Looking for evidence in how school libraries can support student literacy rates? The WA School Library Association (WASLA) has created an easy to navigate website that is a repository of many referenced articles about literacy, including:
* reports from Australia and other countries
* articles on reading, digital literacy and reading from the screen
* national and international literacy initiatives
* infographics on literacy
* how libraries are tackling literacy around the world
You can visit the site here: http://www.literacymatters.org.au/
Category Archives: Research
Library of Congress Literacy Awards Proposals
The Library of Congress Literacy Awards 2017 application period is now open. To apply or nominate an organization, visit Apply.
Statement of Purpose
The Library’s mission is to provide Congress, the federal government and the American people with a rich, diverse and enduring source of knowledge that can be relied upon to support their intellectual and creative endeavors. Through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein, the Library of Congress Literacy Awards program furthers this mission by honoring organizations that have made outstanding contributions to increasing literacy in the United States or abroad. The awards also encourage the continuing development of innovative methods for promoting literacy and the wide dissemination of the most effective practices. They are intended to draw public attention to the importance of literacy, and the need to promote literacy and encourage reading.
Prizes and Winners
The David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000) is awarded for an outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels to an organization based either inside or outside the United States that has demonstrated exceptional and sustained depth in its commitment to the advancement of literacy.
- 2016 Winner: WETA Reading Rockets
The American Prize ($50,000) is awarded for a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels or the national awareness of the importance of literacy to an organization that is based in the United States.
- 2016 Winner: Parent-Child Home Program
The International Prize ($50,000) is awarded for a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels to an organization that is based outside the United States.
- 2016 Winner: Libraries Without Borders
About
“Thomas Jefferson, the Library of Congress’s spiritual founder, wrote of the pursuit of happiness. I like to think that literacy is fundamental to that pursuit. So many doors are closed to those who cannot read. Everyone in this world has a right to happiness and with that comes the right to read.” — Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress (October 27, 2016)
By recognizing current achievements, the awards seek to enable organizations, foundations and other private sector groups to strengthen their involvement in literacy and reading promotion and to encourage collaboration with like-minded organizations.
Since 2013, the Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program has recognized 60 organizations worldwide. Seventeen additional organizations are honored in 2016.
The Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program is completing year four of a five-year pilot project designed to broaden and stimulate public understanding about the essential role of literacy in all aspects of society. In the spirit of sharing experiences and new ideas we hope to continue in this work and we encourage organizations to continue to be actively engaged with the program and its activities.
The Library of Congress is grateful to the members of the Literacy Awards Advisory Board for their generous and dedicated service and advice and to David M. Rubenstein for his concern, as a citizen, about the state of literacy in the United States and throughout the world.
Section CFP for WLIC 2017
Literacy and Reading Section: Call for Proposals
Theme: Literacy Matters: It takes a community to raise a reader – building a nation of readers and creating a reading culture.
This session is cosponsored by the IFLA Literacy and Reading Section in partnership with the Children’s and Young Adults Section, the Public Libraries Section and the School Libraries Section
Literacy has long been identified as a precursor to success in academic achievement and the workplace. Literacy problems have been directly linked to healthcare issues, workplace safety, equity and access to work, negative drag on the overall GDP per capita of a country. The correlation between poverty and literacy is well documented and society rewards individuals who have higher literacy levels, not explicitly, but it’s inherent in the system.
Libraries have always been based on equity and access to information. They are public spaces where both newcomers and native citizens have opportunities to gain literacy skills, forge community and national identity, develop and maintain reading and literacy skills to gain access to knowledge and skills. Libraries have a key role in helping citizens to develop a reading culture and to support building a nation of readers.
Topics of Interest
Papers chosen for presentation will examine how libraries support literacy and the development of a reading culture. Proposals should be grounded in theory, research and/or practical applications. Key areas include:
· Library reading projects and initiatives with children, young people, adults or organisations that demonstrate best practice in supporting literacy development within communities and help to build and strengthen a reading culture.
· Partnerships – exploring what the roles are of different members in a community (e.g., parents, schools, businesses, employers and young people themselves) and how partners can work together with libraries to create a reading culture.
· Advocacy – outlining the importance of literacy at the global and the local level, how to advocate for it and measure the impact of the advocacy work.
· Research – that demonstrates the impact of libraries in building reading nations, what does the research tell us and the effective use of this information in practical applications.
· Digital – examples of how digital tools have been used to help librarians promote literacy and develop a reading culture.
Successful proposals will be expected to write a paper and prepare a presentation for delivery in Wroclaw, Poland. Best Practice initiatives will also be asked to produce a short video of their case study (guidelines will be issued for this process) for inclusion in the Literacy Matters! and / or the Children’s & Young Adults You tube channel currently being developed.
Submission: Friday 17th February
Please email any queries and your proposal to: Barbara Combes, bcombes@csu.edu.au
For more information please visit: http://2017.ifla.org/cfp-calls/literacy-and-reading-with-children-young-adults-public-school-libraries
School librarians and reading promotion
The promotion of reading appreciation is one of the many responsibilities of school librarians. Different strategies have been used in elementary and middle schools to achieve this, and these strategies need to meet the students’ interests. This article presents the results of a study that was conducted to identify the different strategies elementary and middle school librarians in Puerto Rico are currently using to promote reading appreciation. … … Some of the conclusions indicate that school librarians consider Library Week a key activity for the promotion of reading appreciation, and the Internet as a key resource for the implementation of the different activities they design. The conclusions also acknowledge that school librarians face different challenges, the most difficult being collaboration and support from the students’ parents.
Read more at: Domínguez, N. et. al. (2016). The school librarian as motivational agent and strategist for reading appreciation. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 48(3), 236-246.
Research report on women’s health and literacy
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of International Literacy Day on 8 September 2016, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has published a research paper entitled Promoting Health and Literacy for Women’s Empowerment. Written by Dr Anna Robinson-Pant, this paper is the third in a series of studies on literacy and women’s empowerment.
The paper discusses the links between health, well-being, women’s empowerment and education, focusing on the role of literacy. It argues that cross-sectoral approaches involving stakeholder collaboration across these three areas will be essential in realizing Sustainable Development Goal 5: to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’.
Literacy, health and women’s empowerment in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
By identifying good practices from all world regions, this paper shows how literacy programmes with a health component will contribute to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Providing lifelong learning opportunities to women and girls enables them to make informed decisions about their health and that of their communities. The urgent need for these opportunities is apparent when we consider that women constitute two-thirds of the world’s 758 million adults who cannot read or write a simple sentence.
This publication includes information on programmes that can also be found on the UNESCO Effective Literacy and Numeracy Practices Database (LitBase).
The first two publications of the Literacy and Women’s Empowerment series are:
Research on early literacy practices at home
Early literacy practices at home in 2015: Third annual survey of parents
This report presents the findings of Pearson and the National Literacy Trust’s third annual Early Years Literacy Survey of parents. The survey covers a wide range of questions addressing parental attitudes, beliefs and practices around literacy, as well the reported attitudes and behaviours of their children.
UNESCO Literacy Summit
The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) will convene an international expert group to provide input to a policy brief entitled How Libraries Support National Literacy Efforts. The expert group will meet at UIL from 5 to 6 April 2016. The meeting will bring together experts from government, international literacy organizations, libraries and research institutions. These experts will explore how existing public and community library systems can best contribute to national literacy programmes; and how countries can measure these contributions. The resulting policy brief will provide guidance to Member States on using their library systems to improve literacy outcomes as one step towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4.6 on literacy. For the concept note and additional information, please visit the UIL website:
http://uil.unesco.org/international-workshop-how-libraries-support-national-literacy-efforts