Chapter 20. ADULT AS A READER

Adult education and self-education can not be imagined without reading a variety of literature. The perception and interpretation of the printed word over the centuries remains one of the main sources of information that a person needs. With the help of reading, it is entering the culture, opening up opportunities for personal development. On the basis of reading, training is built on all its stages, starting with preschool education. Being a very special cultural phenomenon, reading is a universal means of developing both general and professional personality culture.

As part of andragogy, reading as an educational source is interesting in the context of a person’s personal fate. An adult as a subject of the educational process is actively involved in the selection of information sources and the construction of individual education. Therefore, one of the typically andragogical tasks is the development of an adult as a reader who knows how to navigate the sea of ​​literature, possessing the necessary skills and abilities to work with scientific, technical, artistic texts.

Competition of other sources with printed information in the second half of the 20th century. became the basis for the prediction of the death of reading, the crisis of book culture and its replacement by audiovisual sources. However, this forecast is not confirmed by numerous studies of sociologists, psychologists, library scientists, teachers. The data of the international comparative study conducted by VTsIOM in 1998 in European countries and the United States indicate a high proportion of reading in the life of a person both in the field of vocational education and in the field of leisure.

Today, there are two trends associated with reading. On the one hand, there is a certain narrowing of the former field of book culture, turning it into one of the information sources along with the media, video, computer networks. On the other hand, there is a significant deepening of the very concept of "reading" in connection with the philosophical attitude towards "the world as a text", which is read, cognized through the "languages ​​of culture".

Due to the increasing complexity of the sphere of production, an increase in the number of high-tech technologies among specialists, the need for constant professional reading increases. A special role is played by professional reading in the period up to 29-30 years, when there is an active inclusion of a person in all types of social life. This is reflected not only in the search for books in the specialty, but also in the formation of interest in legal, economic literature, work on management and business communication, practical guidelines such as "How to organize your business", "How not to go broke in the market", "How to organize productive communication "and others.

In professional reading, especially scientific, of primary importance is its focus. It implies the ability to use catalogs, reference lists, reference books, readiness to use computer technologies in finding the right sources. The selection of literature, which is essential for solving problems that arise, the ability to screen out secondary or unnecessary (in general or now) is an indispensable condition for the productivity of professional reading. Of course, a part of this work can be performed by a bibliographer, but most of it falls on the reader himself. Therefore, learning to search and evaluate information that is really in demand and will provide the required assistance is an important part of the general and professional culture of an adult as a reader and specialist.

A special role in enhancing the effectiveness of professional reading is played by knowledge of rational techniques, methods of working with text, both pre-reading and used during reading and after it. Methods prior to reading are aimed at selection by the reader from the list of literature already known to him of the most important, significant works and a quick look at less significant ones. Methods during reading are focused on the development of speed reading methods, the use of special text labeling, methods of mental structuring and "convolution" of information, etc. After reading methods are associated with the system of interpretation and understanding based on the revision of the read, reference to the extracts made, work with notes .

Sources of reading are both home, and municipal and scientific libraries. The number of readers in the latter not only does not decrease, but in some cases grows. The proportion of non-readers in Russia is half as many readers, although quite significant. In different regions, it is from 1/4 D№ 7z adults. These are mainly elderly people from rural areas who have not been attached to any cultural communications. In the 90s, the proportion of non-readers did not grow, remaining stable.

According to the available data, on the control day of full registration for three years in 53 surveyed libraries of Russia there were 6 thousand visitors who took 12 thousand books. The share of sectoral literature in book distribution was more than 27%, fiction - more than 64%, including domestic - 34%, foreign - 28%, periodicals - 7%.

Even in difficult modern conditions, people buy books for home libraries: out of 1,000 respondents buy from 1 to 5 books a year to 30%, from 6 to 10–9%, from 11 to 20–5%, more than 20–2%. Home libraries with up to 100 books have at least 30% of the inhabitants of all types of settlements (Moscow, St. Petersburg, cities and towns, villages); from 100 to 300 - not less than 20% in cities and 15% in the village; from 300 to 500 books - from 7 to 14% in cities of different types and 1% in the village; from 500 to 1000 books - from 3 to 9% in cities and 1% in the village. Over 1000 books - from 0.9% in the village, to 8% in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

To an even greater extent than in professional reading, personal orientation is manifested in the reading of fiction by adults. The motives and methods of its reading as part of the general culture of the individual are different from the motives and methods of professional reading, submitting to other laws. The choice of books for the home library in recent years has clearly changed. The shelves of home libraries, where "serious" books are collected, are now replenished with literature that has a compensatory-relaxation (comforting, healing, entertaining) function. These are detectives, adventures, romance novels, fantasy, formerly considered to be non-prestigious literature. A reading adult and within its framework finds masters of one or another genre.

The reading elite (people with higher education, including librarians) have higher rates of reading serious literature: the classics make up 43%; historical literature - 56%; poetry - 31%; modern Russian and foreign prose - respectively 22 and 14%. But here, too, reading fiction is above average, above and reading detective stories - 43%, reading occult literature is 23%, with an average rate of 10%. The share of reading love novels and jokes is at the level of averages: 28 and 18% respectively.

The opinion that the readers of public libraries are mostly pensioners is wrong. The share of these people in a number of libraries slightly exceeds 10%. The most active part of readers is people aged 20–45 years. According to the MFN, their 54% (up to 20 years - 31%). There are more women than men among readers, although in some regions this difference is insignificant (54 and 46%).

What works are in demand among adult readers, what motives are they guided by the choice of books? Experts note that a shift in motives and a change in the standards of high reader taste lead to a rethinking of the functional and semantic role of literature in the life of a modern adult. A kind of reader emancipation is spreading in all areas of reading. Fashion is reviving, especially among the middle class, to prestigious books. Today, for example, these are the works of B. Akunin, V. Pelevin, T. Tolstoy. The current reader turns his attention to the literature of unjustifiably forgotten or serious, great writers of pre-revolutionary years (for example, N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky, etc.) undeservedly forgotten or deliberately rejected, and modern (Yu Trifonov, Yu. Dombrovsky, F. Abramov and others).

Among the motives for reading an adult, the most characteristic are pragmatic and compensatory. Pragmatic motives are associated with reading, carried out in the framework of study (preparation for exams, reports, performance of a specific task) by students and specialists who raise their qualifications or are engaged in self-education. Compensatory motifs occur when reading is a means of discharge, distraction from unpleasant situations, performs a kind of psychotherapeutic or relaxation function.

Recently, researchers noted an interest in detectives and romance novels besides compensatory function of knowing life from the back door, satisfies the need for a superhero or “beautiful” life. If the latter motives used to be characteristic of not the most prepared groups of readers, now the compensatory role of reading is growing in the environment of highly educated readers, the reading elite. There is a lack of previous interest in poetry. His place was taken by the fascination with humor and anecdotes. Interest in relatively new genres has also been recorded - mysticism, tough fantasy, thriller.

In parallel with the enthusiasm of entertaining and comforting reading among adult readers, there is a growing interest in books on philosophy, religious studies, and cultural studies. The leading place in serious reading is genre-thematic and historical reading. The readers' love for it is an old tradition that took place in the 19th century. and reappeared in the 80s of XX century. Now, reading of historical works has moved to the first place, displacing the women's novels to the second place (in the female version of reading). Historical works replace textbooks on history, especially Russian, in the interpretation of which much has changed since the times when they were in school. It should be noted that most of all adult readers are interested in Russian history before 1917, especially works telling about the lives of great people, about the fate of the royal persons, whose names they rediscover for themselves. From foreign historical fiction, some adults, especially women over 35, turn to those books that they have not read in their youth, for example A. Dumas novels.

It is necessary to note such a specific function of adults as library accompaniment for the education of their children - pupils or students. Adults not only help their children find the right sources, but they browse or read books with them (sometimes instead of them), and help in referencing.

The librarian plays a leading role in satisfying the reader's requests for adults as an intermediary between the world of book culture and the reader. The adult’s refusal of the role of the reading leader in favor of the conductor in the world of literature makes the librarian a kind of andragogue. At the same time, the function of an assistant in the education or self-education of adults comes to the fore in his work. Adaptation of adults to other, deeper and more meaningful areas of reading should take place not in a prohibitive-revolutionary way, but by gradually and gently reforming the real picture of reading. The presence or absence of high reading motives is not always clearly recognized by the reader. Soft forms of expanding reader needs and developing reader taste are effective. They should be conducted from the position in which the reader himself stands. At the same time, it is necessary to expand the reader’s new content.

Criteria of librarians professionalism: erudition, belonging to the reader's elite, knowledge of the needs and tastes of readers, communicative culture, exemplary verbal behavior, understanding and psychology of a particular reader, and his educational mission. The work of the librarian as an andragogue, the enhancement of his professional qualifications in this regard is a special area of ​​application of the principles of andragogy.

Task for self-control

Conduct a small socio-andragogical study of the reading experience in your group using the methodology given in Appendix 10. Discuss the results.

Recommended literature

Eisenberg A. Ya. The socio-cultural role of reading and self-education in the development of personality // Questions of Philosophy. - 1986. - Љ 6.

Aleksakhin S. Multimedia in Education // Man and Labor. - 1997. - Љ 3.

Volozheninova N.Yu. The role of the library in the training of specialists // Specialist. - 1999. - Љ 11.

Lukina M.M. Youth press: Get out of the vicious circle: (Based on the discussion at the round table at the Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University) // Moscow University Bulletin. (Series 10. Journalism). -

1991. -Љ3.

The Man Reading: Writers of the XXth Century about the role of the book in the life of man and society / Comp. S.I.Balza. - 2nd ed., Corr. and add. - M., 1990.