Library Reading Habits: An Exploratory Study on School Children of Delhi

Abstract

The present study entitled “LIBRARY READING HABITS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON SCHOOL CHILDREN OF DELHI ” was carried out to check the time spent by the school children in the library. The study was carried out in six schools of Delhi out of which two are Government, two are Government aided and two are Private schools, viz., School A, School B, School C, School D, School E and School F respectively. One hundred eighty people formed part of the sample to understand their perspective. Salient features of the study were: 1. Most students from government, government aided and private schools use libraries for reading purposes. Reason for this trend could also be the peer pressure to excel and be better in class and among their peer groups and the highly competitive environment particularly in private schools motivates students to read books beyond their prescribed texts. 2. Students from private schools claimed that even though their library was comfortable and provided a good atmosphere for reading, but the seating space is not always enough as per the class strength and at times a suitable well-spaced area may not be available. In contrast, students from government schools felt that even though seating is provided, most seats are not well built and nearly broken which reduces the number of seatings as compared to the number of students. 3. Most of the students feel that the time spent by them in the library is useful and helps them in the process of learning, the reason probably being that the library opens to them a plethora of resources that helps them connect with the happenings of the world outside their classroom. The percentage is low in case of government schools, because they visit the library on a monthly basis.