WorldReaders

Young Readers reading the World - Teacher-Librarians using Social Networking to Promote Reading Interests

Abstract

WorldReaders is an online social network site for exploring students’ independent reading interests, while providing them with an opportunity for communicating with readers in other countries. The analysis presented draws from blog postings, member profiles, the use of various media tools and general reflections by the author and teacher-librarians who facilitated students’ use of the site. This project provides librarians with a successful example of using social networking to achieve teaching/learning goals, and presents new knowledge on how learners use social networks for learning; how social networks can be a rich resource for studying reading interests; and how best to develop the use of social networking for library applications.