Thanks so very much to everyone who was so helpful answering my question
about which magazines are the most popular with students in high school
libraries. Here's my original post:
I am beginning a job as a HS librarian and I would like to make some
adjustments to our magazine collection to include more high-interest
magazines for teens. So I am polling all you wonderful listserv librarians -
what are the most popular magazines in your high school library? For
background - we are normally a 9-12 school in rural northern NY (WAY north!)
but for this school year I'll also have 8th grade due to construction at the
middle school.
Here are the responses I received:
My most popular seem to be Shonen Jump, Skateboard World, Bride, Seventeen,
People, Field and Stream, Sports Illustrated, and Georgia Hunting, though we
subscribe to others as well.
Mental Floss, Sister to Sister, Jet, People, Teen People, Teen Vogue,
I am a HS librarian as well, and I change mine up every year too.
Our absolute highest circulation magazines year are:
Sports Illustrated
ESPN
People
Motor Trend
Shonen Jump
Girls want fashion mags, so I have done InStyle which they love too. There
are some for MS like Cobblestone, for example, that I really like. It never
gets touched in the library, but the MS history teacher enjoys using it in
his classroom, and students enjoy it in that setting. I keep many others on
hand too, from Newsweek and Time to Horse and Rider to National Geographic,
but the ones mentioned above are the ones I am asked "is the new ___ in
yet?" on a weekly basis.
Dallas Cowboys Star, Seventeen, Slam (basketball), EuropeonCar, J-14, Mad,
TransworldSkateboarding, People, Us Weekly, Glamour, ESPN
Anyway, as a fellow way-up-north librarian, what I can suggest is that you
simply ask the kids what they want to read. I order the usual top titles:
Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Seventeen, but the kids
have asked for vehicle-related magazines, so I get things like AVS Rider,
Motocross, Car & Driver, BMX, etc. When the junior class magazine drive
comes around I order a few extra titles like Teen Vogue, Transworld
Skateboarding or Transworld Snowboarding. I eliminated National Geographic,
Popular Science, and a few other magazines that one feels you are "supposed"
to get in favor of things they will actually pick up and read. A title or
two on video games usually does well, too. And they love something
published locally here called Want-Ad Digest, a weekly pulp that lists tons
of things (especially vehicles) for sale in the area and beyond. They think
it's all pictures, but they do have to read descriptions, etc., and anything
that gets them to read and evaluate details is a victory to me. You might
have a version of that for the Malone area. It's too expensive to subscribe
to, so I just pick one up at Stewart's about once a month out of pocket.
Again, I ask the kids and they're happy to have a say and to see the
magazine they asked for actually come in!
Sports Illustrated
Wrestling USA (big with wrestlers)
Muscle and Fitness
Outdoor Life
Field & Stream
Nascar Illustrated
Teen Vogue
Seventeen (I used to have but dropped because it is too old for my 7-8
graders ex: you idea of a dream date=winner was 27 and the date she won was
an overnight trip to the bahamas with her boyfriend)
Good Housekeeping
Ladies Home Journal
I am at a semi-rural school and the most popular by far are:
People
Teen Vogue
Seventeen
Hunting magazines
Bon Appetit (students like to look at pictures of food because they are
always hungry :)) and National Geographic is a big hit, the students love
the pictures, but they usually end up reading some of the story, too.
Our biggest movers are US Weekly, People, Seventeen for girls and ESPN,
Sports Illustrated, Road and Track for boys.
We also have a segment of the student population who always pick up the
latest issues of Business Week and Time.
Our 8th grade students also enjoy Shonen Jump magazine.
I'm not a HS librarian, but I think Kiki would be a great one for you. I met
with the vendor representative at ALA and was really impressed by their
product. http://kikimag.com/ It's a fashion mag without under-dressed,
over-sexed kids. Each issue integrates math, science and social studies in
some way.
I can recommend magazines for boys:
ESPN
Sports Illustrated
GQ
Entertainment Weekly
National Geographic
Game Informer
National Geographic is always popular and Amazon is running a 1 year special
for $15
Rebecca Buerkett, MLIS
School Librarian
Franklin Academy High School, Malone, NY
rbuerkett@roadrunner.com
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