Festive Greetings of the Season!

 

Just before Thanksgiving, I posted a query regarding public libraries
and family literacy programs, partly as an aid for a class project (as a
library science student) but also to support my own interests and
concerns in the field. I write now to give a belated but extremely warm
thank you to all who answered me, both on- and off-list. In coming days
I will thank each of you personally, and hope to keep the conversation
going.

 

Your comments not only provided outstanding material for a team
presentation and final project, but also confirmed and expanded on what
I had gathered from the professional literature. In sum: public
libraries can do great family literacy work, and can be great
partners-but problems arise when the library and its staff are not
sufficiently engaged in the program. Family literacy programs that do
not have a formal relationship with the library may meet resistance,
misunderstanding and/or disdain (yikes!) from overworked, under-informed
library staff (they didn't know you were coming!). This can result in
some painful horror stories. Programs that are housed in libraries, but
run by literacy organizations with staff from outside the library, must
constantly work from both sides of the partnership to keep the library
integrated into the program-to keep library staff cognizant of family
literacy clients' needs, and to keep literacy staff cognizant of the
library's resources. Family literacy programs that are generated from
within the library, on the other hand, have a tendency to overlook the
resources of literacy organizations.

 

In other words: we don't always play well together, partly because there
is a "we"-or rather, two (or more) "we"s of the library and the literacy
organization (and the child assistance agency, etc.). Literacy workers
and librarians can do beautiful cooperative work-but as with any
partnership, it takes a continually renewed commitment to understanding
each other's institutional interests and cultures as well as each
other's strengths and weaknesses. What I see in the field is that it is
relatively rare for library and literacy partners to find that ideal
balance and integration for the family literacy program. 

 

The Illinois State Library supports a pretty remarkable grant program
(and really supports: they are funded for $6.7 million for 2006!). This
grant program is based on a five-component model-with the library as the
fifth component. Proposals must include at least three partners: a
literacy organization, a child-advocacy agency, and a public library.
The eloquent person who described it to me noted that every project is
different, since it is based on the specific needs of the community
served; correspondingly, every project has different experiences with
library involvement. Is anyone on-list who works in one of these
Illinois programs, who would like to comment?

 

Thanks again to all of you. Your perspectives mean a great deal to me.
In my current job as educator at an anthropology museum, I will continue
to work with my family literacy "buddies" locally (in a school-based
program with no formal ties to the library but a warm relationship with
library staff). As I seek my first position as a librarian (newly
graduated!), preferably in the Pacific Northwest as close to my family
in Seattle as possible, I will exert every effort to support family
literacy efforts wherever I am.

 

Sincerely yours,

Abbie Anderson

 

*********************

Abbie Anderson

Curator of Education

Mathers Museum of World Cultures

http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers

abmander at indiana.edu

(812) 855-0197

 

"Education is the progressive realization of our ignorance."

   --Albert Einstein, via Bubbles Powerpuff

 

 

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