Student literacy is a perennial concern in and across nations, with measurement and accountability continually ramped up at both individual student and school levels. Debates about literacy and how it can best be improved are never far from media headlines. However, relatively little consideration is given to the role that school libraries and their staff play in building and maintaining student literacy, despite research linking school libraries and qualified staff to student literacy gains. With the number of students who struggle with basic literacy skills increasing in many nations, school libraries can play an important role in improving the academic, vocational and social outcomes for these young people, thereby increasing their opportunities. Fostering student wellbeing is also a key priority for schools given the challenges young people face in current times. This book seeks to promote greater understanding of the links between reading, literacy and wellbeing that could help students cope with these challenges, and the role of the school library in leading this approach. It explores the current role of school library professionals and highlights how literacy and wellbeing education and support sit within this, paying specific attention to how school library professionals build reading engagement and promote student wellbeing through various approaches, such as fostering health literacy and creating nurturing environments. Readers will be empowered to build a case for the importance of their role and library, and audit their current literacy and wellbeing offerings, and adjust or extend them where applicable based on best practice. The book also explores some of the many challenges facing school libraries and their professional staff that may need to be mitigated to ensure that they can reach their full potential for supporting student literacy and wellbeing.

Identifies evidence-backed and easy-to-implement strategies for encouraging young people to read, and helps you to position your library as an indispensable resource for supporting reading. While most reading research focuses on young children, this book looks at how to support reading beyond the early years and into adulthood. Reporting on strong, peer-reviewed research supported by sound theoretical and methodological approaches, it emphasizes the practical implications of these findings, sharing what this means for you in terms of how you can be a powerful positive reading model and influence in young people's lives. Enriched with the voices of today's young people, the book includes quotes that allow readers to decide how to support reading engagement for tweens and teens based on what would make them read more, as expressed in their own words. Engaging and readable, it will be of interest to school and public librarians and can be shared with teachers, parents, and other literacy instructors and advocates. Considers strategies for countering the biggest barriers to reading as identified by young people Explains how to most effectively implement common strategies to support reading engagement at your school, such as implementing sustained silent reading, having conversations about books, and reading aloud to older children Offers strategies for promoting awareness of the ongoing value of reading and for teaching parents and teachers to encourage reading beyond the point of independent reading skill acquisition Moves away from generalizations that reinforce gender stereotypes and stereotypes about tweens and teens related to their technology use and skills Highlights the importance of access to books and provides evidence for the role of libraries as reading-supportive spaces