Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
Bibliotherapy is a concept that involves the use of books to help children cope with their life and has been widely recognized as an approach that will help librarians to better address emotional, behavioral and social concerns of children while reading on the other hand, stimulates imagination, widens views, expands horizon and helps learning about different people and places. Reading is important to human development because it is essential in full participation in the modern society. This study therefore examined the application of bibliotherapy by school libraries as a tool for enhancing reading culture and good behaviors among students. The study employed a descriptive research design with a population sample of 52 senior secondary two students randomly selected from two secondary schools in Enugu, Nigeria with functional library and teacher-librarians. The main instrument for data collection was a 41 item 4-point Likert scale structured and validated questionnaire administered to the students after 10 weeks of reading and discussions of a book written by American authors that talked about safety, love neighborhood, sharing cooperation, tolerance and taking care of our environment. The book that has many stories with the above stated virtues was given to the students to read followed by group discussions which lasted for 10 weeks. The data collected were analyzed using frequencies, percentages and charts while at 0.05 significance, the hypothesis was tested using 2-tailed t-test. The outcome of the study shows that bibliotherapy is indeed an effective tool for enhancing reading culture and good behaviors among students in secondary schools. As there was a tremendous desire and improvement in the reading culture of the students with the application of bibliotherapy and with enhanced reading, the awareness of whom they are and what they ought to do to become responsible citizens became clear to them. It was based on the findings that recommendations were made which include that librarians and school libraries should continually apply this tool as to enhancing the reading culture and good behaviors among students; government should do the needful by equipping school libraries with necessary amenities and have them stocked with pre-vocational books, novels and multi-media materials that will attract students and make reading interesting and that parents as the first teachers of their children, should keep close watch on them and regularly encourage them to read reminding them of the importance of reading among others