The Effects of Booktalking upon the Circulation of Undercirculating Children’s Fiction

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of booktalks in order to increase circulation of quality fiction books that had circulated one time or not at all from the Dunkerton, Iowa, Elementary School Library from August, 1993, to the end of February, 1994. The fifteen titles to be booktalked met specific controls and were required to be included in one of four recommended bibliographies of children\u27s literature. The hypothesis of this study predicted that 50% of the titles would circulate immediately upon being presented to the fifth grade students, and that the majority of the titles would continue to circulate until the end of the year. Data showed that 67% of the titles circulated immediately and that 40% circulated again. The first part of the study\u27s hypothesis was accepted; the second part of the hypothesis was rejected