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This VoiceThread is my introduction. In this presentation, I share my personal connection and passion for the Literacy Matters Project. You are invited to create a VoiceThread account and post comments and questions on any of these slides.
This is Dr. M., your project Principal Investigator, or P.I. As the P.I. on the Literacy Matters Grant Project, it's my responsibility to ensure that you, the cohort students, and the administrative team reach the goals set out for the project. It is also my responsibility that we meet our obligations to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, IMLS, that generously funded this project.
As you know, the overarching goal of Literacy Matters is to educate children's and family services librarians who will develop innovative programs to reach out to underserved populations in their public library communities.
Newspaper Clipping Slide: It is my job to help you develop a passion for this work and strategies to reach this goal. At this time in history, when the U.S. is growing ever more culturally and linguistically diverse, children's services librarians are perfectly positioned to use their knowledge, skills, and all of the tools of the 21st-century to reach out and bring new library members into the literacy club and hub we call the public library.
Statistics Slide: While our goal is to serve children, their successful early literacy experiences are almost wholly dependent on their parents and caregivers. In order to make a positive impact on the young children in our communities, we MUST capture the attention of the significant adults in their lives. Family literacy programs, events, and innovations are our pathway to success.
Read to Me Slide: Some of you know I am also a children's book author. My second picture book was born as a poem, which I wrote for a pregnant teen program in Tucson, Arizona. For more than ten years, Literacy Involves Families Together (Project L.I.F.T.), an outreach program of Pima County Public Library, taught soon-to-be or new moms critical skills to nurture their child's literacy development. The program was coordinated by local high schools in Tucson's majority minority school districts, Sunnyside and Tucson Unified.
Project L.I.F.T. Collage Slide: The center piece of Project L.I.F.T was a handmade book that each pregnant young woman made for her baby. While making these books, the program facilitator taught participants how to develop young children's bodies and brains with manipulatives and books. Sometimes the young dads got involved, too.
Although no one tracked whether or not these young families became regular public library patrons, participants in the program did develop parenting and literacy skills and were introduced to community resources for their families about which they might not have otherwise learned.
This kind of partnership is an example of a library program that makes connections in the community. Rather than being a passive we'll-see-who-shows-up program, Project L.I.F.T. identified a need in the community and went outside the walls of the library to address it.
Extending Our Reach: As David Lankes wrote: “The greatest asset any library has is a librarian” (Lankes 2011, 29). 21st-century librarians cannot wait quietly within the walls of their libraries in hopes that patrons will find them. No, we must reach out to build partnerships and make connections to improve people's lives through literacy.... This is MY passion.
21st-century "library" work gives us the opportunity to extend our reach, to find, create, and support new readers, writers, thinkers, producers of ideas and information, and engaged citizens who can make a difference for their families and our communities, our country, and our world.
From where I stand, there's nothing more exciting or meaningful than that!
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