Survey of Reading Practices 2009 Summary for Stanley Milner Public Library (Edmonton, AB) Sample size: 135 1 September 2009 This survey is part of a research study on reading practices conducted by Dr. Patricia Demers (patricia.demers@ualberta.ca) of the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. Unless otherwise indicated, the results for questions that allowed participants to circle more than one answer are calculated out of the total number of responses to that question rather than the number of respondents who completed the survey. What types of writing do you like to read? Total number of responses: 662 Total number of respondents: 137 Newspapers 11% Novels: 113 Non-fiction: 100 Magazines: 82 Newspapers: 73 Short stories: 51 Online news: 49 Poetry: 33 Comics: 31 Social networking: 30 Blogs: 23 Other: 23 Plays: 20 Graphic novels: 19 Forums: 15 Online news 7% Poetry 5% Comics 5% Social networking 5% Novels 18% Forums 2% On hand-held devices 5% 2 Short stories 8% Magazines 12% Blogs 3% Other 3% Plays 3% Graphic novels 3% Audio books 7% How do you like to read? Total number of responses: 207 Total number of respondents: 137 On computer 25% 3 Do you care if your reading material is Canadian? On paper 63 % Yes 34% No 66% Total number of responses: 136 Total number of respondents: 136 45 responded YES 91 responded NO canwwrfrom1950.org 4 If not, why not? Want variety & diversity of perspectives 24% Prefer not to read Canadian writing 10% Note: We grouped the responses to this question into 5 categories and calculated the percentages based on total number of respondents who answered the question. Total number of respondents: 81 Care to an extent 20 % Representative sample of comments: I read a mix of authors/topics. I do read Canadian authors (some are on my must read/follow lists) but not exclusively. Good writing is good writing, whether or not it’s Canadian. No reason 19% I prefer if it ISN’T by a Canadian author. I find Canadian writing very boring—the themes are all very similar. 5 Select based on content quality 38% If you do care, what types of Canadian writing appeal to you? Total number of responses: 304 Total number of respondents: 70 Magazines 13% Novels: 50 Non-fiction: 42 Newspapers: 42 Magazines: 38 Short stories: 31 Online news: 21 Poetry: 16 Social networking: 13 Plays: 12 Graphic novels: 10 Comics: 10 Blogs: 10 Forums: 7 Other: 2 Newspapers 14% Short stories 10% Online news 7% Poetry 5% Social networking 4% Plays 4% Novels 17% Other 1% Forums 2% Graphic novels 3% Comics 3% Blogs 3% Note: 25 respondents who said they do not care if their reading material is Canadian in question 3 answered this question anyway. canwwrfrom1950.org 6 Yes 8% No Do you care if the writers you read are male or female? 92% Total number of respondents: 135 7 If you do or do not care, provide a reason: Note: We grouped the responses to this question into 5 categories Total number of respondents: 85 Of the 10 respondents who said Of the 75 respondents who said YES NO 5 indicated that they prefer the female perspective 3 indicated that they choose to read women’s writing as a form of social activism 2 indicated that gender doesn’t affect selection but does inform reading 72 indicated that they do not see a difference between male and female writers, or that content is more important than gender of the writer 3 no reason Representative sample of comments: I find it doesn’t make a difference in the quality of the writing, and also it’s good to get different perspectives. Representative sample of comments: I identify as female and find I can relate more to a female voice. I like writers of both genders. I believe in giving female authors a try since I know more of the population tends to read male authors/books etc. Gender does not determine whether a piece of literature is good or not. It depends on the context. If someone is writing a book about childbirth, I would be more inclined to read it if it was written by a woman. If it’s a novel, gender wouldn’t matter to me. canwwrfrom1950.org 8 Please provide examples of Canadian women writers you read: Margaret Atwood 32 Alice Munro 17 Margaret Laurence 16 Carol Shields 11 Ann-Marie MacDonald 7 Ami McKay 5 Miriam Toews 5 Barbara Gowdy 4 (Letter size denotes frequency) Writers Listed Twice: Anita Rau Badami Anne Cameron Helen Humphreys Joy Kogawa Kelley Armstrong L.M. Montgomery Louise Penny 9 Margaret MacMillan Marilyn Dumont Mary Lawson Padma Viswanathan Pauline Gedge Sandra Birdsell Shani Mootoo In what language(s) do you read? Total number of responses: 194 Total number of respondents: 108 Others 9% English: 131 Other: 16 French: 9 Spanish: 8 German: 7 Others: Mandarin, Ukranian, Arabic, Italian, Tamil, Persian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Dutch, Hindi, Urdu, Norweigan, Tagalog 10 English 77% French 5% Spanish 5% German 4% If you do read in multiple languages, do you do so occasionally or regularly? Occasionally 67 % Regularly 33 % Total number of respondents: 32 canwwrfrom1950.org 11 Do you enjoy reading material by international writers? 92 % Yes 8% No Total number of respondents: 119 12 Do you play electronic games that tell a story (massively multi-player online games, solo quest/adventure games, etc)? Yes 21 % No 79 % Total number of respondents: 131 13 Indicate gender/year of birth: Gender Total number of respondents: 132 Gender Male 29% Female 71% Year of birth Age Total number of respondents: 131 18-25 15% 66+ 9% 26-40 24% 41-65 52% 10 canwwrfrom1950.org 14 Additional comments (selected sample): Canadians seem to write better non-fiction than fiction. We are awash in American TV, so I try to stick to Canadian/British writing. Hobbies: history of Canada and cooking. Dr. Merv Huston. Favour his work. Peter Newman on the Hudson Bay Co. John MacDougall-Alberta History. Agatha Christie and P.D. James (Brit. writers I enjoy) I currently do the majority of my reading in book form. With the improvement and drop in price of e-readers, I can foresee that in the near future I will switch to an e-reader to do the majority of my reading. I am concerned that there aren’t many audio books that are produced in Canada or that have Canadian content or Canadian authors. 11 canwwrfrom1950.org