Focus group – Buxton Community School, Friday 19th March
The group
Eleven young people took part in the focus group: four from Y7, four from Y8, three from Y9. There were six young men in the group and five young women. Ten members of the group were White British, one was from an unspecified ethnic origin.
In terms of academic ability and economic circumstances, the group were mixed. Two young people were from the behavioural unit which is attached to the school.
The library
The school library is a recently refurbished, spacious and modern library. It is a large space at the centre of the school with large windows and good IT facilities. It seems to be a place where a range of activities happen: I am aware of author events, reading groups, writing groups, film nights and gaming clubs taking place in the library. The library seems to be quite a social space, although the young people said that they were only allowed to be in there if they had a book to read.
The plan
Young people were asked to take part in a range of discussions around reading, books and libraries. Responses were recorded on flip chart. The plan for the session is attached at Appendix 1
-
Young people as readers
All of the young people could name a favourite book, although there were several repetitions of authors, suggesting that peer pressure may have played a part, or that young people had limited reading experiences. Authors mentioned included: Jacqueline Wilson (three young women), Stephen King, Darren Shan, Sophie Kinsella.
Two of the young people said that they loved reading; two said that they didn’t read at all. The others read sometimes but were not enthusiastic.
The young people who were keen readers said that they liked to use their imagination and escape to other worlds. People who didn’t like reading said, “There’s just nothing about the whole thing that I like.” “I’d rather be outside playing football.” “It’s boring.”
One young man said that he couldn’t find books that he enjoyed: “It’s only two out of ten books where I get past the beginning.”
When asked what helped them to choose which books to read and what helped them to develop an enjoyment of reading, most said that they were swayed by book covers, blurbs and openings. They also said that their own ability to imagine and availability of good books about subjects that interested them was important. Occasionally they mentioned the influence of family, friends and library staff but they had mixed views on whether these people were important, generally agreeing that friends, family and library staff didn’t necessarily share their understanding of what a good book might be. One young man said that Miss. Wallace (the school librarian) had been a key influence in helping him to develop an interest in reading. He said, “She knows what I like. If I choose a book, I can’t read it but I like the ones she tells me to read.” He also mentioned that his dad tried to persuade him to read Famous Five books which he didn’t enjoy.
2. Young people as library users
The young people’s experiences of the school library were very mixed, four of the young people using the library every day while an equal number only used the library if forced by teachers during lessons. The other three young people used the library occasionally. Interestingly, the young people who didn’t use the library were largely the same group who didn’t enjoy reading.
The young people who used the library cited the following reasons:
- “I hang out with friends and relax”
- “I come to read and talk to friends”
- “It’s better than just being stuck outside”
- “I’m reading a saga (Darren Shan) so I come to read the next bit”
The young people who didn’t use the library said they didn’t use it because it wasn’t somewhere their friends went and that they’d rather go outside. One young man said that he used the library more in the winter because “I like to go outside in the spring.”
The role of the library in being the only indoor space that young people could use during break times was clearly an important factor in its popularity.
The young people who were not keen library users said, “I only use it for homework” and “I come in here for a reading lesson.”
The young people largely felt that the school library played an important function in the school, saying “It’s the centre of the school,” which seemed to be more than a geographic observation.
3. Views on libraries in general
Young people had a range of experiences of different libraries, most having used public libraries and most having strong memories of libraries from previous schools. One young man mentioned the HeadSpace in Buxton Library, saying, “It’s amazing in there.” They liked the range of stock and the layout of the public library and generally remembered primary school libraries as being small, dull and ill-equipped for their needs.
4. Other places young people like to spend leisure time
When asked about favourite places to spend leisure time, lots of young people described their favourite outdoor spaces in the school which included the Astroturf area (where people could play sports and where lots of people hang out.) Others mentioned ‘the benches’ where they could ‘chill’, some talked about the ‘bottom courts’ and one young man had a favourite spot under some trees.
When asked if they could bring elements of other favourite places into the school library, they were unanimous in their agreement that it would good to have an outdoor space attached to the library, where you could read in summer and make more noise than in the library. They liked the idea of being able to move between spaces easily, where currently they have to go all the way round the school from the library in order to get outside.
5. Views on library staff
Young people were largely aware of the staff who worked in the library and the roles that they play, (although I have no way of knowing if their views were accurate.) Of library staff they said:
“One of them books computers, one gets books out and one helps keep things tidy.”
“They tell you what you can get out and what you can do.”
The main qualities they felt they would value in an ideal school librarian were: kindness, cleverness, youth, being ‘good with kids’, “knowing what you want to read” and having good judgement about when to get involved with young people and when to leave them alone. This quality came out particularly strongly with young people saying:
“Someone who leaves you alone when you want to be left alone.”
“Someone who doesn’t pester you.”
“Someone who doesn’t ask, ‘what are you doing?’”
They felt that youth was important in terms of being able to recommend relevant books.
Being “good with kids” was also key. When pressed to explain this quality, they said, “someone who doesn’t shout a lot’”, “isn’t stern” and “enjoys being around them.” One of the young people said: “I know teachers who obviously don’t like kids at all.”
6. Card sort exercise – what’s important in a library
The card sort prompted an interesting discussion. After much debate, the young people decided to order the cards in the following order with the top statement being the most important and the rest arranged in descending order of importance.
It’s important that the library is a place:
- Where you feel safe
- Which has friendly staff
- That has computers
- Where exciting activities happen e.g. clubs and author events
- That has lots of good story/fiction books that you can borrow
- to hang out with friends
- to be alone
- where people can recommend good books to read
- that has lots of factual books to help with homework/learning
Originally the first two statements were further down the list but the young people eventually decided that these were actually prerequisites of them using the library at all. They felt that they would need to feel safe and supported by friendly staff in order to want to go in the library. They said: “If I didn’t feel safe, I wouldn’t come.” “If you didn’t have friendly staff, you wouldn’t feel safe.”
For some of the young people, the role of the library staff in securing their safety was important. Particularly the younger girls felt reassured that library staff would send “big gangs of Year 11 lads” out of the library if they were too rowdy.
The young people were unanimous in feeling that computers were more important than books in the library: “If you’ve got computers you don’t need the books.” However they were aware of the limitations of computers. On the other hand, factual books were felt to be relatively unimportant to the young people because they would be more likely to find the information that they needed on the computer.
There was a debate about whether computers or library staff was more important. The young people were divided on this. One young man said, “computers are more fun and don’t bore you to death.”
They were very much in favour of libraries being vibrant places with lots of activities and author events, rather than quiet places to study, although some of them liked to feel that the library had quiet spaces. They were also very clear about the role of libraries in helping them to find good fictional books to read. This seemed to be something that they all felt was a central function of the library.
The role of friends in the library was important to the young people. “It’s important that friends like it too.” “I wouldn’t come here if my friends didn’t.” Most of the young people also saw the library as a place where they could be alone. “If people pee you off, you can come in here.” “I come in here if I don’t feel happy.” One young woman said she could escape from her friends in the library because they weren’t library users.
7. What makes your library special?
The young people were largely in agreement that their school library was the best library they’d experienced, although some liked the public library and the HeadSpace there.
The things that they liked about it were:
- More open
- Lots of windows
- Nice furniture
- Computers
- Books
- Happy atmosphere.
They complained that other school libraries they’d experienced were:
- Dull
- Small
- Not as happy atmosphere
- No computers
- Not enough books
- Not appropriate books
The things that they felt they would improve about their current school library were:
- Having complete series’ of books; several young people were frustrated because the library didn’t stock all of the books in a series or that they had to wait a long time to read the next one in a series. This was particularly true of manga.
- The inability of libraries to get hold of stock that they requested particularly manga from the US. (Although clearly there is willingness from the library to stock the titles that young people want to read.)
- Buying some more hardback books: the public libraries were felt to be better in this respect
- Having more adult stock: specifically the Shopaholic books were mentioned. The young woman who requested these books felt it was short-sighted of the library to say that these books were ‘inappropriate’ when they were widely read by her age group.
- Being allowed to eat and drink in the library. (All of the young people felt that it should be ok to drink water in the library and some felt that food should be allowed; other young people were concerned about damage to books if food and coffees were allowed.)
- Being allowed to use mobile phones in the library. (The young people were unanimous about this, particularly for emergencies, but they felt that phones should be on silent.)
8. The ideal library
The young people felt that the ideal library would contain the following features:
- Complete series’ of books
- More computers which they could be on for longer, with some computers that they didn’t have to reserve
- Books arranged in genres (the books in this school library are purely arranged alphabetically) so that you could go to the fantasy or horror sections without having to look too hard for their chosen favourites.
- More time to choose books (during lessons) and help to choose books; the young people said they were often only given ten minutes to choose books and ended up with things that they didn’t want to read.
- Mobile phone use allowed
- Music on headphones and listening posts; the young people were divided about whether music should be playing in the library
- “A place where you can chill out, and drink and eat.”
- Less blocks and fines
- A hot chocolate machine
- An outdoor space (with a swing!)
- Comfy sofas
- Nice colours
Libraries that were mentioned as ideal were HeadSpace in Buxton and ‘a big library in Manchester – all glass, loads of books with a cafe.’
9. Could you do without the library?
In spite of the fact that only a few of the young people identified themselves as regular library users, nine of the young people said that they couldn’t do without the library.
Those who felt they could manage without the library talked about the fact that they could do homework at home because they had computers there and that they could also go to the public library. These were young people who said that they only used the library for homework needs. The other young people countered this argument by saying that not everyone has a computer at home.
The young people who felt they couldn’t manage without the library were clearly those who experienced a range of benefits from the library. The young people largely felt that the library was an important part of the school which couldn’t easily be replaced because it was an indoor space and a place to relax. They also talked about its role as the best place to find “great stories.” They didn’t feel they would find the same kind of information about books on the internet, one girl mentioning that she couldn’t find a book she’d enjoyed on Wikipedia. One boy also said, “If it wasn’t for the library, I wouldn’t be reading at all.” Earlier he had described the role of Miss. Wallace in getting him to read.
When asked if there was somewhere else that could perform the same role, one young person said. “There’s nowhere.” This would seem to sum up the views of the majority of the young people.
Beverley Ward
March 2010
