide book buying for browsing collections. Suggestion boxes, reading lists, lists of recommended authors, observation of what is circulating, book wear, personal reading habits, inventory and circulation losses, and visual appearance of the cover were among the methods used to develop such collections.

Zauha (1993), in her extensive review of recreational reading, readers' advisory services, and browsing rooms in academic libraries, notes that today's browsing rooms are vestiges of the 1920s and 1930s, developed in an era when academic libraries vigorously promoted recreational reading by students:

As repositories of works chosen from the main collection for their

ability to uplift, relax, and stimulate the student reader.... Browsing

rooms still perform this function today, offering readers the

cream of the university's newest acquisitions. Works of popular fiction,

poetry, biography, and current events are selected out of the

larger collection, enabling readers to cope with the profusion of information

that has become characteristic of the academic collection.

(p. 57)

Noting that almost no evidence can be found that browsing rooms are promoted or widely discussed today, she warns of the decline of institutional support and of the danger that they are in jeopardy of extinction in times of scarce money. How does the academic browsing room further the mission of the academic library to support research and curriculum? Wiener (1982) asserts that recreational reading should be considered a necessary and inevitable element of service, as a low-cost high benefit means of readers' guidance, and as a center of intellectual and cultural activity for individuals and for groups. Zauha goes on to suggest mission-based roles for browsing rooms: as a public relations tool, a general stimulus for the intellectual life of students and faculty, a way to combat the academic library's tendency to overwhelm users and stave off information overload, as a bridge to the regular collection, and as a gathering place for students unaccustomed to academic life in general.

The following strategies are among those that have been used to promote reading:

* At New Mexico State, the library compiles "In Celebration of Spring,"

an annual spring booklet of faculty reviews of novels to promote

summer reading. Criteria include entertainment value, insight, and

significance of the work. The longer-term goals of the publication