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The Internet revolutionized reading in the 21st century, something everybody realizes now. The numbers alone speak volumes: 11 years ago about 22% of Americans chose the Internet to get their news, but in 2013, that number had risen to 39%. The statistics are revealing, and attest to the fact that e-books, news, entertainment, and communication are all taking place online.

Online, tech-based reading is on the rise

According to Kathryn Zickuhr, Internet researcher at the Pew Research Center, 55% of Americans own a smartphone and 24% an e-reader.

E-reading is a trend that continues to grow. In 2011, only 16% of the American participants in the Pew study read an ebook, but in 2012 that number rose to 23%. Print book reading dropped from 72% to 67% from 2011 to 2012. Again, there’s a strong but gradual tendency to read more ebooks than paper ones.

Rituals that are intimacy-based favor print book reading

While traditional reading rituals like reading with a child or with another person are still mostly likely to be done with print books, participants in the study who commuted regularly confirmed that ebooks are their preferred medium for reading when travelling. Not only does an e-reader have the advantage of letting you keep a wider selection of books available, it allows you to access new books easily and quickly.

The future of libraries

Libraries are not dying, and many people still visit them. In fact, 73% of the people surveyed visit a library with the express purpose of borrowing books.

What’s been noticeably absent from libraries is the time spent in them. People generally no longer browse shelves as frequently. They find the books in the library’s website, reserve them on line, and go pick them up, a time-saving approach that librarians say is on the rise.

As the purpose of libraries shifts, their cultural role is becoming even stronger. People regard libraries as community spaces for ongoing cultural expression and communication. Lectures, cultural events, and meetings are all part of the many activities taking place at libraries today, giving them a role in peoples’ lives beyond studying and reading books.

Reader expectations changing

Online content is changing the expectations of readers. The print book is not going to be replaced any time soon, but libraries are already feeling the need to adjust to a more tech-based environment.

In fact, the survey illustrated that people are keen to use tech services like pre-loaded ebooks, or classes on how to use e-readers. Most modern libraries have online catalogs that let people borrow library-owned e-books, and even the smallest library is striving to offer more automated and online services to the public.

As we move into a digital era of content dissemination, the need for libraries and other cultural institutions to keep up with technology will not decrease. Libraries that stubbornly refuse to offer online facilities like ebook borrowing, free access to databases, and digitized books will run the risk of being neglected and forgotten. Technology is changing the reading expectations of modern readers, and society – and its libraries – has to respond accordingly and promptly.

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Were you formally taught how to touch type in school, or are your typing skills a unique typing strategy that involves mostly your index fingers, while you peer down at the keyboard hunting for the right letters?

Strategies for typing instruction started at the same time the typewriter came on the scene. It was towards the end of the 19th century that the typewriter gained its full status as a reliable tool for communication and writing.

The first ever typing courses were (as you might expect) provided by typewriter experts, according to Yamada (1983). Roughly around 1880, typing courses were provided by typewriter manufacturers like Remington in an effort to establish the typewriter’s status as an essential technological aid in business.

Fast-forward 15 years into the 20th century, and you’ll find that public schools were starting to introduce typing in America’s high schools. Today, keyboarding is considered an occupational skill all students need to master.

Typing is a skill that boosts employment opportunities. However, at one point it was also considered a medium through which reading and writing could be taught. A study by Wood and Freeman (1932) explored how typewriters affect students’ literacy.

They discovered that students using a typewriter to write had a better reading capacity and improved spelling skills. What is more, these students regarded writing on a typewriter to be more enjoyable than their counterparts who weren’t writing and reading on a typewriter. At this time, typewriters were a technology that was experimentally introduced as educators wanted to see how it could positively affect learning.

In 1936, about seventy years ago, Colahan Wayne revealed in a paper that elementary-level typing classes had brilliant results for those being taught how to type — given the teacher was qualified and the class well-organized.

What’s more important is that educators showed a desire to integrate typewriters into other classes, like math and science, as a way of “technologizing” education. It’s something that we see today as well, with the computer and tablet now taking a front and center position in the classroom.

During the 50’s and 60’s typewriting was taught mostly in elementary schools, and there was a widely held conviction that typewriting skills might fast-forward a student’s acquisition of the English language — especially spelling. Through typing, students tend to become more aware of the forms that letter patterns take, especially the beginning and ending of words, as Bartholome W. Lloyd reported in his research, “Keyboarding/Typewriting in Elementary School.”

Studies in the 80s looked into what the most appropriate age is for teaching keyboarding skills to young students. While there was evidence that teaching keyboarding at the 3rd grade is an ideal time, a different study that looked into how responsive and efficient students who were being taught keyboarding skills at the 1st and 2nd grade revealed that these younger students are in fact equally capable of handling keyboarding and mastering the skill as 3rd graders are.

Literature published over the past fifty years points out the beneficial aspect of teaching touch typing in elementary school. In recent years, many students can either opt for a typing class in high school or receive typing instruction through an online course or software. However, while there’s an obvious need for students to master keyboarding, most schools currently focus on other skills and knowledge as their high priority.

Those priorities need to be shifted, given that education is becoming more tech-based than ever before. Keyboarding is a basic computer skill which needs to be taught early on, so that students can easily meet modern marketplace demand.

But apart from securing their future employment prospects, learning to touch type is fast becoming a basic skill for educational purposes – as necessary as being able to read, one could argue. With many classroom assignments and activities being carried out on computers, students are expected to have mastered touch typing. But how many 4th and 5th graders have had formal keyboarding classes at school?

Studies done in the last few decades show how state educational institutions and society as a whole don’t seem to realize the centrality of keyboarding in education, and how important this skill is for young students. 25 years ago it might have been sufficient to have your own hunt and peck touch typing method, but today typing speed and accuracy need to be advanced in order for a person to succeed at school and at work.

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Touch type your work and increase productivity with Typesy Now!

A bad reference is worse than no reference at all. In this competitive job market you have to have the best references possible to land your dream job.

A reference check will confirm what you’re claiming to be true in your cover letter and resume – but this check may also uncover things you haven’t mentioned. It goes without saying you need to be honest in your resume, but you also need to be smart when it comes to choosing the references you provide for your background and qualifications checks.

Choose wisely

Even if you don’t have any work experience, you still have people who can serve as references: teachers, mentors, coaches, or any other person who can provide information related to your work ethic and background.

If you have work experience, or you’ve been an intern, then your go-to reference should be someone from the immediate job environment that knows you enough to offer a clear and representative picture of who you are to your prospective manager.

Be proactive

Don’t wait until a HR manager asks for references to start making your phone calls. Even before you formally start your job hunting you should have 5 to 6 references selected, and you need to make sure that you have informed them that you’ve selected them as references so they can be ready to represent you in a positive light to your future employer.

In and of itself, this is something a HR manager likes to see: a person who acts proactively and sees a step ahead, organizing what would be asked of them before it is. It is a great trick to create a good first impression during the job interview.

Let your reference know

Don’t ever assume that someone is eager to spend their time talking about you if they’re not prepared for it or if you didn’t have the etiquette to ask them first.

Contact your references and see if they’re willing to be your reference for a job you’re applying for. If they are happy to help, that’s great, but if you sense they don’t know you all that well or they have a misinterpreted picture of your skills and qualifications, then opt for another reference. A bad reference could break your hiring prospects, so be extra careful.

Network

LinkedIn offers plenty of room for networking and maintaining professional relationships with past and potential professional contacts.

Use it extensively to reap all the networking benefits and ensure that if you need a former employer or manager to act as a reference they will have you fresh in their mind and paint a positive image of you without second thoughts.

Written reference letters

A phone reference check could go well, but if your written reference letter is vague it could do more harm than good. Ask your reference to list and describe particular skills and strengths and not simply blurt out a random set of positive traits that could describe anyone. Above all, make sure that the quality of your reference is reflected in the quality of the letter from that person. If you hand over a letter of reference that’s filled with spelling errors, it will imply that your reference isn’t really a qualified professional themselves, and it will completely undermine your credibility.

Implement these tips and your reference check will boost your possibilities of getting your dream job. Good luck!

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There’s good news for couples that read together. Scientists agree that this activity amplifies bonding between partners, offers plenty of conversation topics, and helps them improve their overall relationship through meaningful exchanges of information and opinions, all thanks to a book.

Meaningful Bonding

Not every couple shares the same interests and hobbies, and it’s not unheard of that such couples sometimes have a limited scope of things to discuss. Reading a book – not necessarily out loud, but each on their own – can cultivate a strong rapport that revolves around a common topic. This shared experience can be the basis for a good conversation.

Each person brings their own understanding and interpretation of the plot and characters, and in a genuine exchange of information, couples develop better communication skills, which helps them form a stronger bond.

Blurring Out Noise

Couples can easily get caught up in chores and responsibilities. They have limited time, and although they want something truly meaningful and empowering for their relationship, they sometimes don’t know where to start.

Getting lost in a book and escaping the real world doesn’t have to be a solitary experience. You can enjoy the perks of reading with your significant other, enjoying the way that the story helps to blur out any noise and distraction from the world around you.

Couples’ reading can turn into a habit, where both know this is their quality time together. It creates a sense of structure, shared priorities, and enjoyment that can only benefit a relationship or marriage.

Discovering One Another

Reading together helps you discover hidden or lesser known aspects of your significant other. Taking turns in recommending your next read helps you unravel aspects of your significant other’s personality and temperament you didn’t know existed.

Who knows, you might discover you have yen for biographies – something you didn’t find out until you tried the literary recommendations from your partner.

Unplug and Interact

Reading a book together is an affordable activity that doesn’t involve any screens — although you could both read on tablets and e-readers.

The tactile experience of book reading offers the most stimulation for your senses. Couples’ reading is an opportunity to share the same passion and excitement about a character. It gives you the chance to understand each others’ references and make jokes about the plights and achievements you read about in the narrative.

Nurturing Relationships

Reading is a unique experience. Share it with someone you care for and love, and you’ll enjoy it even more. This doesn’t necessarily have to be your lover or spouse; it could be your friend, your son, or your mother. After all, there are so many relationships we could take loving care of, and reading forms bonds between people everywhere.

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Do Facebook “likes” reflect your brand’s social media marketing success? Not really. If you want to accurately assess your social media marketing efforts, don’t look at the number of likes your Facebook posts, shares and photos are getting. Rather, look at your engagement rate.

Your engagement rate on Facebook is a great indicator of success. You’ll want to look at it often and adjust your marketing strategies according to what you find. Seeing how people engage with you online tells you what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to be revisited.

“People talking about this”

So what is your company’s engagement rate? This is a valuable insight that Facebook offers for business on Facebook. It helps you understand and quantify engagement with your brand.

The “People Talking About This” result is simply the number of actual people talking about a post you’ve shared, divided by the total number of likes your page has. This metric has a number of other indicators you need to check often, like “post reach” and “engagement.”
Engagement refers to the total of all user actions people took in relation to your page, including likes, shares, clicks, and comments. Post Reach, on the other hand, is the number of unique people who’ve read a specific post.

These metrics are very important as they indicate the engagement rate of your Facebook page. Learning to use these tools will give you tips on how to optimize your social media marketing campaign.

Improve Facebook engagement

Now that you know how to understand Facebook engagement rate, here are some ways you can boost it.

Flawless grammar – Many people don’t care for bad grammar. Others will post a negative comment or never check your page again because of a grammar mistake.

Since there are all kinds of users that engage with your Facebook page you need to ensure your text is free from grammatical mistakes to avoid grammar casualties.

Have someone proofread your posts before publishing them or use a spellchecker to catch those your eyes cannot. Either way, always double-check your grammar.

No spelling mistakes – Just like grammar, spelling is crucial. Your posts need to be free of misspellings. If you know you’re prone to mistaking “your” and “you’re” in your writing, be sure to double check each post. Run your posts through a spellchecker and always, always read your posts twice before hitting the publish button.

If you want to increase engagement on Facebook you cannot afford to distract your community and followers with spelling and grammar mistakes, can you?

Vary your content – People get easily bored and are more often than not “skim and scan” users.

That’s why it’s crucial that you alternate between different types of content. Publish your own posts, share those of others, switch between images and memes and links and longer posts.

Variety ensures the reader will be coming back for more, and if you only publish posts, people won’t engage as much with your site. Offer them a variety of interesting, relevant posts and you will increase the number of likes, shares and comments on your posts!

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When we surveyed our customers in the recent Spreeder Pro launch, an iPad version was hands down the most popular request.

It’s not hard to see why – the Spreeder experience is perfectly suited to the comfort, convenience, and portability of the iPad.

The Spreeder team have been working on the iPad version for over a year now, and we’re almost ready to release Spreeder Pro for the iPad.

The iPad version of Spreeder Pro is truly beautiful. Here are some spy photos taken in the office of CEO Marc Slater. Marc is already using the iPad Spreeder (test versions) to power through all his important reading material.

We expect this to be released by the end of the month, and all existing Spreeder Pro customers be given immediate free access.

Since we announced Spreeder Pro a few days ago, we have been literally swamped by questions on our helpdesk, in the survey, and in social media. Thank you for your feedback – it’s both humbling and encouraging to receive such a massive response.

Spreeder Pro is going to be released to the public at 7PM PST on Wednesday, January 27th. Just so you’re ready, here are the answers to your most common questions about Spreeder Pro:

What is Spreeder Pro?

First, Spreeder Pro is the world’s most advanced and powerful “speed e-reader”. Second, Spreeder pro gives you expert training, a cloud library, computer training and more. It’s all designed to help you read faster, learn faster, and comprehend more.

Does Spreeder Pro allow me to easily read all my material such as websites, blogs, books, files, etc?

Yes, Spreeder Pro is designed first for reading entire texts and books faster, so you can use Spreeder pro for all your reading and save lots of time. It’s great for anyone with a lot of reading that needs to be done quickly.

Does Spreeder Pro remember my location in every e-book, document, and webpage I’m reading?

Yes it does. You can import multiple books and documents. Spreeder will store them all in your cloud library and remember your location in each book, document, and webpage you’re reading.

Can I use larger chunk sizes in Spreeder Pro or is it limited to a word at a time?

It’s very important to have the flexibility so you can match the text display to your reading style. Spreeder Pro can handle chunk sizes of a single word, all the way up to 30 words on 5 lines. So you can work in the mode that suites your reading style best.

Does Spreeder Pro address bad reading habits such as subvocalization, re-reading, etc?

Yes. Spreeder has specific training courses, techniques, and lessons designed specifically to address the bad reading habits that are slowing you down.

Will Spreeder Pro help with my comprehension, retention, and memory?

The RSVP method of reading that Speeder uses has been shown in studies to increase reading speed and comprehension. If you have used the free Spreeder app then you have already experience this. Spreeder Pro takes this same concept to a whole new level.

Will Spreeder Pro be available on the iPad?

Yes it will very soon. The desktop and web versions will be released first in January. We are doing the final testing on the iPad version and it will be released in February. Everyone who gets Spreeder in the initial release will get free and priority access to the iPad version as soon as it’s released.

Can I use Spreeder Pro offline?

Spreeder Pro has some support for offline use. Once you have downloaded or imported your book from the cloud library, you can keep reading it offline. However, you’ll need a connection to change books, or to do the video and training courses.

What is the expert training all about?
In Spreeder Pro, we worked with leading speed reading and learning experts to make the most powerful speed reading training. The expert training helps you read faster on a computer, on devices, and even offline. It also teaches you powerful techniques for managing information overload, improving your memory, and learning super fast.

To make Spreeder Pro amazing, we worked with a wide range of experts, such as expert memory trainer Sean M Kelly. In our final sneak preview, you can see Sean recall Pi to 100 decimal places.

Sean also shows you how to improve your memory, concentration, creativity, and visualization.

Watch the video below, we think you’ll be pretty amazed at what you can achieve!

As the world’s most powerful speed e-reader, Spreader Pro will work to make you read faster, eliminate subvocaliztion, and comprehend more. In addition, the expert training courses in Spreeder will address all your bad reading habits and the relationships between them.

Our second sneak preview shows you the exact reason that slow readers typically daydream, have lower comprehension, and can’t remember what they read. It also shows you what to do about it.

This preview is from one of the training lessons in Spreeder Pro and is created by Abby Marks Beale. Author of The Complete Idiots Guide To Speed Reading & 10 Days to Faster Reading, Abby is a leading expert. She has taught speed reading to professionals (including Fortune 500 companies) for over 25 years.

Watch the video now by pressing the play button below. It will only take 2 minutes and could help you improve your comprehension and memory for what you read.

Over the next few days we’ll be giving you a taste of what’s to come in Spreeder Pro. The video below is taught by Kathleen Hawkins.

Author of Speed Reading Made Easy and 6 other top sellers, Kathleen Hawkins has taught over 60,000 people to speed read in person. Kathleen is also vice president of the National Management Institute.

This is taken from Kathleen’s powerful 16-part course in Spreeder Pro, which itself is just 1 of 6 exclusive expert courses included in the new program (more previews coming soon).

We hope you enjoy the video!