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Introduction
Online book clubs are just beginning to become points of conversation in non-research journals in education and library science. Many book clubs geared for adolescents are school-based, occurring before, during, or after school with teachers, but researchers are beginning to take notice of the possibilities that exist for literacy and learning outside the classroom, including possibilities offered through community libraries. Public library online book clubs are sites of possibility - a medium through which libraries can readily encourage literate practices in younger generations. This manuscript grounds the concept of online book clubs in theory and research and details two online book clubs geared for preteens and teens offered through a metropolitan public library system. We hope that the information provided in this manuscript will enable and motivate libraries to create their own online book clubs.
Literature review
Decline in reading?
Over the past 20 years, research continues to show that reading scores plummet and voluntary reading rates diminish as children move from childhood to late adolescence (National Endowment of the Arts, 2007; NAEP, 2005). Nine-year-olds read more than their 13- and 17-year-old counterparts (National Endowment of the Arts, 2007). Fifty-four per cent of nine-year-olds said they read almost every day for fun whereas only 22 per cent of 17-year-olds did so in 2004. Reading comprehension test scores are lower for both 13- and 17-year-olds than for nine-year-olds (National Endowment of the Arts, 2007). Of course, there is a countermovement to this research that is striving to "debunk this myth that youth are not reading" ([11] Moje et al. , 2008, p. 146). What "counts" as literacy/reading (do web pages, text messages, magazine and comic books count?) and the lack of research on adolescents' outside-of-school literacy practices are primarily the points of contention. It is well established in the literature that kids move from readers to non-readers between childhood and late adolescence. Therefore, it is imperative that we as educators, librarians and citizens accept the challenge to sustain and inspire voluntary reading in the next generation. "Ninety-three per cent of teenagers are online; nine in ten American teens between the ages of 12 and 17 are internet users" ([8] Lenhardt et al. , 2007). Given adolescents' predisposition to technology, online book clubs may be...