Recommended Reads brochures that I have created can stop this habit, but only to an extent because it lists some books. Some books cannot be included because of space or simply are overlooked.
I am working with one school to put a stop to this habit altogether.
All stage 4 students at the school have a fortnightly wide reading session which commenced this week. I am working on the soft skills that students need for using a school library.
I created a step by step guide for students to undertake a basic search on OLIVER. They were not even aware that the school library has an OPAC and that they can access it at home. Given their academic ability, I've had to keep it simple. Federated searches are too complex for them at this point. As part of the session, I asked students to type either a title of a book or a subject that interests them. I then guided them through reading the search results and then attempting to locate its availability and location. For some students, this helped them locate a book of interest, which they then borrowed. Some had bought in their own book and as such did not need to locate it on the shelf.
