1. Maria Butler
Emma Connaughton
Jennifer Connaughton
Katie Dickson
Joanna Dziedzic
AmélieSerres
Laura Sims
Librarian or Psychologist?
Developmental bibliotherapy for teenagers
in Irish Public Libraries
1

2. What is reader’s advisory?
 Recommending books based on what
readers want.
Introduction
What is developmental bibliotherapy?
 Extension of Reader’s Advisory;
 The use of books and their content to
help readers meet everyday
emotional or personal milestone.
2

3. Introduction
Introduction





Timeline
Justification & Research Questions
Method
Data Analysis & Findings
Recommendations & Conclusion
3

4. Nov
Feb Apr
Jun
Jul
Phase 1
Interviews with
librarians & teen
focus groups
Submission of
proposal
Submission
of full Ethics
review
application
May
Phase 1
Interview with
bibliotherapy expert
Full Ethics
approval
Literature research (Nov-July)
Phase 2
Roll out of
bibliotherapy
collection
Aug
Submission of
final project
Phase 3
Inverviews with
librarians & teen
focus groups
Formal presentation
Data analysis & writing of thesis (Jun-Aug)
4

5. Bibliotherapy in Ireland
 2007: North Inner City Book
Prescription Scheme
Justifications
 2009: The Power of Words
 2013: Many Irish Public Libraries have
some form of bibliotherapy scheme
available
5

6. Why teenage bibliotherapy?
Irish teenagers want more than leaflets
(McGrath et al, 2010)
Justifications
They want to know about:
 LGBT issues
 Suicide and Mental Health
 Family Breakup (Lalor and Baird,
2006)
6

7. Provider of
books
Advertiser
Creator
Therapist
The
Librarian’s
Role
Collaborator
Advisor
7

8. Research Questions
1. What are the criteria for creating a
bibliotherapy collection and corresponding
programming for teenagers in Irish Public
Libraries?
2. What are the training needs and knowledge
gaps for Irish librarians to implement this
collection?
3. How would this programme need to be
designed and marketed in order to appeal to
teenagers?
8

9. “Qualitative research aims to
produce rounded
understandings.”
(Mason, J. 1996)
“People want to express
themselves and to participate
directly and proactively in the
design process.”
(Sanders, 2002)
9

10. For ethical reasons, the
identities of our
libraries have been
protected.
10

11. Collection Development
Literature
Bibliotherapy
expert
Librarians
Criteria
Selection
of
materials
11

12. Interviews
Method




Protocol
Semi-structured
Open-ended
Aims and objectives
12

13. Focus Groups
Method




Protocol
Semi-structured
Open-ended
Aims and objectives
13

14. Participation
Teenagers: 20 participants
20%
Aged 17
Female
55%
Male
45%
25%
Aged 16
20%
Aged 13
20%
Aged 14
15%
Aged 15
14

15. Participation
Adults: 7 participants
 1 bibliotherapy expert
 6 librarians
15

16. Knowledge
Limitations
Opinions
Delays
Weather
Focus groups
Data
Meetings
Interviews
Discussion
Collaboration
Findings
Librari
ans
Time constraints
Logistics
Attitudes
16

17. NVivo
 Qualitative software used to
o Code
o Identify patterns
17

18. Reader’s Advisory
Findings - Librarians
 Important component of
bibliotherapy
 Librarians’ understanding of RA
o Knowledge of books
o Knowledge of patrons
 Need for teen advisory?
“The more you speak to them, the
more you can refine what you know.”
18

19. Findings - Librarians
The Librarian’s Role





Approachability
Book providers
Promotion
Bibliotherapy?
Collaboration
“I know nothing about the teenage
mind set.”
19

20. Interaction with Teenagers
Attitude
Librarians
Teenagers
Engagement
20

21. Findings - Librarians
Training & Knowledge Gap
 Awareness training
 Supporting materials
 Personal skills & customer care
training
“Awareness training [and]
familiarisation with the collection is a
starting point.”
21

22. Librarian’s
Role
Interaction
with Teens
Attitude
Bibliotherapy
Reader’s
Advisory
22

23. 23

24. 24

25. “Friends’ recommendations, that’s probably the
biggest thing.”
“You’re gonna go with the one that your friend
said is the best … it’s stronger than any other
factor.”
25

26. “If you make sure that people know that it’s by
teenagers - that the teenagers contributed always works rather than some adults trying to
make you read some book.”
26

27. “Less official
looking”
“Would make
a book stand
out”
“More
appealing”
“Fun”
Informal
“Boring”
“Plain”
“I prefer this
one”
“I don’t think
the title
should be on
the top”
27

28. “A mixture of
both”
“Should be
readily
available”
“A good idea”
“Depends on
handwriting”
“Good... If
they were
articulate
enough”
28

29. “Pop out the
words more.”
“The font
looks more for
kids.”
“It’s really
cool!”
“The yellow
stands out.”
“The title’s
nicely
written.”
“Do the same
with different
books in the
collection.”
29

30. Findings - Teenagers
Girls’ and boys’ opinions differed in
relation to:




Display
Books covers
Book genre
Accessibility
You don’t want to be the
fella who’s looking at
problem books.
30

31. “With the fantasy
ones you can make
up their meaning
yourself.”
31

32. Recommendations
Promotion
 Inserts
Display
 Peer-evaluation
Collection
 Peer-recommendation
 Range of covers for posters
Collaboration
 Interactive web service

33. Recommendations
Promotion
 Separate
Display integrate
 Then
Collection
Collaboration

34. Recommendations
Promotion
 Expand appeal to a wider range
Display the collection regularly
 Update
Collection
Collaboration

35. Recommendations
Promotion
 Collaboration with teenagers
Display
• Input into collection
Collection
 Collaboration with librarians
• Collection
Collaborationshould be optional
• In-service awareness training

36. Recommendations
Other
 Further study: gender perception

37. Conclusion
Conclusion
 Positive response to bibliotherapy
 Teenager and librarian input
 Constant re-evaluation
37

38. Thank you for your attention.
We invite you to ask questions
about any aspect of our
Capstone project.
38