My spring break is winding down, but I’m really relishing these two weeks! Perhaps you’ve noticed that my posts have been a little more interesting lately?  I’ve actually cleared out my GoogleReader and I’ve been finding so much good stuff to pass on!

Did you know that All Things Asian is being celebrated 2-16 April? Asian books, authors and bloggers will be celebrated with the end goal of getting more Asian YA books published. YES!! The schedule for the event can be found on iLive, iLaugh, iLove Books. Some of the other blogs participating include That Hapa Chick and My Words Ate Me.

I found out about this wonderful event on the blogsite of author E. C. Myers whose first book, Fair Coin just came out 27 March.

“Sixteen-year-old Ephraim Scott is horrified when he comes home from school and finds his mother unconscious at the kitchen table, clutching a bottle of pills. The reason for her suicide attempt is even more dis­turbing: she thought she’d identified Ephraim’s body at the hospital that day.
Among his dead double’s belongings, Ephraim finds a strange coin–a coin that grants wishes when he flips it. With a flick of his thumb, he can turn his alcoholic mother into a model parent and catch the eye of the girl he’s liked since second grade. But the coin doesn’t always change things for the better. And a bad flip can destroy other people’s lives as easily as it rebuilds his own. The coin could give Ephraim everything he’s ever wanted–if he learns to control its power before his luck runs out.” (from Amazon)

My followers may remember a recent post in which I wondered whether YAs of color are engaging with ereaders. I think this becomes important not only because it addresses reading literacy, but also digital literacy which the OITP Digital Literacy task force has just defined as the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information requiring both cognitive and technical skills. I first found this definition, as well as a link to the recently released PewInterest study on ereaders on LibrarianByDay.

Here’s a glimpse of what the report found.

• 16-17 year olds read more than older age groups.
• 48% of book readers had purchased the book. Whites (49%) were more likely than minorities to have purchased their most recent book.
• 24% had borrowed the book from a friend or family member.Some 30% of African Americans had gotten their most recent book this way, compared with 23% of whites.
• 28% of the responders said they get recommendations from online bookstores or other websites, and most of these were women.
• People who own ereaders read more than people who don’t.
• While the number of people reading on ereaders in the past year has increased 21%, that compares to 22% who said they read no book in the past year.

And who’s reading those ebooks? PewInterest’s provides data for both ereaders and tablets, but for the sake of clarity, I’m only related ereader data, which is quite similar to the tablet data. source

• 18-29 year olds own 20% of ebooks
• Of that 20%, 67% are White, 12% are Black, 13% are Hispanic and 8% are ‘other’.

While not all the questions I posed were answered, this study does reveal interesting trends.

Are you a library user, or a librarian? Or do you own an e-reader or tablet computer? PewInterest wants to hear from you! Sign up to participate in future online surveys about libraries and e-books.