School librarians--also called school media specialists or teacher librarians--play a powerful and essential role: promoting school-wide cultures of literacy, partnering with teachers to enhance learning, propelling students toward lifelong reading habits, and establishing transformative learning spaces rich with print and digital resources.…

Family engagement is a shared responsibility among families, educators, and communities to support children's learning and development. For families, it is about the knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors that enable children to be motivated, enthusiastic, and successful learners. For libraries, this means having respectful partnerships with…

When secondary school librarians teach students digital life literacies, they help students perceive that librarians can provide support for real-life problems. The more librarians work with students, create inviting library environments, and have positive engagements with students, the more they change student perceptions of librarians in…

As concern over teenagers' reading and writing skills mounts, an Alabama high school shows how to teach literacy in every subject. When Buckhorn joined the reading initiative, its teachers and top administrators attended the state's two-week summer workshop, and were inspired by its vision of literacy instruction across the content areas. But they…

Library media specialists are a literacy model. They hold the world of literacy at their fingertips and in their collections. Everything individuals need to know about literacy can be found in some form in the library domain, either in the stacks or in the professional repertoire that librarians posses. There are plenty of ways that library media…

The notion of "new literacies" is appearing increasingly in the news in literacy research, journals and books; and in preservice and inservice teacher education. To function effectively in society now requires more than basic reading and writing with "old technologies" or print materials. Today, in the workplace, in our communities and in our…

Reports on the literacy rate among adults in India, especially the role of public libraries and special programs in improving that rate. (FM)

Discusses how libraries have the potential to support and motivate adults wanting to improve their literacy skills. Reports on a British initiative to bring together libraries and basic skills providers. (Author/JOW)

In this article, the author talks about the changing role of the elementary library media specialist. Unfortunately, library media specialists (LMSs) are too often left out of the literacy loop. Traditionally, their roles in literacy were to be the support team, the purveyors of books, the sometimes nearly invisible element in literacy, but this…

Describes projects supporting family literacy programs that were developed through collaboration between Bell Atlantic and the American Library Association (ALA). Highlights include examples of programs; collaboration with other agencies; resource services; public libraries and literacy; suggestions for program developers; and a list of grant…

Encouraging literacy and academic success among English language learners (ELLs) is becoming an increasingly common challenge for educators. In the course of the authors work of training teachers or providing training for implementation of materials, they have found that the resources of the school library media center are invaluable for helping…

Describes characteristics of dyslexics and contributions to understanding their special needs provided by Orton's research. Insights into needs of adult dyslexics based on classroom experiences are summarized, their implications for librarians are suggested, and provision of special training for tutors in Dane County (Wisconsin) public library…

This examination of library involvement in adult literacy programs argues that public libraries had their roots in widespread concern for literacy in the 17th century and traces the development of such programs to the present. Changing definitions of literacy are summarized, and current issues in adult library services are discussed. (EM)

Examines the role of public library services in adult literacy education, the definition of literacy, the nature of service clientele, literacy program development, literacy research projects, patterns of service, materials service, and librarian training for such services. References are given. (FM)

Literacy being a major concern at state level preconferences, a theme conference was held to develop recommendations as to how libraries, in cooperation with other concerned agencies, can work toward solving the continuing problems of illiteracy in the U.S. Approximately 200 participants representing the library and educational communities, the…