Defining Print Culture and Youth by Anne Lundin - an illuminating, but technical, introduction

    This introduction reads  bit like a doctoral thesis, if I am going to be honest. However, it rather succinctly put words to concepts I was already familiar with in a way that made them click. The primary idea being that: readers create the meaning behind the text. A quote:

 "Reading is not merely the transfer of information from author to reader, but also a dynamic process of making meaning." 

    The reader's interpretation, and how it affects them, is ultimately what is important when put in the context of librarianship. Our goal is to connect readers with the books that hopefully speak to them. When taking this concept into consideration we need to not only consider what we believe the author is trying to convey, but also the how the reader has responded to similar books in the past via a readers advisory interview. 

This can be challenging when working with children, given that they often struggle to find words for why they like (or don't like) the things that they do. But this does shift the focus away from topics and genres that we often lean on during these interactions, and instead on how they have made meaning with the works they have interacted with.