| The purpose of this study was to clarify the relative effects of booktalks, showcase book displays, and personal recommendations upon the books circulated in a junior high school library. Other influences on student book selection were examined as well. A second area of interest dealt with student attitudes toward reading.; Subjects were drawn from the seventh grade literature classes of a junior high school. Students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. At the beginning of the study, 242 students participated; that number was reduced to 233 participants by the end of the four-month study.; Whenever students checked out books, they filled out student circulation questionnaires identifying the reasons for selecting those books. Ten selection decisions fell into three groups: librarian influenced decisions, personal recommendations, and "other" reasons. The selection decisions were examined by means of a chi square analysis, and significance {dollar}(p < .05){dollar} was revealed.; The BJP Middle/Secondary Reading Attitude Survey was administered both at the beginning and at the end of the study. Gender, group, and time were the variables under consideration. A series of ANOVAs were computed to determine whether there was any attitudinal change over the four months of the study. There was no significant interaction between group and gender in either the pre-test or the post-test. There were significant main effects for gender and group in the pre-test. In the post-test, there was no significant interaction between group and gender. The main effect for gender remained significant. |
