The PPT Presentation concerns the videorecorderd speech by Beatrice Eleuteri, PhD Student at Roma Tre University in Rome, on "The reader’s ghost. Books and libraries in teen’s imagination". Abstract (EN) We often believe that a child, yet a young adult, only needs to be taught how to read and write for us to feel in the right to reproach him if he doesn’t actually do it or if he’s not really good at it.Well, knowing how to read is not enough to motivate reading. Reading is an “habitus”, a suit that could fit tight, or loose, that we need to try on a couple of times in the dressing room before choosing to buy it. The school library is a guest-house, a place in which kids, especially culturally deprived ones, must feel safe and welcome to talk about stories, experiences, opinions. A forum to meet books of course, but also readers. A workshop meant to sew our personal reader’s habitus, rejuvenating it from its old mousy image and preparing it for us to grow inside it.

1. INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL-LIBRARY’AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione
Department of Education
Con la collaborazione di / In collaboration with
THE READER’S GHOST
Books and libraries in teenagers’ imagination
Beatrice Eleuteri (Università degli Studi RomaTre)
#RomaTrenonsiferma / #RomaTredoesnotstop

2. INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL-LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020
BIO
Coming from artistic and humanistic education, I have a three years’
degree in Cultural Heritage applied on performing arts, a master’s
degree in Communication and information sciences, a Specialization
in library science and, at the moment, I am enrolled at the University
of RomaTre (department of Education) as a Ph.D. Student.
I work as a cultural animator and promotor, intending to combine
theatre and music with the arts of language, such as rhetoric, debate
and literature, in workshops and lectures that involve schools and
libraries.
I collaborate with the PerLaRe (Association for the study of
rhetoric) and AIB (Italian libraries association); starting in 2019, I also
work as a book artisan, introducing handcrafting and the history of
books in reading promotion projects that mean to analyze and
illustrate the language and educate reading for pleasure, especially
with teenagers.

3. ABSTRACT
We often believe that a child, yet a young adult, only needs to be taught how to read and
write for us to feel in the right to reproach him if he doesn’t actually do it or if he’s not
really good at it.Well, knowing how to read is not enough to motivate reading.
Reading is an “habitus”, a suit that could fit tight, or loose, that we need to try on a couple
of times in the dressing room before choosing to buy it. The school library is a guest-house,
a place in which kids, especially culturally deprived ones, must feel safe and welcome to talk
about stories, experiences, opinions. A forum to meet books of course, but also readers. A
workshop meant to sew our personal reader’s habitus, rejuvenating it from its old mousy
image and preparing it for us to grow inside it.
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL-LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020

4. OUTLINE
1. Introduction: teenagers and reading
2. Reading and value systems: how do we learn not to read
3. The reader through the looking glass
4. Schools, libraries, school libraries
5. Final remarks: to paint over the imaginary
Essential References
Contacts
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL-LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020

5. INTRODUCTION:
TEENAGERS AND READING
• Competence
• Epistemic curiosity
• Empathy
IFLA School Libraries International Meeting 02/04/2020 _ Dott.ssa Beatrice Eleuteri
ANTHROPOPOIESIS
0,0
10,0
20,0
30,0
40,0
50,0
60,0
70,0
6-10 11-14 15-17 18-19 20-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-59 60-64 65-74 75 or
more
People over 6 yo who have read books in the past 12 months
2007 2013 2018
1 2 3 4 5

6. READING ANDVALUE SYSTEMS
HOW DOWE LEARN TO NOT READ
IFLA School Libraries International Meeting 02/04/2020 _ Dott.ssa Beatrice Eleuteri
Lack of correct
learning
strategies
Effort Frustration
Wrong
intelligence
model
Low
competence
perception
Anxiety
DutyVS
Pleasure
Obligation Intolerance
Adults’
stereotypes and
value systems
appropriation
Social
inconvenience
Shame
Compensative strategies
meant to defend self
esteem and need of
belonging
NON READING
CHOICE
1 2 3 4 5

7. THE READERTHROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
«A crooked being, too thin or too fat (anyway unfit because, of course, he doesn’t
practice any kind of sport), bent on a desk, in the darkness, alone, only with the
fainting light of a lamp to illuminate the yellowy pages he’s losing his sight on
(therefore he usually wears bottle bottom thick glasses). He doesn’t have any
friends, or girlfiend/boyfriend, wears unfashioned clothes and has already lost any
kind of contact with reality, so that when he speaks nobody understands.»
Boys and girls involved in 2018’s motivational survey
«The rhetoric of no reading»
IFLA School Libraries International Meeting 02/04/2020 _ Dott.ssa Beatrice Eleuteri
1 2 3 4 5

8. THE READERTHROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
«You say reading is a lonely activity, but for us it is global and it can be a saving anchor for those who
do feel lonely. Reading allows people to see themselves through the story and someone else’s words,
to recognize themselves in the characters and live other lives, in other places; it makes you feel strong
emotions, helps you in life choices. Reading a novel doesn’t just allow you to get away from reality, it
makes you think about things happening in your daily life and make you capable of developing your
very own thinking.
I read because I can stop and take my time. I once was at a point in life when a book helped me a lot
and I think that there’s no much to say, you make a journey every time you read a book. It happened
to me to stay awake all night reading a book a friend lent me because it touched emotions that I
haven’t had felt for a long time and a movie can’t do the same thing. Every single person has a different
story, we just have to find the right book, the one that fits us and then maybe, trying it on, we’ll like it.
Imagination can be a hard task but it comes from inside you and the book lets it out. Reading a book
means to put yourself in the game, not choosing the easier way. In short, who says that he doesn’t like
reading maybe simply didn’t read the right books.»
Boys and girls involved in 2018’s motivational survey «The rhetoric of no reading»
IFLA School Libraries International Meeting 02/04/2020 _ Dott.ssa Beatrice Eleuteri
1 2 3 4 5

9. SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES AND SCHOOL LIBRARIES
IFLA School Libraries International Meeting 02/04/2020 _ Dott.ssa Beatrice Eleuteri
Duty Pleasure
Amusement
Imagination
Dialogue
Free time
Study
Comprehension
Silence
School time
What is the library for?
«To get free books (but you can’t
write on them)»
«To borrow dictionaries»
«To study and hang during religion’s
class»
Boys and girls involved in 2018’s motivational survey
«The rhetoric of no reading»
• Spaces
• Time
• People
PEERS & PROFESSIONALS
1 2 3 4 5

10. FINAL REMARKS:
TO PAINT OVER THE IMAGINARY
IFLA School Libraries International Meeting 02/04/2020 _ Dott.ssa Beatrice Eleuteri
Training
Motivation
Opennes
Transdisciplinarity
Multimediality
Flexibility
Dialogue
Professionality
Updating
Exchange
Monitoring
Time
Example
Listening
Choice
1 2 3 4 5

11. ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Chambers,A., Tell Me. Children, reading and talk, 2001; The reading Enviroment. How adults help children enjoy books, 2015.
• De Beni, R., Moè,A., Motivazione e apprendimento, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2000.
• Eleuteri, B., Nuove metodologie di indagine motivazionale del rapporto tra adolescenti e lettura, Scuola di specializzazione in beni archivistici e
librari,A.A. 2017/2018.
• Eleuteri, B., Analfabetismo funzionale. Perché, ci serve ancora saper leggere e scrivere?, in «Aib Studi» 59 n.1-2 (gennaio/agosto 2019), p.125-136.
• Eleuteri, B., L’adolescente e il libro. Una proposta di indagine motivazionale di tipo qualitativo, in «Biblioteche Oggi» Luglio-Agosto 2019, vol.
XXXVII, p. 8-16.
• IFLA School Library Guidelines, 2° revised edition 2015.
• IFLA Guidelines for Library Services to Children aged 0-18, 2° edition,Version 1.1.1, 2018.
• IFLA Guidelines for Library Services ForYoung Adults.
• ISTAT, Produzione e lettura di libri in Italia,Anni 2010-2018.
• Steinberg, L., Age of opportunity. Lessons from the new science of adolescence, 2014.
IFLA School Libraries International Meeting 02/04/2020 _ Dott.ssa Beatrice Eleuteri

12. ESSENTIALWEBSITE REFERENCES
• AIB, www.aib.it
• Cepell - Io leggo con te, www.ioleggoconte.it
• Elinet, www.eli-net.eu
• Hamelin - Xanadu, www.progettoxanadu.it/superiori
• IFLA, www.ifla.org
• Università degli Studi RomaTre, www.uniroma3.it
INTERNATIONAL SEMINAL MEETING ON “THE EVOLVING CONCEPT OF ‘SCHOOL-LIBRARY’ AND ITS PROFESSION” – ROME 02/04/2020

13. THANKYOU FOR
YOUR
ATTENTION!
For further information, you are welcome to contact me at
b.p.eleuteri@gmail.com