[CALIBK12] Eating and reading in the school library: past and future

[Stephen Krashen]

Sent to the School Library Journal

We were very happy to read about the successful
attempts to include drinks and snacks in the school
library in “Café Society” (January,
2008).  We were, however, disappointed that our paper
wasn’t mentioned. We like to think that
“Eating and Reading in the School
Library,” published over ten years ago in
Emergency Librarian (now called TeacherLibrarian),
played some role in encouraging school libraries to
move in this direction.  

We are still in the early stages of our careers and
would appreciate receiving some recognition for our
efforts.

Your readers might be interested in our newest
research. Since there's a possibility the number of
library cafés may have peaked, we're presently
exploring the idea that the next big thing will be
library sushi bars.

The advantages are considerable: 1. The bar area is
small enough not to take space away from shelving; 2.
Sushi pieces can be handled with one hand and thus
free the other hand for turning pages; and 3. Sushi is
served cold and wouldn't require heat (always a threat
near printed materials).

Sincerely,

Jim Trelease
Stephen Krashen


Citation: Trelease, J. and Krashen, S. 1996. Eating
and reading in the school library. Emergency Librarian
23,2: 27.