We have had a recreational reading area in our library for over 6 years and it is very popular and continues to be – even with electronic resources.  Our students continue to say they want books to read – print ones.    We have books, not magazines, however.  We are actually going to add some leisure magazines this year, I think.   Our students (and yes, our faculty and staff) love our reading area – and we are not that great at promoting it.  That is another thing I want to do this year.  We have an area in the library with big comfy couches and a gas fireplace. 

 

We buy bestsellers, award winners and themed books (for instance, we bought lots of books on the Winter Olympics when they were in Vancouver) but not as a blanket purchase – I select them.  There are many bestsellers that I would not buy – I have to think about my audience.

The best part of our collection is that it is very dynamic.  We weed regularly and only keep recent books (past two years, generally) unless they are must keeps (the Harry Potter series is still heavily borrowed).  The items we weed out go into our yearly books sale for our United Way Charity campaign in November.

 

I still see our print recreational reading area as an important part of our collection and as a popular service to our patrons.

If anyone has any questions – don’t hesitate to ask.

 

Shelley

 

Shelley Hawrychuk  Hon. B.A., MLIS

 

Collection Development Coordinator

 

Subject Librarian for CCT, Drama, English, Economics,

Government Documents, Reference, Sociology

Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre

University of Toronto Mississauga

3359 Mississauga Rd

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

L5L 1C6

905-569-4365

shelley.hawrychuk@utoronto.ca

 

P please consider the environment before printing this email

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re in the process of opening a new Learning Commons and while we’ve always had a Leisure Reading section for magazines, I’ve been pretty haphazard in making choices for this section.  I was thinking about doing a little survey through our Facebook page directed to our students to see what they enjoy reading.  I was also curious about choices that are being made by others on the list.  Because of all the electronic resources  I know are Leisure Reading area is not as heavily used but are others seeing that as well?

 

Thanks,

 

Marcella Lesher

Professor/Periodicals Librarian

Blume Library

St. Mary’s University

One Camino Santa Maria

San Antonio, TX  78228

 

Phone:  210-431-2299 ext. 1322

 

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