Measuring the educational value of comic books from the school librarians’ perspective: A region-wide quantitative study in Taiwan

Abstract

Comic books and their characters are an integral part of popular culture. However, comic books, as educational material, still remain controversial in certain education systems, as this medium is regarded by some as sheer entertainment – thereby hindering students’ motivation to seek out other more formal, text-based literature to read. For this study, a region-wide questionnaire survey was sent out to explore school librarians’ perceptions and attitudes towards the educational value of comic books in Taiwan. A total of 789 responses were collected for this questionnaire survey study. The regression model was used to identify the causal relationship between different genres of comic books and students’ voluntary reading and learning incentives in the context of the school library. Findings from this study suggest that comic books (1) carry the potential to attract more students to visit the school library after class, (2) facilitate students’ reading comprehension skills and (3) foster students’ interest in voluntary reading. Because of this medium’s visual-based and serialised narrative approach to storytelling, findings of this study also suggest that comic books could function as a reading motivational tool, particularly useful in helping their students learn about the subjects of History and Science.

Keywords

Comic books Taiwan school libraries school librarians reading motivation reading practices voluntary reading

Introduction

For several decades, educators and researchers have examined the relationship between literacy and popular culture. In 2002, Morrison et al. (2002) suggested that ‘for the children, the important thing is not so much what they read, but that they read’ (p. 760), and even earlier, Alvermann and Hagood (2000) and Marsh and Millard (2000) investigated the connection between students’ literacy development and their exposure to popular culture and media. The use of popular media as an educational tool for literacy instruction and/or promoting reading motivation has continued to evolve and spans from movies and popular music (Buckingham and Sefton-Green, 1994) to video games (Ranker, 2006) and comic books (Lo et al., 2018; Morrison et al., 2002). In fact, the use of popular culture and media as resources for enhancing learning and reading experiences does not only apply to school students’ literacy in their first language, but has also become increasingly popular in their acquisition of a second language (Duff, 2002). Cary (2004) also noted that as comic books are part of popular culture, they are able to induce learners’ interest. Despite comic books having numerous educational advantages, many educators are still reluctant to use such popular media for literacy instruction and exclude them from school libraries and classroom (Lo et al., 2018a: 1103) – fearing such non-traditional media would prevent students from gaining proper literacy development.

Literature review

Definition of comic books

According to Lo et al. (2018a), ‘comics and comic art often have fluctuating terminology, having been interchangeably referred to as comics, comic books, graphic novels and graphic fiction among others. This has also led to varying definitions over the years’ (p. 2). Originally, Eisner (2008) defined comics as ‘sequential art’ that ‘presents a montage of both word and image, and the reader is thus required to exercise visual and verbal interpretive skills’ (p. 2). Building on this definition, McCloud (1994) interprets comics as being ‘juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer’ (p. 9). Although having often been criticised for their unsophisticated subject matter, comic books integrate words and images for a flexible and yet powerful literary form that is capable of dynamic narrative effects (Witek, 1989).

Historical overview of comic books and their educational values

In earlier decades, there was concern among educators and librarians in public schools that the school library was not doing its job, in terms of being appealing enough to attract students to make maximum voluntary use of its resources (Dorrell, 1987). As pointed out by James Young, Principal of Lincoln School in Englewood, New Jersey, there used to be this tendency, among many students, of ‘see[ing] the library as a place where a hundred people stand around telling them to be quiet, not as an exciting place like the basketball court or skateboard run’ (cited in Dorrell, 1987: 30). One way to tackle this problem was to include comic books in the school library collection. According to Ann Prentice (1968),

for the non-reader, the late elementary or junior high school student who is reading well below grade level, for whom a book with more than a hundred pages is too much, carefully chosen comics are an answer and have a place in the library.

Similarly, Chilcoat (1993) noted that the use of comics in teaching could prevent historical content from appearing to be ‘boring and meaningless’, as it is often felt among students within the typical classroom environment (p. 113). Despite the many literacy advantages associated with comic book reading, many teachers, librarians and even writers often considered comic books or graphic novels as inferior literature that carried limited educational value. Noted American author Sterling North (1906–1974) once publicly described comic books as

badly drawn, badly written and badly printed – a strain on young eyes and young nervous systems – the effect of these pulp-paper nightmares is that of a violent stimulant. Their crude blacks and reds spoil the child’s natural sense of colour; their hypodermic injection of sex and murder make the child impatient with better, though quieter, stories. Unless we want a coming generation even more ferocious than the present one, parents and teachers throughout America must band together to break the ‘comic’ magazine. (North, 1940, cited in Ellis and Highsmith, 2000)

Alternatively, Williams and Wilson (1942) argued that a child’s interest in comics is considered natural and normal. Williams and Wilson also suggested that

perhaps the trouble with most of us librarians is that we are still mentally and psychically seated in an agreeably padded Victorian armchair and our minds are comfortably padded as well with the notion that children are wistful-eyed little darlings who are instinctively and innately delicate, untouched by the world. (Cited in Ellis and Highsmith, 2000: 27)

Yang (2003) also highlighted that ‘many of today’s teachers use comics to encourage the very abilities some educators in the 1940s feared it would squelch: reading and imagination’.

Despite being undervalued by the educational arena in earlier decades, the comic book publishing industry continued to flourish during and after World War II (Ellis and Highsmith, 2000; Kovacs and Marshall, 2011). In fact, the 1940s and early 1950s were considered the Golden Age of the comic book industry in North America. According to Lavin (1998), during these two decades, not only was there significant growth in the comic book publishing industry and the birth of many classic characters, more comic books were being published and sold per annum during this era than in any other periods since. Notwithstanding the major boom in both sales and circulation of comic books, there was a stigma attached to this form of literature. For example, Wertham (1954) warned America against comic books for their dangerous nature – fearing they would lead to mental stagnation and moral decay. Similarly, many educators and parents also failed to see this medium beyond the limited domain imposed by the stigma. By the 1960s, comic books began to receive more attention from the scholarly community, and by the 1970s, some educators began to consider comic books as a stimulation for unmotivated learners (Ellman, 1979). Some teachers still believed that ‘comic books should never be expected to serve as art or literature. That is not their purpose, and never has been. In a sense, comic books are still nothing more than entertainment junk . . .’ (Schoof, 1983: 86); by the 1990s, comic books began to benefit from a more enhanced status in the field of professional librarianship literature (Ellis and Highsmith, 2000) and gained a more prominent place in education (Gavigan, 2014; Hammond, 2012; Mortimore, 2009), with ‘teachers in secondary and elementary schools, professors in universities, and instructors of all kinds are using comics and graphic novels to illustrate points about gender, history, sociology, philosophy, mathematics, and even medicine’ (Weiner and Syma, 2013: 1).

Have comic books always belonged in libraries?

Ellis and Highsmith (2000) suggest that ignorance and other misconceptions led to an ‘anti-comic book’ movement in the field of librarianship during the 1940s and 1950s. ‘In the 1940s and 1950s . . . comic books were in some sense or other “bad,” and certainly unworthy of consideration for inclusion in library collections’ (Ellis and Highsmith 2000: 39). Yet, owing to the increased positive exposure given to this medium in the 1960s, together with accumulating evidence suggesting comic books had potential to promote rather than hinder library use and literacy development, librarians began to view this medium in a more positive light (Ellis and Highsmith, 2000). In fact, librarians had a vital role to play in terms of ‘increasing the profession’s overall level of awareness of the value of comic books as a storytelling medium, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s’ (Ellis and Highsmith, 2000: 40). In 1984, librarian and comic book archivist Randall Scott suggested, ‘We [as librarians] do have an influence, and it’s unfortunate that the profession’s stance has been seen as blanket disapproval for so many years’ (Scott, 1984: 23).

Studies on comic books in the classroom and school library environment

In 1980, a questionnaire survey was carried out by Greaney to investigate the relationship between the amount of time primary school students in Ireland devoted to leisure reading and its correlations to a series of personal, home and school variables. In this study, the variables examined were (1) gender, (2) level of reading attainment, (3) leisure activities, (4) socio-economic status, (5) family size, (6) choice of television programmes and (7) location and type of primary school attended. A total of 31 Irish primary schools took part in this study, and 720 complete responses were collected and used for data analysis. Findings from this study revealed that the study population devoted an average of 5.4% of available leisure time to reading. Three categories of pupil leisure time reading were identified, namely, (1) book reading, (2) comic reading and (3) newspaper reading. Multiple regression analyses of this study revealed that most of the explained variation (22.9%) in time devoted to books was accounted for by a combination of the variables gender, reading attainment, school location, library membership and birth order. Interestingly, girls tended to devote more time to books, while boys, on the contrary, tended to devote more time to comic books.

In a 2002 article, Dr Timothy Morrison (Department of Teacher Education, Brigham Young University) advocated the use of student-generated comic books in the classroom for a number of learning-related advantages. For example, constructing comic books did not only require students to thoughtfully use appropriate comprehension strategies, it also engaged students in literacy exploration and encouraged them to investigate the use of dialogue, succinct and dramatic vocabulary, and non-verbal communications in a more interesting, lively and engaging manner (Morrison et al., 2000).

Through a cross-national and cross-cultural comparative approach, a survey study was carried out by Lo et al. (2018a) to examine how school librarians in five different regions in Asia perceived comic books as an effective educational tool. The five regions involved were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. A total of 683 responses were collected. Findings from this study revealed that, with the exception of Japan, school librarians generally agreed that the inclusion of comic books would attract more students to use their school library (Lo et al., 2018: 1111).

The recent boom in the superhero film industry and the birth of many new TV series (e.g. The Walking Dead, Lucifer and Supergirl) have seen an explosive growth worldwide in both the popularity and influence of comic books. Comics Alliance (2014) suggested that approximately 40 films based on comics and/or characters from comics would be released in the next 5 years. According to statistics from Box Office Mojo (2015), 6 out of the 20 highest grossing movies ever are based on comics or characters from comics. Furthermore, there is no denying that ‘comics and their characters are a major part of and have a great influence on our culture. If comics are a part of our culture today then they should probably also have a place within schools and the curriculum’ (p. 1). Once dismissed by educators and librarians, comic books have not only found their place in school libraries, they are increasingly being utilised as an educational tool in classrooms across different countries and education systems.

Despite the large body of literature available on school librarianship, studies using regression analysis to explore the correlations between students’ voluntary use of the school library and the popularity of comic books, from the school librarians’ perspective, are almost non-existent. As such, this study aims to fill this research gap.

Theoretical framework

Comic books as multimodal texts

Jacobs (2007a) defines multimodalities as literacy approaches for creating meaning in a variety of ways, such as print and visuals, and a unique combination of the two. Meanwhile, Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001) refer to multimodality as using different modes for making meanings in both representation and communication. Kress (2010) further defines that a mode is ‘a socially and culturally shaped resource for making meaning. Image, writing, layout, speech, and moving images are examples of different modes’ (Kress, 2010: 79). There is also a complex and intimate relationship between modes (e.g. aural, spatial, gestural, visual or linguistic) – in terms of how they interact and contribute to the creation of meaning. Comic books, often referred to as sequential art, are a good example of multimodal texts, which combine both print literacy and visual literacy to present a multimodal literacy experience (Hammond, 2012). In addition, the reading of comic books is a multimodal experience that demands multimodal literacy skills as the words and pictures are read as a single integrated text (Duncan and Smith, 2009). ‘An important aspect of reading multimodal texts is [therefore] the ability to integrate information from the different modes’ (Walsh, 2006: 34). For example, according to Chute (2008),

comics might be defined as a hybrid word-and-image form in which two narrative tracks, one verbal and one visual, register temporal spatially. Comics move forward in time through the space of the page, through its progressive counterpoint of presence and absence: packed panels (also called frames) alternating with gutters. (p. 452)

Multimodal texts and reading motivation

Reading a comic book usually involves the processing of multiple components, namely, visual, spatial and textual. It is also considered a multimodal literacy practice, as it requires the reader to integrate all these different components to understand the storyline (León et al., 2018). In other words, comics could function as an effective narrative resource to improve reading comprehension and motivation among students. When students approach reading through comic books, the illustrations become fundamental in terms of conveying both meaning and understanding – thereby making the reading experience more efficient, engaging and fun. Readers of comics must integrate the visual, spatial and textual components to form a synergetic, immersive whole, in order to understand the story. It is believed that this process can make them more creative and skilful thinkers (Orihuela, 2002).

Jacobs (2007b) highlighted that the multimodality of comics can achieve different effects and meanings on readers that cannot be achieved with pure text or pure art. As explained by Borodo (2015), comic books and graphic novels often rely on non-verbal expressions conveyed by characters; hence, the reader must take into consideration the visual presentation of the characters while interpreting the entire story. Kellogg (1979) also stated that

a word has to evoke a representation of the moment things are not perceived; therefore, picture books [and comics] are so important for students. Without the ability to form abstract representations, it is not possible to read; students must be able to concentrate on one thing, as a written text is subject to strict laws. (p. 308)

In this context, the multimodal design of comics is a form of scaffold reading, supporting the student’s reading ability while engaging them in more difficult themes (Smetana et al., 2009). Studies have shown that reading comic books may help influence students’ reading practices, that is, motivating them to move onto ‘heavier’ materials. According to a survey study carried out by Ujiie and Krashen (1996), young boys who regularly read comic books also read more materials, including novels, in comparison with their peers who did not read comic books. Wood (2015) believes that it is the ‘hybrid of visuals and text that may increase the comprehension a student has of vocabulary more than materials that do not have multimodalities’ (p. 35). Many researchers have also pointed to the notion that multimodal texts are an important part of contemporary literacy instruction (Connors, 2015; Hassett and Schieble, 2007; Serafini, 2011). As the gap between the canon literature and the students’ lives increases, comic books (as multimodal texts) based on literary classics may help students comprehend canon literature (Ericson et al., 2010; Higgins et al., 2010; Kaywell, 2010).

It is acknowledged that reading is an important skill for education, and comic books appear to be an effective narrative resource to enhance reading comprehension and motivation among students, particularly lower achieving and unmotivated students (Snowball, 2005). Giving students comics may foster intrinsic motivation, as this form of alternative literature could help them understand the main idea, points of view and opinions involved in a text.

Conclusively, it can be inferred that comics are an excellent tool for promoting voluntary reading, and it is reasonable to establish a strong rationale for including comic books and graphic novels in the curriculum and/or in the school library collection.

Aims of the study

Although the use of popular culture and media for instruction may be controversial, comic books continue to be a popular source of reading material for students. Earlier worldwide studies conducted by the lead researcher (Lo and Chiu, 2015, 2017; Lo et al., 2014a, 2014b, 2018b, 2019) revealed that school librarians, in addition to overseeing the operations of the school library on a daily basis, have an essential role to play in terms of creating, shaping and promoting a positive and healthy reading culture in schools. Popular culture is an integral part of the daily lives of most young people, and with comic books being of great interest to many students, this literary medium may well increase the motivation of young readers to engage in reading and literacy (Ranker, 2007: 296). As such, some school librarians welcome comic books as an additional resource for cultivating motivation and reading development and use them as an alternative educational tool in the teaching of different academic subjects.

A cultural issue identified in our previous studies was that Confucian education among East Asian countries is often associated with rote-memorisation. This style of learning is usually characterised by possessing the ability to reproduce exactly what is taught in identical form – this often involves no in-depth thinking and/or understanding of the content being learnt. In other words, there is little need for students to be keen voluntary readers to do well academically (Lo et al., 2014a, 2014b). Nevertheless, an increasing number of school librarians in these regions has begun to recognise the value of school-library-based recreational reading; it encourages students to internalise learning, make connections in what they are learning and has the potential to foster students to become lifelong learners (Lo et al., 2014a, 2014b). In the previous study, the researchers examined the evolving and new professional practices of school librarians in East Asia, as well as their views on comic books in the field of education (Lo et al., 2018a, 2018b). Findings indicate that comic books were frequently mentioned by the school librarian respondents as positively promoting voluntary reading and supporting different curriculum areas (Lo et al., 2018a, 2018b). This study could be regarded as a continuation of our previous quantitative study by using regression analyses to investigate further the effectiveness of comic books as an influence over the voluntary reading practices of students. Furthermore, findings of this study would also enable us to identify more effective reading promotion strategies and the evolving pedagogical role that comics have been playing in Taiwan.

The research questions guiding this study are as follows:

RQ 1. What is the general profile of the survey respondents, and what are their perceptions and attitudes towards the educational values of comic books?

RQ 2. Do school librarians provide comic books for students with the aim of motivating students to become voluntary readers or voluntary users of the school library?

RQ 3. What is the overall perceived effectiveness of comic books as educational and/or reading motivational tools?

RQ 4. Which comic book genres are perceived by school librarians to be more effective in terms of motivating students to become voluntary readers or voluntary users of the school library?

RQ 5. What technical difficulties and challenges have school librarians faced when attempting to include comic books in their collections?

Methodology

Research participation and data collection

All survey participants were school librarians working in Taiwan. This study focused on one single country/region (Taiwan) due to resource and manpower limitations. Another rationale for this study to focus exclusively on Taiwan was the high level of responsiveness and willingness of the Taiwan School Librarian Association (TSLA) to take part in this research. The questionnaire used for this study was developed based on concerns raised by the school librarian respondents in our previous studies (Lo and Chiu, 2015; Lo et al., 2014a, 2014b, 2018a, 2018b), in particular relating to the advantages and technical challenges that come with using comic books as literature. The original survey questionnaire was in English and included questions on major demographic characteristics of school librarians, library collections (including comic books as a genre) and the attitudes of school librarians towards the potential of comic books being used as a legitimate educational tool. The final English language survey was then translated into Chinese, before it was distributed to the school librarians throughout Taiwan. The draft questionnaire was also sent to selective school librarians in Taiwan for pilot testing, with the aim of identifying questionnaire items that did not make sense to the survey respondents or problems with the questions that could potentially lead to biased answers. Ultimately, the questionnaire survey was distributed via the TSLA, with the aim of collecting as many responses as possible. Batch invitation emails were sent to all TSLA members inviting them to take part in this survey. According to the statistics provided by TSLA, as of 2019, there are 801 school librarians working in Taiwan. The online questionnaire was sent out to all 801 practising school librarians via the TSLA. A total of 789 responses were collected for this questionnaire survey, indicating a 98.5% response rate (see Table 1). The data collection period was from 1 September 2018 to 31 March 2019. Reminder emails to take part in the survey were sent out to all TSLA members in November 2018 and January 2019, in order to encourage a larger response rate.

Table 1.

Demographic information of respondents.

Questions	Answer options	No. of responses (n = 789)
Gender	Male	174 (22%)
Gender	Female	615 (78%)
Age	20–30	39 (5%)
	31–40	268 (34%)
	41–50	362 (46%)
	51–60	110 (14%)
	⩾60	10 (1%)
Length of professional experience as school librarian	<1 year	237 (30%)
	1–5 years	387 (49%)
	6–10 years	87 (11%)
	11–20 years	63 (8%)
	⩾21 years	15 (2%)

Analysis of survey results

Statistical summary

Age and gender distribution of survey respondents

A total of 789 complete responses were collected from this online questionnaire survey. All respondents were school librarians and came from different elementary and secondary schools located in 22 cities in Taiwan. The majority of the respondents were female (78% versus 22% male) – a finding that came as no surprise to the researchers. The age distribution of the survey respondents is shown in Table 1. Results indicate that a majority (46%) of the total respondents were aged between 41 and 50 years. The second largest group (34%) was aged between 31 and 40 years. Only 1% of the total respondents was aged 60 and above (see Table 1).

Length of professional experience as school librarian

Respondents were asked about their length of experience in serving as school librarians. Results reveal that 49% of respondents reported that they had 1–5 years of professional experience as a school librarian. The second largest respondent group (237, 30%) recorded having less than 1 year of experience. Only 2% of respondents claimed to have 21 years or more of experience as a school librarian (see Table 1). Researchers considered it important to include such data, believing the level of understanding and knowledge respondents had about the issues surrounding the use of comic books in libraries could depend, in part, on their length of experience as school librarians.

School types and the availability of comic books in school libraries

The questionnaire results revealed that 90% of respondents were working for local public schools throughout Taiwan, with 98% using Chinese (i.e. Mandarin) as the main medium of instruction (see Table 2). In all, 489 respondents (62%) came from secondary schools, while 284 (36%) were from elementary schools. The remaining 16 (2%) respondents were working at schools that combined both elementary and secondary grades (see Table 2). Table 3 indicates that the vast majority (98%) of the surveyed school libraries provided comic books in their library collections, with 434 (55%) claiming to have between 100 and 500 volumes of comic books in their collections (see Table 3).

Table 2.

School types and student population.

Questions	Answer options	No. of responses (n = 789)
School types	Public	90%
	Government-funded	0%
	International	1%
	Private	9%
	Other school types	0%
Medium of instruction	Chinese	765 (98%)
Medium of instruction	Bilingual (Chinese and English)	24 (3%)
School level	Elementary school	284 (36%)
	Secondary school	489 (62%)
	Combined (elementary and secondary)	16 (2%)
Student population	<100	58 (7%)
	100–500	144 (18%)
	501–800	124 (16%)
	801–1400	185 (23%)
	>1400	278 (35%)

Table 3.

Statistical information of library collection and students’ usage patterns.

Questions	Answer options	No. of responses (n = 789)
Size of school library collection	<5000 (vol.)	25 (3%)
	5001–10,000 (vol.)	78 (10%)
	10,001–15,000 (vol.)	150 (19%)
	15,001–20,000 (vol.)	110 (14%)
	20,001–25,000 (vol.)	110 (14%)
	>25,001 (vol.)	316 (40%)
When do students usually visit the school library? (choose all that apply)	Before class in the morning	63 (8%)
	After class	742 (94%)
	Lunchtime	284 (36%)
	After school	150 (19%)
	Weekends	8 (1%)
	Before exams or tests	48 (6%)
	Take part in library reading programmes	520 (66%)
How would students usually visit the school library?	By themselves voluntarily	537 (68%)
	Led by their classroom teachers	103 (13%)
	As part of their extracurricular activities	9 (1%)
	Visit with friends	134 (17%)
	Others	6 (1%)
Missions and main functions of your school library (choose all that apply)	Support for students’ formal learning	371 (47%)
	Teaching IT, information literacy and library skills	426 (54%)
	Reading promotion (recreational reading)	742 (94%)
	Provide PC, IT and Internet resources	339 (43%)
	Support collaborative learning and group discussions	378 (48%)
	Provide and display newspapers, magazines and other reading materials	441 (56%)
	Provide materials for recreational reading	560 (71%)
	Space for socialisation	150 (19%)
For what purpose do students usually visit the school library services? (choose all that apply)	Independent learning and studying	323 (41%)
	Borrowing books	773 (98%)
	Group/collaborative learning	0 (0%)
	Using multimedia and Internet resources	221 (28%)
	Taking part in library programmes	308 (39%)
	Reading newspapers and magazines	473 (60%)
	Studying for exams	47 (6%)
Which genres of comic books (kept inside your school library) are most read by your students?	Classical literature	55 (7%)
	Bestsellers	387 (49%)
	Textbooks/manuals	8 (1%)
	Comic books	260 (33%)
	Newspapers	24 (3%)
	Multimedia and online books	24 (3%)
	Others	31 (4%)
Do you have comic books in your school library collection?	Yes	773 (98%)
Do you have comic books in your school library collection?	No	16 (2%)
Size of comic book collection in your school library	<100 (vol.)	150 (19%)
	100–500 (vol.)	434 (55%)
	501–1000 (vol.)	110 (14%)
	1001–1500 (vol.)	24 (3%)
	1501–2000 (vol.)	16 (2%)
	2001–2500 (vol.)	8 (1%)
	2501– 3000 (vol.)	16 (2%)
Main purposes of having comic books in your school library (choose all that apply)	Attract students to visit the school library voluntarily	584 (74%)
	Help students enhance their reading comprehension skills	387 (49%)
	Support teaching and students’ learning	323 (41%)
	Satisfy students’ learning needs	623 (79%)
	To fulfil their reading and recreational interests/needs	560 (71%)

School libraries and their comic book collections

A very high proportion of respondents suggested that the main function of their school libraries was to support ‘reading promotion (recreational reading)’ (94%), followed by ‘providing materials for recreational reading’ (71%) (see Table 3). Interestingly, the main reasons for housing comic books in their school libraries were to (1) ‘satisfy students’ learning needs’ (79%), (2) ‘attract students to visit the school library voluntarily’ (74%) and (3) ‘fulfil their reading and recreational interests/needs’ (71%) (see Table 3). This literature medium was found to be the second most read (260, 33%) genre of literature among students after bestsellers (387, 49%) (see Table 3). A high proportion of respondents also reported that Japanese comics were the second-most borrowed genre of comics among the students (28%) and the second-most chosen type of comics by the respondents (as school librarians) for inducing students’ reading interest or turning them into regular library users (21%) (see Table 4).

Table 4.

Types of comic books available in the school library & their popularity.

Questions	Answer options	No. of responses (n = 789)
Types of comics available in your school library collection	American comics	55 (7%)
	Japanese comics	426 (54%)
	Fairytales	0 (0%)
	Fables	142 (18%)
	Comics based on classical literature	197 (25%)
	Hong Kong comics	0 (0%)
	Taiwanese comics	355 (45%)
	History comics	607 (77%)
	Science comics	631 (80%)
Most borrowed comic books from your school library	American comics	81%
	Japanese comics	221 (28%)
	Fairytales	8 (1%)
	Fables	0 (0%)
	Comics based on classical literature	8 (1%)
	Hong Kong comics	8 (1%)
	Taiwanese comics	24 (3%)
	History comics	142 (18%)
	Science comics	142 (18%)
	Others	229 (29%)
If you need to induce students’ reading interest or turn them into regular library users, which types of comics would you use?	American comics	24 (3%)
	Japanese comics	166 (21%)
	Fairytales	16 (2%)
	Fables	24 (3%)
	Comics based on classical literature	55 (7%)
	Hong Kong comics	8 (1%)
	Taiwanese comics	24 (3%)
	History comics	150 (19%)
	Science comics	276 (35%)
What types of technical difficulties have you encountered when keeping comics in your school library collection? (choose all that apply)	No difficulties found	268 (34%)
	Requires a great deal of time and manpower to maintain the comic book collection	63 (8%)
	Operational costs for maintaining the comic book collection are high	39 (5%)
	Takes up a lot of shelving and storage space	79 (10%)
	Copies could go missing and stolen/damaged easily	284 (36%)
	Senior management is not supportive towards having comics in the school library	47 (6%)
	Other classroom teachers are not supportive towards having comics in the school library	0 (0%)
	Parents are not supportive towards having comics in the school library	79 (10%)
	Students could easily find comics to read for free from the Internet	32 (4%)
	Comics have no real educational value	55 (7%)
	Students are not interested in the comics found inside the school library	47 (6%)
	Comics become outdated/obsolete easily	126 (16%)

Students’ incentives to use the school library voluntarily

It is interesting to note that the vast majority (742, 94%) of survey respondents indicated that their students would usually visit the school library ‘after school’. Furthermore, a majority (537, 68%) of survey respondents also reported that their students would visit the school library voluntarily ‘by themselves’ instead of having to be led by teachers (see Table 3). Although we do not know whether their students would have engaged with reading or learning-related activities once they entered the school library, it is reassuring to note that some students were motivated enough to go to the school library voluntarily. Whether comic books were a motivating factor in encouraging students to visit the school library of their own accord will be further explored and discussed in the subsequent sections.

Technical difficulties faced in keeping comic books in school library collection

Respondents were asked to rate a series of challenges and difficulties faced in keeping comic books in their collections. ‘Comic book copies could go missing or get stolen/damaged easily’ was the most common observation reported by 36% of respondents, followed by comics (1) ‘become outdated/obsolete easily’, (2) ‘take up a lot of shelving and storage space’ and (3) ‘may not be supported by parents’. Meanwhile, only a small number (55, 7%) of respondents reported that ‘comics have no real educational value’ (see Table 4), and 268 (34%) of respondents reported no concerns in this regard and that classroom teachers were ‘ supportive towards having comics in the school library’ (see Table 4).

School librarians’ perceptions and general attitudes towards comic books

The questionnaire also asked respondents to rate the extent to which they believed comic books could help attract students to the school library, as well as their effectiveness to induce students’ interest in voluntary reading. A Likert-type 5-point scale ranging from 1 to 5 (1 = strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree) was used to collate responses. On the whole, respondents agreed that comic books could both help attract students to visit the school library and have the potential to boost voluntary reading (Table 5).

Table 5.

School librarians’ perceptions towards comic books.

5-point Likert scale (n = 789)
Do you agree that comics could help attract students to visit the school library?	Mean	SD
	3.87	0.89
Do you agree that comics could induce students’ interest in voluntary reading?	Mean	SD
	3.65	0.82

Results of regression analysis

All responses were collected from school librarians practising in Taiwan. School librarians play an essential role in selecting a variety of books and materials to support leisure reading, as well as independent learning practices (Lo et al., 2014a, 2014b, 2018a, 2018b). Furthermore, as leaders of extracurricular reading and teacher-support for reading comprehension instruction, school librarians are in the position to observe and reflect on the reading and learning practices of student. Although no responses were collected from the students, data collected from school librarians provided valuable information about students’ reading interests, preferred genres and the level of engagement students have with voluntary reading and other reading programmes.

With reference to the statistical analysis, the procedure was as follows:

Statistical summary;

Regression function included the following:

(a) Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression of school librarians’ perceptions towards the efficacy of comic books;

(b) Logistic regression of students’ incentives to use libraries voluntarily;

(c) Logistic regression analysis of efficacy of comic books in increasing the school library usage (including material types) and relations to students’ motivation towards voluntary reading and independent learning.

The logistic regression models were used to determine whether comic books were an effective determinant that could affect efficacy on comic books in raising students’ incentive to use the school library and its resources. T-test was also used to compare the statistical differences between the different independent variables. In short, through the use of regression analysis, the marginal effects of comic books were identified as follows: (1) the perceived efficacy of comic books as a reading motivational tool, (2) students’ voluntary use of the school library, (3) students’ incentives in engaging in more voluntary reading and (4) students’ motivation to participate in independent learning practices inside the school library.

The perceived effectiveness of using comic books to motivate voluntary use of the school library

The regression (OLS and logistic regression) of efficacy about comic books in raising students’ incentives and voluntary use (including both reading and learning) and their relations with other school-library-related variables are presented in Tables 5 –7. Regression function was used to clarify the effect of and detect differences among demographic effects and other variables of interests on the dependent variable. The differences in intercept performances in the regression function between the two school groups (elementary vs secondary) reveal the varying levels of efficacy of comics in motivating students to use the school library voluntarily. It is interesting to note that the level of efficacy among secondary school respondents (3.24*)¹ was slightly higher than their elementary school counterparts (3.20*),² in terms of this medium’s effectiveness in attracting students’ voluntary use of the school library (see Table 6).

Table 6.

Regression analysis: OLS regression of school librarians’ perceptions (efficacy) towards comic books.

	Equation 1	Equation 2
	Do you agree that comics could help attract students to visit the school library? (5-point Likert scale)	Do you agree that comics could induce students’ interest in voluntary reading? (5-point Likert scale)
Intercept	3.67*** (0.21)	3.23*** (0.19)
Gender
Male	0.13* (0.08)	0.09 (0.07)
Female	–	–
Age
20–30	0.18 (0.38)	−0.00 (0.34)
31–40	0.17 (0.35)	0.06 (0.32)
41–50	0.07 (0.35)	−0.07 (0.32)
51–60	0.23 (0.35)	0.13 (0.32)
⩾60	–	–
Length of professional experience as school librarian
<year	0.21 (0.13)	0.02 (0.12)
1–5 years	−0.04 (0.13)	−0.03 (0.11)
6–10 years	−0.02 (0.15)	−0.01 (0.14)
11–20 years	–	–
⩾21 years	−0.22 (0.22)	0.08 (0.19)
School levels
Elementary school	−0.47* (0.29)	−0.42* (0.27)
Secondary school	−0.43* (0.29)	−0.34 (0.26)
Combined (elementary and secondary)	–	–
Improve students’ reading comprehension skills	–	0.15*** (0.06)
Support teaching and help students to study and learn	–	0.07 (0.06)
Satisfying students’ recreational reading interests/needs	–	0.06 (0.07)
R²	–	0.05

OLS: ordinary least squares.

***

Significant at 1% level; *significant at 15%.

The vast majority (78%) of respondents were female, and it became apparent that gender was an influential factor in the efficacy about comic books as a learning and reading motivational tool (see Table 6). It is possible that, owing to the general lack of interest in this medium by females, the surveyed female school librarians may not possess a schema that connects comic books with other reading and learning library activities.

For this study, ‘Bestseller’ is a generic term used for describing books that are recently published and enjoy great popularity in Taiwan. The original questionnaire of this study did not include any questions asking the respondents to identify specific genres of Bestsellers their students were reading. The regression in Table 7 indicates that ‘Bestsellers’ have the strongest marginal effect on students’ voluntary library use – that is, both in terms of attracting more students to go to the school library by themselves (marginal effect is 0.10 significant at 15% level) and students’ incentive to visit the school library voluntarily ‘after class’ (marginal effect is 0.06, but not significant). On the contrary, comic books seemed to have demonstrated very little influence (0.03) in this regard, in comparison with other media available at the school library (e.g. textbooks (0.06), multimedia and online books (0.11) and newspapers (0.10)) (see Table 7).

Table 7.

Regression analysis: logistic regression of students’ incentives of using libraries voluntarily.

	Equation 3	Equation 4
	Students go to the school library by themselves voluntarily (Y/N) (Question 13)	Students go to the school library ‘After Class’ voluntarily (Y/N) (Question 12)
Independent variables
• Classical literature	−0.06 (0.09)	0.03 (0.02)
• Bestsellers	0.10* (0.06)	0.06 (0.03)
• Textbooks/learning manuals	0.06 (0.18)	–
• Newspapers	0.10 (0.09)	0.00 (0.04)
• Multimedia and online books	0.11 (0.19)	–
• Comic books	0.03 (0.07)	0.04* (0.02)
Log likelihood	−485.98	−177.48

Means and SEs of marginal effects are reported.

*significant at 15%.

The perceived efficacy of comic books in fostering in voluntary reading and learning

Table 6 suggests (Equation 2) that ‘Improving students’ reading comprehension skills’ has the strongest independent relationship with the efficacy about comic books in voluntary reading (0.15***) – in comparison with other variables, for example, ‘Support teaching and help students to study and learn’ (0.07) and ‘Satisfying students’ recreational reading interests/needs’ (0.06).

To find out whether comic books had a causal relation with students’ voluntary learning practice in libraries, we ran the logistic regression of efficacy of comic books in raising students’ voluntary/self-learning practices (Table 8). By comparison, ‘Magazines and Newspapers’ demonstrated the strongest causal relationships with comic books in raising students’ voluntary/self-learning practices in different dimensions, that is, including ‘Independent Self-Study’ (marginal effect is 0.20 significant at 15% level), ‘Take Part in Library Programmes’ (marginal effect is 0.04) and ‘Use the Internet and Multimedia Resources’ (marginal effect is 0.23) (see Table 8), meaning that ‘Magazines and Newspapers’ could reinforce efficacy of comic books in inducing more independent self-study by 20%, increase participation in library programmes by 4% and enhance Internet and multimedia resource use by 23%. Meanwhile, ‘Bestsellers’ demonstrated the strongest causal relationship with the efficacy of comic books in raising students’ voluntary ‘Recreational Reading’. The causal relationship between ‘Comic Books’ and efficacy in raising voluntary ‘Recreational Reading’ was not significant (0.01) by comparison. Interestingly, ‘Classical Literature’, ‘Textbooks and Other Learning Resources’ and ‘Multimedia and Online Learning Resources’ have all demonstrated no relationship at all in this regard. In summary, comic books did not demonstrate strong efficacy in motivating independent or self-learning (see Table 8).

Table 8.

Logistic regression analysis of using the school library for different purposes on types of materials and relations to students’ motivations towards reading and learning.

Independent variables	Equation 5	Equation 6	Equation 7	Equation 8
Independent variables	Independent self-study	Take part in library programmes	Use the Internet and multimedia resources	Recreational reading
Classical literature	0.00 (0.09)	0.09 (0.10)	−0.08 (0.07)	–
Bestsellers	0.03 (0.07)	−0.01 (0.08)	0.12* (0.07)	0.05** (0.02)
Textbooks and other learning resources	0.18 (0.23)	−0.27** (0.13)	0.56*** (0.21)	–
Magazines and newspapers	0.20* (0.12)	0.04 (0.13)	0.23* (0.14)	0.01 (0.01)
Multimedia and online learning resources	−0.16 (0.21)	−0.16 (0.22)	–	–
Comic books	−0.07 (0.07)	−0.08 (0.08)	−0.09 (0.07)	0.01 (0.00)
Types of comic books
• Comic books based on fairytales	−0.00 (0.29)	−0.15 (0.22)	–	–
• Comic books based on fables	0.35* (0.24)	–	–	–
• Comic books based on literary classics	0.18 (0.24)	−0.22 (0.16)	0.21 (0.24)	–
• Comic books on History	0.18** (0.08)	0.14** (0.08)	−0.06 (0.06)	–
• Comic books on Science	0.14** (0.07)	0.05 (0.07)	−0.10** (0.05)	0.02 (0.01)
Log likelihood	−515.13	−499.82	−382	−60.95
Observations	789	786	772	562

Means and SEs of marginal effects are presented.

***

Significant at 1% level; **significant at 5%; *significant at 15%.

The regression model was broken down further into five different subgroups to look at the causal relationships between different genres of comic books and efficacy about comic books in raising students’ voluntary reading and learning incentives. It is interesting to note that ‘Comic books based on fables’ demonstrated a relatively strong independent relationship with ‘Independent Self-Study’ (0.35) but appears not to have any relationship with other learning and reading practices (see Table 8). On the contrary, perhaps owing to their educational content and curriculum relevance, ‘Comic books on History’ and ‘Comic books on Science’ are two genres that have demonstrated moderately significant independent relationship with the efficacy of comic books in raising students’ incentives in taking part in ‘Independent Self-Study’ and ‘Library Programmes’ (see Table 8). Alternatively, ‘Comic books based on literary classics’ had an insignificant effect on raising the efficacy pertaining to elevating students’ voluntary reading and learning practices. Findings also reveal that the recreational value of comic books surpassed their educational value in different dimensions (see Table 8). It is interesting to note that ‘Comic books on Science’ demonstrated insignificant marginal effect (0.02) in terms of efficacy in inducing students’ motivation in recreational reading (see Table 8).

In this study, we identified multiple independent variables associated with the effectiveness of comic books as an educational tool. The general findings of this study support the common assumption that comic books carry the educational potential to facilitate the development of reading comprehension skills, as well as fostering motivation towards voluntary reading among students. Logistic regression functions (see Table 9) were used to measure the level of perceived effectiveness of comics in enhancing students’ motivation in visiting the school library or extending their level of voluntary reading. It was also used to determine whether school librarians and administrators’ attitudes towards the educational values of comics. The regression functions starting with Equation 9 include a dependent variable – namely the difficulties arising from denying the values of comics, and two independent variables, consisting of the perceived effectiveness of comics, i.e., (1) level of motivation in visiting the school library or (2) level of motivation in voluntary reading amongst students.

Table 9.

Logistic regression analysis of difficulties of comic books repositories on comic book efficacy perceived in library visiting and increasing interest in reading books.

Independent variables	Equation 9	Equation 10	Equation 11
	Difficulties arising from denying the value of comic books	Difficulties arising from school policy	Difficulties arising from parents
Agree comic books could attract students to visit school library	0.02** (0.01)	0.01 (0.01)	−0.00 (0.02)
Agree comic books could induce students in voluntary reading	−0.04*** (0.01)	−0.02** (0.01)	−0.02 (0.02)
Log likelihood	−198.39	−176.38	−261.37
Observations	789	789	789

Means and SEs of marginal effects are presented. ***Significant at 1% level; **significant at 5%; *significant at 15%.

As you can see, while the effectiveness scores in voluntary reading (measured with the 5-point Likert scale) increased by 1, the likelihood of difficulties felt arising from denying comics’ educational values were significantly reduced by 4%. However, such an effect was not found, while the effectiveness scores increased in terms of encouraging students’ motivation to visit the school library.

In Equation 10, logistic regression function was also run to determine the difficulties arising from keeping comics in the school library collection. The results indicate that the perceived effectiveness of comics in voluntary reading could reduce the likelihood of difficulties arising from the school library acquisitions policy. As the effectiveness score increased by 1 point, the likelihood of difficulties (associated with the school library acquisitions policy) was significantly reduced by 2%. Again, the perceived effectiveness of comics in encouraging library visits did not seem to have a significant effect in this regard.

The empirical evidence in Equation 11 exhibit the result aiming to test the hypothesis that the perceived effectiveness of comics could mitigate the difficulties arising from parents (in terms of keeping comics in the school library collection). Unfortunately, both (1) the effectiveness of attracting more library visits; and (2) the increased level of voluntary reading could not significantly reduce the likelihood of difficulties associated with parents’ reluctance in introducing comics into the school library collection.

Discussion

School librarians are part of the school’s instructional team. In addition to cultivating an environment that encourages voluntary reading, they play an important role as pedagogical partners to all classroom teachers by providing resources that can enrich students’ learning and reading experiences (Lo et al., 2018a, 2018b). As such, school librarians not only need to assist classroom teachers to prepare students to handle traditional texts, but also must address students’ reading needs and interests by including comic books with educational value in the school library collection.

To that end, various factors identified in this study (e.g. students’ preferred engagement with different types of texts and library resources) are undoubtedly helping classroom teachers and school librarians to understand more clearly students’ reading interests and learning practices in the rapidly changing information and education landscape. Parallel to our previous study (Lo et al., 2018a), findings of this study suggest that irrespective of how well or poorly funded the school libraries may be, school librarians constantly need to make difficult decisions in terms of what to purchase, as well as overcome various technical difficulties when keeping comics in their school library collections (see Table 4). School librarians play an important role in building a library collection with materials that are interesting, appropriate and of important educational value; this study highlights the challenges many school librarians face with funding and collection development.

Earlier studies reported that comic books were the subject of constant criticism by educators for ‘corrupting’ young and innocent minds (Chilcoat and Ligon, 1994: 35). Similarly, educators who wished their students to be engaged only in serious and academic endeavours tended to resist any activities or forms of literature that might appear to be frivolous (Morrison et al., 2002).

Nevertheless, if used properly, comic books can function as an effective educational tool for motivating students to become avid or voluntary users of the school library and its collection. Findings of this study support the notion highlighted by other researchers (Cary, 2004; Takase, 2009) that, although constantly considered ‘light’ reading and mere entertainment for mass consumption purposes, comic books carry the potential to function as a trigger or stimuli for reluctant learners to read more and move onto more advanced texts. Furthermore, this form of alternative literature could enhance students’ motivation to seek out other more formal literature. In the following sections, we will discuss further the educational value of comic books, particularly the potential to foster multimodal literacy skills.

Wholistic reading comprehension experience through comics as multimodal texts

Kintsch (1998) and Van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) defined reading comprehension as the process of creating meaning from text. The purpose of wholistic reading comprehension is to help readers develop an understanding of the main ideas in the text and to explore the structure of the text as a whole, rather than to acquire meaning from individual words or sentences. When analysing the multimodality of comics in creating a wholistic reading comprehension experience, unlike cartoons, comics are sequential art that use multiple frames to build a narrative (Chute, 2008; McCloud, 1993).

In recent years, educators and researchers have come to a common consensus that comic books have an innate power to motivate students to read, particularly when it comes to engaging young readers with the text (Carter, 2009; Norton, 2003; Rapp, 2011). According to Cary (2004), ‘comics provide both the needed input and positive affect. Abundant visual clues increase the amount of comprehensible input and consequently boost reading comprehension and L2 acquisition’ (p. 13).

When analysing the educational value of comics, findings from this study reveal that this medium was found to be the most effective in terms of improving students’ reading comprehension skills in comparison with other variables related to self-directed learning and voluntary reading practices (see Tables 6 –8). The researchers of this study believe that such findings are directly related to the positive effect comic books have on a student’s reading comprehension experience. This supports the concepts raised and discussed in the studies mentioned above, as, from the school librarians’ perspective, this medium presents a uniquely wholistic multimodal reading comprehension experience. Such wholistic reading experiences carry the potential to guide these young readers to explore complex ideas such as theme, motivation and characterisation, without having to struggle through difficult sentences (Carter, 2007; Bezemer and Kress, 2008; Siegel, 2006).

Unfortunately, findings of this study do not explain why comics were more effective in improving reading comprehension skills in comparison with other variables from the surveyed school librarians’ perspective. Further studies involving both students and school librarians are needed to examine the effectiveness of comic books in fostering reading comprehension skills and their relations to students’ self-directed learning and voluntary reading practices.

Engaging students with Science and History through comic books

Comic books have been used by many educators to increase students’ comprehension of academic areas (Brenna, 2013; Frey and Fisher, 2004; Hosler and Boomer, 2010; Mallia, 2007). Interestingly, findings from this study reveal that comic books with either a scientific or historical focus demonstrated a moderately significant independent relationship with students’ incentive to participate in ‘Independent Self-Study’ and ‘Library Programmes’ (see Table 8). The researchers of this study believe that such findings were closely tied to the recent reading promotion and learning initiatives undertaken by the school librarians in Taiwan via the use of comic books, particularly Science-themed (including Science-fiction) and History-themed comics.

According to the Taiwanese researchers of this study, Science-themed comic books have been gaining popularity in educational circles in Taiwan, particularly among school librarians – believing this medium could help popularise the learning of Science among students in both formal and informal learning environments. Since many children and teenagers are visual learners, comic books are therefore particularly effective in engaging students in exploring Science through the imaginary world of comics (Herbst et al., 2011). From the educators’ perspective, using excerpts from comics does not only enhance students’ learning but also helps them memorise complicated concepts about Science (Nagatam, 1999) and may also serve as a possible aid to teaching laboratory safety and ethics (Di Raddo, 2006). There is educational value in Science-themed comics, and many educators believe that using such comics can facilitate interest in Science (Crawford, 2004; Dallacqua, 2012; Downey, 2009; Heaney, 2007; Herbst et al., 2011; Tabachnick, 2009).

Until recently, the subject of History was often taught using dry, thick texts, and students were mostly taught to memorise and regurgitate facts, dates and historical figures, without much connection with the actual political event or stories. The major advantage of History-themed comic books lies in its transgression of boundaries, which combines reading with visual stimulation. Frey and Noys (2002) further explain that ‘although the graphic novel has largely remained beneath critical attention, the form has actually been the site for some sustained and sophisticated engagements with the problems of representing historical events’ (p. 255). Findings from this study support the notion that school librarians in Taiwan have been incorporating comics into the curriculum or at least using them to support the teaching of the curriculum. To help bridge the separation many students feel between their lives in and out of school, the school librarians in this study reported using comics as part of the effective entertainment-education strategy to increase both scientific and historical literacy among the students.

The implications of research findings

Carol L. Tilley (an expert in children’s literature and a professor of library and information science at the University of Illinois) also points to the fact that

If reading is to lead to any meaningful knowledge or comprehension, readers must approach a text with an understanding of the relevant social, linguistic and cultural conventions. And if you really consider how the pictures and words work together in consonance to tell a story, you can make the case that comics are just as complex as any other kind of literature. (Cited in Thames, 2013)

The findings of this study have many implications. The notion that comic books carry a lowbrow entertainment stigma is now outdated. Dismissing the educational potential of comics may produce missed opportunities for reaching out to young readers. Today’s young people are growing up in a world that is dominated by visual culture and fast-paced entertainment; they are accustomed to using a wide range of non-textual-based visual media. Though not all comic books are intended for educational purposes, comics cover a wide range of genres and subject matter, and share many themes found in literary classics and History books. Comic books, in the context of the school library, carry dual functions, that is, to inform/educate as well as to entertain. The multimodality of comic books can achieve different effects and meanings that cannot be achieved with pure text or pure art (Jacobs, 2007b). For classroom teachers and school librarians, it is important for them as educators to recognise the importance of broadening educational literacy practices to include teaching visual literacy and other multimodal meaning-making systems beyond the traditional printed text. Despite their many advantages, comic books are not designed to replace the reading of regular textbooks. Rather, if chosen carefully by school librarians, comic books can be an effective tool for supporting the teaching of curriculum. Although this study has not found that comic books could function as a trigger or stimuli for reluctant learners to read more, respondents of this study believe they can. In fact, the findings of this study support our previous study findings (Lo et al., 2018) and suggest that the educational value of comic books is gradually gaining recognition among different school librarian communities, including those in Chinese-speaking regions. As highlighted and concluded in our previous study, comic books in libraries are no longer a novelty and reflect a growing acceptance. School librarians develop their collections to meet readership needs, to tap into new audiences and to introduce new ways of teaching and learning (Lo et al., 2018a, 2018b).

In addition, findings of this study suggest comic books could be used to motivate reading and help students learn about the subjects of History and Science, via a visual-based and serialised narrative approach to storytelling.

Technical limitations

The main limitation of this study was that it was based solely on quantitative questionnaire data collected from school librarians practising in Taiwan. No follow-up qualitative studies were conducted to reflect on the questionnaire survey results.

Readers should bear in mind that the findings of this study are based solely on the perceptions and voices of the school librarians and their thoughts on the students’ preferences, not the students’ voices themselves. No student responses were collected to validate or to reflect on the school librarian data. Although findings of this study could provide large-scale insight, the lack of any qualitative research for this study has prevented us as researchers from gaining a deeper understanding of the various sociocultural and curricular-related factors that have contributed to the current acceptance of comic books in Taiwan. As a result, the underlying incentives for individual respondents’ views towards this media, as well as rationales behind the educational use of comics in school libraries, could not be revealed. Despite the highest proportion (46%) of total respondents being aged between 41 and 50 years, 49% of the total survey population had only 1–5 years of professional experience as a school librarian (see Table 1). This limited professional experience might have hindered some school librarians from developing a more comprehensive view on the educational value and the possible on-going maintenance issues associated with comic books. Furthermore, RQ5 was set out to identify the various difficulties and challenges school librarians have faced when attempting to include comic books in their collections. Issues concerning such technical difficulties and challenges would have best been answered qualitatively, and given the quantitative nature of this survey, readers should recognise this as another limitation of this study.

The vast majority of respondents in this survey study were female school librarians (see Table 1). Ellis and Highsmith (2000: 39) suggest that ‘librarianship has traditionally been a female-dominated profession,’ and our recent studies support the notion that people who are considering a career in librarianship are still predominately female (Ho et al., 2018; Lo et al., 2015, 2016, 2019). While the responses to this study’s views and attitudes towards comics were overrepresented by female respondents (and underrepresented among male respondents), the readership of comic books, however, has always been overwhelmingly male (Ellis and Highsmith, 2000; Greaney, 1980). There is, therefore, the possibility that the lack of interest among female survey respondents could have influenced their perceptions and attitudes towards the educational value of comics in general. With regard to gender differences, there is much to be learned by studying how males and females react to comic books. Hence, for further studies, it would be interesting to identify the gender gap in comic reading among students, as well as the gender gap in comic book promotion among teachers and librarians in the context of the school library. Finally, given the large body of literature available on this topic, very few region-wide studies have been carried out in Asia. Further cross-national and cross-cultural studies would be needed to verify whether findings here might be unique to Taiwan. Nevertheless, findings of this study provide a valuable reference for new school librarians who are looking to maintain a comic book collection or attempting to legitimise this form of literature (Lo et al., 2018).

Conclusion

The most significant finding to emerge from this study is the complexity of students’ recreational reading and independent learning practices, and their relation to different genres of comics in the context of the school library in Taiwan. Findings of this study suggest that comic books possess the potential to function as an educational tool and motivation for students to use the school library more regularly on a voluntary basis. Additional research is required if we are to throw further light on the current understanding of the variables affecting comic book reading within school libraries.

For further studies, it would be interesting to find out to what extent, and how, school librarians in Taiwan are integrating comics as an educational tool for supporting the curriculum and teaching specific academic subjects (e.g. History, Geography, Science and Mathematics). It would also be interesting to conduct further in-depth analysis on gender difference and attitudes towards comics as an educational resource. While the findings of this study reveal that bestsellers were a more effective incentive for students to visit their school library voluntarily in comparison with comics, not all bestsellers are suitable for children and teenagers. So, similarly, it would be of interest to educators to find out to what extent school librarians in Taiwan and/or other neighbouring regions integrate bestsellers into their existing curricular or school library education programmes.

Supplemental Material

sj-pdf-1-lis-10.1177_0961000620983430 – Supplemental material for Measuring the educational value of comic books from the school librarians’ perspective: A region-wide quantitative study in Taiwan

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-lis-10.1177_0961000620983430 for Measuring the educational value of comic books from the school librarians’ perspective: A region-wide quantitative study in Taiwan by Patrick Lo, Ya-Pin Lyu, Joyce Chao-chen Chen, Jui-Lien Lu and Andrew J. Stark in Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors of this study would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Chung-chin Lai (National Taiwan Normal University) for collecting responses for the questionnaire survey. Without his active participation in data collection, this project would not have been possible.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Patrick Lo

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Notes

Author biographies

Patrick Lo, from 2012 to 2018, served as associate professor at the Faculty of Library, Information and Media Science, University of Tsukuba in Japan. He earned his Doctor of Education (EdD) from the University of Bristol (UK) in 2009. He has an MA in Design Management from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2004), an MLIS from McGill University Canada (1994), and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Mount Allison University, Canada (1992). He also took part in a one-year academic exchange at Tübingen University (Germany) from 1990 to 1991.

Ya-Pin Lyu is current serving as a research fellow at the Center for General Education, Office of Academic Affairs, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. She holds a bachelor and a master degree in Public Finance from the National ChengChi University (Taiwan). She received her PhD in Economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton (USA) in 2012. Her research interests include theory of human capital investments, education economics, industrial economics, etc.

Joyce C.C. Chen is a professor at the Graduate Institute of Library and Information Studies and also currently the vice president of Academic Affairs of National Taiwan Normal University. She was in-charge of the training programme for teacher librarians entrusted by the Ministry of Education. Her research areas are reading behaviours, information literacy and knowledge organisation.

Chung-chin Lai is currently the deputy director at the National Library of Public Information (Taichung City, Taiwan). He is currently a doctoral student at the Graduate Institute of Library & Information Studies, National Taiwan Normal University. He also holds an MA from the Graduate Institute of Library & Information Studies, National Chengchi University, and also a BA from the Department and Graduate Institute of Library Science, National Taiwan University.

Jui-Lien Lu is currently serving as a librarian at the Multi-Cultural Service Section of the National Library of Public Information in Taiwan. She is a graduate of the Doctoral Program of Education Institute, the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.

Andrew J. Stark is an associate dean and Head of Libraries and Information Services at The Southport School, Australia. For over 10 years, he has been directly involved with developing and promoting library services within independent schools and has completed extensive research into the value of creating positive, flexible learning and teaching spaces. Andrew argues that the modern librarian requires skills far beyond that of `literary expert’ and `research assistant’. The contemporary library context now requires public relations experts who can promote and manipulate the plethora of available resources and text-types thus enabling users to make sense of what is on offer in the 21st-century library and classroom.

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