Teens and E-Readers, Examining Teen Library Use of Electronic Reading Devices in Public Libraries: A Research Design Amy

Bones, Chelsea Brown, Jessica Edwards

Emporia State University

Research Problem The goal of this study is to determine whether having readily available access to e-readers and e-books will increase the amount of time young adult readers spend on recreational or leisure-time reading. To date, there is existing research on these two disparate subject matters, but no research as to the interaction between the two subjects. There has been research done on e-readers in higher level academic and university libraries (Foasberg, 2011; Borchert, Hunter, McDonald & Tittle, 2009); there has been research done on young adults and their leisure-time reading habits (Howard, 2011; Springen, 2012); but there is currently a dearth of information on how the former might affect the latter. This project is designed to quantify the desire that young adult readers have to see access to e-reading devices in their local libraries, as well as to what degree the availability of those devices would increase occurrences of reading for pleasure. This project uses a mixed-methods framework in order to produce research that could conceivably be used to justify future investments in e-reader heavy technological infrastructure. This study will benefit LIS scholarship by providing insight into a population that has yet to be studied in regards to e-reader usage, as well as increasing the field of knowledge on e-reader usage in general which, due to the recentness of e-readers, is a body of knowledge in need of further growth. This research will also benefit LIS practice by providing a practical understanding of the interactions between e-readers and young adults, an understanding that could serve to influence practical decisions on funding and resource allocation for technologies in the future.

Research Paradigm The philosophical assumptions behind our research borrow from both positivist and interpretivist schools of thought, as our team does not necessarily believe that the two need be held diametric opposites or mutually exclusive. It is for this reason that we have chosen a mixed-

methods approach, for we believe that, by borrowing from both disciplines, we will be able to come to a fuller understanding of the research question at hand. Listed below are the traits of both disciplines our group tends to employ, as well as the means by which we mean to employ them, all of which are traits taken from Social Research Methods, written by Alan Bryman in 2008. A. Positivist Traits Attempt to quantify key variables and relate them: Our group seeks to understand the relationship between the key variables of young adult use of ereaders, and the time spent reading during available leisure time. Results measured and analyzed statistically: This research project begins its data gathering with a survey to be issued to the two senior AP and two senior regular English classes at Harmon, Schlagle, Washington, and Wyandotte high schools, the four high schools that make up the Kansas City, Kansas school district. From there, surveys will be coded to provide a statistical understanding of the relationship between interest in teen e-reader use through the Kansas City Public Library and reading in leisure time. Identify cause and effect: Beyond the immediate scope of understanding of the statistical relationship already outlined, our group hopes that this research may be used by the Kansas City Public Library to determine if the cause-and-effect relationship between teens, e-readers, and leisure time reading makes ereaders a fiscally sound investment for their young adult services. B. Interpretivist Traits Descriptive research conducted in the natural setting: The second half of our research design involves pooling those students who select to be interviewed

further on their initial survey, selecting a random 10% of those who responded affirmatively, and interviewing those students in an in-depth, semi-structured, focus-group style interview to take place at the four high schools. This will allow our research to take on an added level of description while allowing the teenage high school students to remain in their natural environment. Importance of context: This research project seeks to get at the context of the research in understanding that these are Kansas City teenagers being asked specifically about services at the Kansas City Public Library, and thus this is the context to which any answers to our question must be applied. Gain insight in to new questions for future research: As mentioned in our literature review, there is currently little research we were able to find on the intersection of young adults, e-readers in public libraries, and leisure time reading rates. By conducting this study, our group believes that this research can help to fill in this research gap.

Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis The number of participants is, at this time, difficult to pin-point, as the pool of our possible participants is determined largely by those who choose to be interviewed further on their quantitative surveys. From this pool of possible participants, however, 10% will be chose for further focus-group interviews to be held at each of the four high schools (those students chosen will be interviewed at their home school). The specific characteristics of our participants are high school seniors who attend either honors/Advanced Placement or regular English classes at each of the four

Kansas City, Kansas high schools (Harmon, Schlagle, Washington, and Wyandotte). Participants will be selected from the pool of high school students that indicate an openness to further questioning. From this pool, a simple random sample will be used to select 10% of the total population for actual further interviews. This project will not need further advertising for growth in the total population, as those who will make up the final pool have already participated in the quantitative portion of the study. While the meetings with the students will take place at each of the four major high schools (as there are three people in our group, that means that each person will be responsible for a different high school, with one member taking on the remaining interview), the procedure for the interview will be the same. Meeting in one of the English classrooms provided by the high school, the students will be interviewed in a focus-group format following the interview script created by the team. These meetings will occur approximately six to eight weeks after the initial surveys are submitted, giving the group the opportunity to generate the master list of possible interview candidates, apply our simple random sample, and gain permission and establish a schedule with the participants selected. Our qualitative data collection procedure will consist of semi-structured, focusgroup interviewing of those students selected from the interview pool. These interviews will follow an interview script of guiding questions, although participants will be encouraged and given ample time to discuss the questions amongst themselves. The interviewer will intervene as little as possible, except to

guide the discussion to the next question when appropriate. This method was chosen for this portion of our research project because we believe that the students being interviewed will feel more comfortable in sharing amongst their peers than in a one-on-one setting with an adult; furthermore, realistic financial and time considerations make this method conducive to gathering the qualitative information we desire in a way that is feasible. All research raises particular concerns in various areas. Our study also presents possible issues and limitations. There are various problems that may arise with working with a population of minors, as that means parental permission as well as high school permission must be attained. Furthermore, not knowing beforehand how many students will self-select to participate in our focus-group interviews could result in either a too small or too large population of possible interviewees. This leads to the limitations of the study, which are primarily that our interview pool is restricted by self-selection, and first-hand experience with high school students has raised concerns in the group about the difficulty of getting high school students to agree to further commitments beyond their school and social lives. However, we believe that by opening our original study to include students in both Advanced Placement as well as regular English classes will begin to eliminate some of the dangers with the self-selection problem by introducing a greater amount of diversity in the original pool. We also plan on working closely with the administration and district members in the Kansas City high school system, hoping to gain their help in soliciting teacher support and parental permission.

Our interview script was created originally by our team, after creating and examining more closely some of the key questions from our quantitative survey, questions we thought would benefit from more in-depth examination. These questions will be pre-tested through use during a trial focus-group interview composed of Emporia State MLIS students enrolled in LI810 who volunteer to be our test group. The interview will be conducted following the procedure to be followed during our actual focus-group interviews, and afterwards a general discussion will take place concerning the format of the interview and possible areas for improvement. There are three external sources of permission that will need to be acquired in order to conduct our research. The first is the permission of the different high schools (Harmon, Schlagle, Washington, and Wyandotte) to let this study be conducted during their English classes. The second source of permission is that of the parents of the students, at least those who are still of legal minor status; the third is that of permission from the students themselves. This research project does aim to take place within distinct boundaries. As it relates to our research question, our study WILL be doing the following: 1. Conducting semi-structured in-depth focus-group interviews in order to come to a deeper understanding of the feelings of high school students towards e-readers in their public library and how this might influence their leisure-time reading

2. Providing a survey to be completed by the students in order to develop a statistical background of support and elucidation for the qualitative information gathered during the interviews 3. Providing an analysis of the relationship between the variables established in the specific context of the Kansas City area and the Kansas City Public Library 4. Continuing the pool of research concerning the e-reader as a new development in literary technology, as well as its use in various environments Our group, however, WILL NOT be doing the following: a. Attempting to assert final conclusions on teen e-reader usage in locations or environment outside our stated context and population b. Providing final financial advice to the Kansas City Public Library on its budget for technological services or the young adult departments resources c. Making any statements as to whether or not e-reader usage amongst teens or in public libraries is appropriate or desirable, or the ethical or political concerns that the use of these devices might raise Quantitative Data Collection and Analysis The quantitative portion of our research concerns itself with the parent population from which the survey population is selected. For this portion of the analysis, our units of analysis will be the 300 high school seniors surveyed from each of four Kansas City, Kansas high schools (Harmon, Schlagle, Washington, and Wyandotte)

The data for this portion will be collected from the entire available population of senior students in each of two classes of Advanced Placement and regular English at the four high schools that compose the Kansas City, Kansas school district (we say available to indicate an allowance that not all students may actually be in school attendance on the day the surveys are administered). The data will be collected by distributing the same survey to each class during the course of their normal English class period, to be completed within that length of time. As with the first portion of our research design, the quantitative portion will follow a survey research design, using a pre-formulated and pre-tested survey to be completed in-person and hand submitted by the high school students that compose the population. We believe this tool to be the most effective for our study because it is a tool that, more-so than any of the others, provides a bigpicture statistical understanding of the relationship between the variables we are examining, while preventing us from needing to perform any experimental action, as manipulating the population at hand is not the intended goal of our research. Although we are collecting data from and about people, our group is choosing not to make provisions for follow-up or call back on the initial data survey. We understand that not all students may be present for the survey, due to restraints of time, money, and logistics, it would not be possible to follow up with each of these individual students to obtain their survey answers. However, there will be follow up with those that indicate a willingness to be interviewed further, as outlined in our analysis of our qualitative data collection method.

The data collection tool necessary for this portion of our research, the survey to be administered to the students, was composed through careful studies of a number of different surveys administered to different populations but concerning e-reader and public-library use (Foasberg, 2011; Borchert, Hunter, McDonald & Tittle, 2009). These questions were selected for both their perceived well-crafted nature as well as their relation to the topic of our study; however, it should be noted that all questions were adapted to our specific situation when necessary. Our survey will also be field tested using a group of Emporia State MLIS students, this time from those enrolled in LI 801, so as to avoid any bias with the group of LI 810 students used to field-test our focus-group interview questions. There are three sources of external permission that will need to be obtained in order to conduct the research. The first is permission from the four high schools (Harmon, Schlagle, Washington, and Wyandotte) to let his study be conducted during English classes. The second is parental permission from students who are still considered minors. The third is permission from the students themselves. There are always influencing factors in quantitative research that are worth discussing. In this particular study, the fact that not all students can be guaranteed to be in attendance on the day we administer our survey could have negative impacts on the full reliability of our data, as it is hard to have complete and full statistical significance when members of the original population are absent. In addition, the fact that we are attempting to understand the interaction between three variables (teens, e-readers in the library, and leisure time reading) may lead to a misfire in the validity of our questions accurately addressing each of these

three areas. And lastly, our study acknowledges from the outset issues with largelevel objectivity, as our study makes no claims to apply to populations outside of our stated context, which is to say high school students in the Kansas City, Kansas school district who use and have access to the Kansas City Public Library. All of this being said, our team also believes that we have taken as many measures as possible to minimize the effects of these issues on the final research product. Our team fully acknowledges the limitations to the generalizability of our study due to a smaller sampling framework, addressing only a small population of Kansas City, Kansas high school seniors, limiting the ability to generalize beyond this age group or geographical location. However, we have chosen this population, even with its limitations, due to practical concerns with the amount of time it would take to gather more information from more districts, as well as issues with the fiscal means necessary to expand research in this fashion. We also believe that studying this question in relation to the Kansas City Public Library will allow us to provide our limited analysis for one of the larger libraries in the Kansas City area. Ethical Considerations As this project will ultimately aim at publication through Emporia State University, our group has consulted the universitys Guidelines for Research, Demonstration, and Related Activities Involving Human Subjects and University Policy Statement to determine the ethics approval we will need. According to this document, last revised in 2001, states that the three principal concerns of the board are three broad guidelines: protection of subjects, responsibility to the University, and responsibilities of the investigator. In order to cover these three

broad guidelines, the Emporia State IRB as issued the following requirements concerning the ethical use of human subjects in research: 1. Questionnaires, inventories, interview schedules and other data gathering instruments and procedures must be designed so as to limit the personal information to be acquired to that which is absolutely essential to the project or activity 2. Names, addresses, serial numbers, and data transferred to tapes, disks, and printouts must be encoded or enciphered 3. Informed consent is the agreement obtained from a subject (or authorized representative) to the subject's participation in a project or activityIf the subject is a minor (under 18 years), is incompetent, or is under some other legal disability, consent must be obtained from the legal guardian of such person and from the subject 4. A consent is valid only if it is an "informed" consent. The consent must be made after the proposed procedure, treatment, or activity and the risks, dangers and possible complications have been carefully described to the subject and/or authorized representative. The IRB also outlines appropriate materials to include for the informed consent letter and, while the requirements are quite extensive and available online (http://www.emporia.edu/research/irb.html#appendix-a), the primary requirements are as follows: 1. A statement that the study involves research, an explanation of the purposes of the research, a description of the procedures to be followed,

including an identification of those which are experimental, and the expected duration of the subjects participation 2. A description of any reasonably foreseeable discomforts or risks 3. An offer to answer any inquiries concerning the procedures and an explanation of whom to contact in the event the subject has questions later or sustains a research related injury 4. An instruction that participation is voluntary and the subject is free to withdraw consent and to discontinue participation in the project or activity at any time without any penalty or loss of benefits to which the subject is otherwise entitled, and refusal to participate will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which the subject is otherwise entitled In the context of our groups research, there are a few ethical considerations that we must pay attention to. This includes the complete confidentiality of those participating in the survey and as much confidentiality as can be provided to those students who self-select for possible further interviewing. This will be accomplished largely through the removal of all names or identifying information from publication; instead, each students survey will be given a number that will correspond to the personal information of the student. This information will be kept password protected and split up amongst the researchers involved, and will only be used to get in touch with those students who wish to be involved in the interview. Furthermore, informed consent will be gathered from both the students and the parents of those students who are still minors. In the final publication, all students will be given pseudonyms.

APPENDICIES APPENDIX A: A Portion of the Quantitative Surveys to be Distributed to High School Seniors Emporia State is conducting a survey on student use and desire for e-readers in the Kansas City Public Library. A similar survey is being distributed to the senior English students at each of the four high schools in the Kansas City, Kansas school district. The results of this survey will be used to assess the desire for e-readers in the public library, as well as the likelihood of an e-reader increasing leisure-time reading. The survey should only take about 1015 minutes to complete. Please provide your contact information on the final page if you wish to considered for further discussion of some of the topics raised during this survey. All responses will be treated confidentially. 1.) 2.) 3.) I know what an e-book is: Yes No Not sure I have used an e-book: Never Once A couple of times Often

I own or have readily available access to an e-reading device: Yes No Not Sure 4.) If yes, what kind of e-reading device? If no, skip to question five. Kindle Nook iPad Kobo Sony E-Reader Other: __________________________________

6.)

I use public library services (book/media checkout, tutoring, reference assistance, etc): Never Seldom (A few times a year) Often (A few times a month) Frequently (A few times a week) I was aware that the Kansas City Public Library provided e-books: Yes No Not Sure

7.)

Using the following grading scheme, please circle your response to the following questions. 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 Neutral 4 Agree 5 Strongly Agree

8.) During the free time I have, I generally choose to read (book, magazine, newspaper, etc). 1 2 3 4 5 9.) During the free time I have, I generally choose to be outside doing something active. 1 2 3 4 5

APPENDIX B: Survey Script for Semi-Structured Focus-Group Interviews 1.) Do you think that most students your age use the library frequently? Why or why not? 2.) Can you further explain the ways in which you use the services of the Kansas City Public Library? 3.) Are there any services that the library doesnt offer that you wish they did? Would the addition of these services make you more likely to use the public library? 4.) What do you enjoy doing in your free time? Why do you enjoy doing these things? 5.) For those of you who have used e-books or e-readers before, what did you enjoy most about the experience? The least? 6.) For those who have not used e-books or e-readers before, is there anything that has kept you from doing so? Would you use these things, if you were given the chance? 7.) What kind of materials do you most enjoy reading for school? For yourself? 8.) What kind of materials would you like to see made available for e-readers? What one thing would be most likely to get you to pick up an e-reader or an e-book? 9.) Do you think that e-books or e-readers would make the homework you have to do easier or more difficult? Would you be likely to use an e-reader for school purposes? 10.) Would having access to an e-reader and teen-friendly e-book collection increase the amount of reading you do in your free time? Why or why not?

APPENDIX C: Additional Research Documents Informed Consent Letter CONSENT TO SERVE AS A PARTICIPANT IN A RESEARCH PROJECT Project Title: Teens and E-Readers, Examining Teen Library Use of Electronic Reading Devices in Public Libraries Principal Investigators: Amy Bones, Chelsea Brown, and Jessica Edwards. This research project is being conducted through Emporia State University. If you decide to participate, Emporia State requires that you give your signed informed consent. Please read through the basic project description below. If you agree to participate, please sign at the bottom of this form and remove the copy provided for you at the end of the survey to keep for your records. Nature and Purpose of the Project: This research is intended to examine the relationships between young adults and e-readers. The questions within this survey will explore different aspects of this relationship, as well as the relationship between young adults and their local public libraries, in this case referring specifically to the Kansas City Public Library. Your answers to this survey will allow us to determine the extent and nature of these relationships, as well as providing future insight in to the possible allocations of technology budgets. Procedures: This survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete. Please return the survey and signed consent form to your teacher once youve completed all of the questions. Potential Risks or Discomfort: There is no foreseeable discomfort or risk associated with the taking of this survey. Potential Benefits: Providing honest answers on this survey could potentially benefit the full understanding of the ways teens use e-readers, their likelihood to do so, and the possibility of further technological development for the young adult department at the Kansas City Public Library. Confidentiality: Your responses will be collected and kept fully anonymous at all times. This survey does not ask for your name, age, or other personal identification information. Email addresses for those who indicate that they are willing to be interviewed further will be kept in a separate database; all database information will be distributed between the three principal researchers and will be kept under password protection at all times. The results of this study will be used for academic and scholarly research and decision making; because of this, select results from this study will be shared with various academic faculty and professionals from Emporia State or other university campuses, and may be shared at academic conferences or published in academic journals.

Withdrawl from the Project: Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. If you choose not to participate for any reason, simply return the survey incomplete to your teacher and wait for him/her to issue further instructions. You may choose to stop participating at any time, and if you choose to do so, any answers you have already provided will be discarded from the study. For Questions about the Project: For questions on this research project, including questions about your right as a research subject or to report a research-related injury, you may email any one of the principal researchers at the following addresses: Amy Bones: abones1@emporia.edu Chelsea Brown: cbrown8@emporia.edu Jessica Edwards: jedwar10@emporia.edu

LI810: Research in Library and Information Sciences Submitted April 26th, 2012 Team Seven: Amy Bones, Chelsea Brown, and Jessica Edwards Project Summary Report

There and Back Again: Team Sevens Research Journey and Project Summary Report 1.) In the Beginning: The Big Picture When our group began the process of determining what our research project would study, we were in relative agreement from the beginning that we wanted to focus on teenagers and young adult reading. Jessica teaches in a high school, and both Amy and Chelsea have experience dealing with that age group, Chelsea specifically in a library setting. In addition, after multiple discussions in both LI 810 and LI 801 about the importance and shifting nature of technology, we also knew that we wanted to incorporate this discussion in to our research project. Having decided on these two factors, we soon landed on seeing how the two intersected, using local high school students and e-readers as the variable lenses.

2.) Roadblocks: The Literature Review Once our group began to try and assemble our literature review, we made a realization that let us know that we were on the right track with our research; however, this same realization made it that much more difficult to put the literature review together. Essentially, there was not much research on teens using e-readers in public libraries. The studies we were able to find mostly focused on e-readers being used in private university libraries (Foasberg, 2011; Borchert, Hunter, McDonald & Tittle, 2009) or on the relationship between young adult readers and their local public libraries ((Howard, 2011; Springen, 2012). The fact that we were not turning up any research that related all three variables indicated that this was truly an area of the research that we could potentially fill with new information. So, using an amalgamation of the information those studies were able to generate, our group formulated our hypothesis as to how this information would transfer to our target population.

3.) Partial to a Paradigm: Building the Research Design Once our literature review was complete, our group took on the difficult task of compiling a mixed-method approach, which required an understanding of the multifaceted paradigms of both Positivism and Interpretivism. However difficult this undertaking may have been at the beginning, we came to the realization that, in order to get the deep understanding of the question that we truly desired, we would need to utilize both experimental paradigms. We looked closely at the quantitative survey tools used by those researchers we read for our literature review, compiling what we felt to be the most useful of their questions in to our survey, which we then added to and adapted to our context as necessary. Then, examining this document, we determined as a team what areas we believed needed more explaining, or would paint a much fuller picture with deeper examination and from there created our interview script.

4.) What a Long, Strange Trip: Finishing our Research Project At the end of this process, we have put together a document we are extremely proud of. Working together as a team, we have sculpted our general notions of wanting to study teens and technology in to a specific research question that we believe provides insight in to an area that few others are exploring. It has taught us, perhaps not to love research, but to value the process.

TEAM SEVEN MEETING MINUTES First Meeting: February 14th, 2012 Research question/project: Would teenagers (13-16) be more willing to use an e-reader as opposed to the same text available in print form Project leader: Chelsea Secretary: Jessica To do for next time: Post list of article titles/authors that I'm considering Read and post summary/review of the articles Prepare for the meeting next weekend Group members absent: NONE SECOND MEETING: March 25th, 2012 Project leader: Chelsea Secretary: Amy To do for next time: Finish posting article summaries Finish adding final citations to paper (Amy) Complete first edits on rough draft of literature review, posted online in the file share (Jessica) Do final round of edits once Amy and Jessica have finished their work on the document (Chelsea) Group Members Absent: NONE