The Read Illinois project was launched by the Illinois State Library in 1981 to initiate adult service efforts to promote appreciation of the state's literary heritage. The program draws together and provides support to writers, scholars, teachers, librarians, publishers, and booksellers by organizing literary activities for adults and young…

Literacy and illiteracy are cultural; the need to read, to write, and to compute comes from values placed on these functions by the cultural or social group in which one lives. They are also intergenerational. This intergenerational factor should be turned around so that parents transmit literacy to children. Illiteracy is also costly to society…