How Readers Search When They Search

For more than two decades now, I've been guided by Jerry W. Ward, Jr.'s  question: "why do Black readers read what they read when they read?" Inspired by that challenge, I began routinely surveying students in my African American literature courses about their reading interests and habits.

These days, in collaboration with Meg Smith, director of our university’s Digital Humanities Center, and Dan Schreiber, the center’s web developer, I’ve been inclined to ask a related but different question: How do readers interested in Black authors and literary works search when they search?

Questions about search behaviors and reading discovery now drive our ongoing conversations about improving the Literary Navigator Device, an online portal designed to help users explore a wide range of publications—novels, short stories, poems, graphic novels, essays, and autobiographies.

As we continue building the project, we’re constantly asking how people seek out materials and what features can make their searches more meaningful. We also want to create opportunities for readers to encounter something valuable they weren’t necessarily looking for.

The goal is to make the act of searching itself a form of discovery, deepening how readers engage with Black literature.

Related:

• Developing the Black Lit Network