Hello! 

I’m an information studies PhD student at the University of Maryland, College Park. I am conducting interviews as part of a research study about how young adults search for reading materials like fiction and fanfiction. I am looking for readers from the United States between the ages of 18 and 23 to participate in these interviews.

The interview will be held over Zoom, should take no more than 30 minutes, and is very informal. I will ask questions about where and how you search for reading materials. These interviews will be audio recorded for research purposes. Your responses to the questions will be kept confidential, and each interview will be assigned a number code to ensure that personal identifiers are not revealed during the analysis and write up of findings.

Participants will receive a $20 Amazon gift card upon completion of the interview, and your participation would be very helpful in furthering our understanding of common search techniques used by young adults and identifying ways to improve library services for young adult readers.

Please fill out this google form if you are interested in participating and meet the following criteria:

You are based in the US

You are between the ages of 18 and 23

You self-identify as being a reader or enjoy reading for pleasure

Please signal boost this post if possible so I can have more chances at recruiting participants!!

Okay, so I’ve coded two of the transcripts so far (the beginnings of some possible trends are starting to appear!), and I’m now working on cleaning up the rest of the transcripts before I code them.

I’m using an AI transcription service which has been surprisingly accurate so far, but it struggles a bit with things like fandom terminology and fandom or character names (though it seems to have recognized “fanfic” quite easily!!). This struggle has led to some unintentionally hilarious moments

Like when a participant mentioned Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows, and the system was like “literally what is this word Kaz???” and decided to pick whatever word was closest to it. And it went with COWS.

brb laughing forever over Cows Brekker, Dirtyhands, the Bastard of the Barrel, leader of the Dregs, and one of the most feared Barrel Bosses in all of Ketterdam 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂

Thank you so much!!! I was super nervous, so I'm really happy that people seemed to enjoy it!!! 😊

There will be! I got an email a couple of days ago from the coordinators of the event, and they said they’re planning to record the presentations and put them up on the website after the symposium! 😊 

Hi! Thank you for your interest in the study!!

I won’t be asking for any form of ID or proof of age (totally going off of the honor system here), but I would request that you please only submit your information if you fall within my target demographic of ages 18-23. If you are under 18, there are more protections that need to be in place (including parental consent and a more thorough review of my study by my university). I’m specifically interested in how young adults today are searching for materials for pleasure reading, and it would be really beneficial to get the most accurate data possible!

If you’re interested in participating in fan studies research but do not fall into my target demographic, I’d suggest following @fanhackers here on tumblr or the Fan Studies Network on Twitter (@  FanStudies) as they will sometimes reblog or retweet calls for participants.