Global Knowledge : a Challenge for Librarians

s, United Kingdom) for the dates 1990-2000, was undertaken for the latest reports pertaining to literacy including: major surveys, evaluation studies, manuals on libraries and literacy, plus recent major national or regional literacy movements that involved libraries. The search could only be characterized as cursory, mainly English-language based, and selective for materials available from a local research library or from interlibrary loans. Though an attempt was made to secure materials on literacy and libraries in other countries, mainly documents from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) were located. Published reports from the US, the UK, and Canada dominated this literature. Several documents were found only on the World Wide Web through web home pages of literacy agencies or governmental organizations. Though no attempt was made to define literacy for this search, almost all the publications included some type of definition. Historically, in the United States, literacy has been defined in terms of years of schooling, which has constantly increased, from three or more years of schooling in 1930 to having completed eighth grade in 1960. By 1992, the definition used in the United States National Adult Literacy Survey included: "...using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential." An increasingly sophisticated and differentiated scale of literacy skills has been identified in several major studies. In these recent studies, adult literacy was broken down into three scales including; prose literacy, document literacy, and quantitative literacy; these scales have a 500 point basis which allows five major breakdowns of levels of literacy (Adult Literacy, 1993; Literacy, Economy and Society, 1995). Types of literacy have been expanded to include family literacy (or intergenerational literacy), and information literacy often including computer literacy (much of which was not considered relevant to the current search). Literacy among specific groups of people has sometimes been the focus, such as that of the language minority community (Constantino, 1997, IFLA, 1999), the blind (Leach, 1992), the poor (Venturella, 1998), the labor force (Sum, 1999) and families (Thomas and Fisher, 1996). However, most of the studies and reports focus on the adult illiterate, which usually includes those 15 or 16 years of age and older. Some interesting trends in the 1990s have been the movement toward family literacy and special consideration of women in literacy programs in recognition of gender inequity in literacy rates. Another trend in literacy activities has been an increased focus on the learners' needs and preferences through the establishment of New Reader (learners) Advisory Groups, 91 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 2 Libraries and Literacy: a Preliminary Survey of the Literature the inclusion of learners on Literacy Advisory Groups and in local and regional forums on literacy activities, and providing a voice for the learners themselves, especially in community-based programs. Several centers of literacy have been established, such as the National Literacy Secretariat of Canada and the Literacy Resource Centre in Ottawa, Canada, the National Literacy Institute (US), the International Literacy Institute at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, sponsored by UNESCO; and the National Center for Family Literacy in Louisville, Kentucky (US); and many websites of these centers and other literacy-related organizations were found. (See list of websites with Bibliography). Several manuals and workbooks which describe library literacy programs have been written. Though before 1990 there had not been many countrywide surveys of literacy in general, nor much attention to evaluation and research studies relating to literacy, that has begun to change, as will be noted later in this paper. Several books discuss the role of libraries in literacy including Salter (1991) and Weibel (1992) in the United States and Scheel (1989) in Canada. There are several manuals for developing literacy programs in libraries such as Quezada's guide for small and medium-sized libraries (American Library Association, 1996) and the Literacy Tool Kit: a resource for libraries (Regina Public Library and the Saskatchewan Library Association, 1996). National efforts at establishing policy for literacy programs and libraries are found in Quigley, developed for the Canadian Library Association (1995) as a result of a summit on libraries and literacy. Most of the journal articles centered on national or local literacy and reading initiatives, and campaigns such as the UK's National Year of Reading (NYR) (Attenborough, 1998, 1999) and their Reading Is Fundamental project, with a focus on access to books for school children. Many efforts in the United States have focused on youth, reading, and book access including: Reading Is Fundamental, and a series of family literacy projects such as Born to Read, a program for babies and their parents; the BellAtlantic/American Library Association Family Literacy projects starting in 1989, and California's Families for Literacy program begun in 1988 (Monsour, 1993). More on some of these projects will be found in a later section, and much more can be found in the items in the attached bibliography. Articles on literacy covered many parts of the world: most of the English-speaking countries, France, and several developing countries such as India, Malaysia, Peru, islands in the South Pacific, and several African countries and regions. Most of that information is not reviewed in this paper. A Brief History of Literacy According to Kaestle (1991), "very little evidence is available about the extent of literacy before 1850 except that provided by people's ability to sign such documents as marriage registers, army rolls, and wills." In Europe, the literacy rise between 1850-1900 was rapid, for both men and women due to national consolidation, state intervention, and wider male suffrage along with expanding capitalism and establishment of school systems. In the United States, literacy rates in colonial British America were quite high, and America's rise to nearly universal white literacy was earlier than Europe's. By 1850, the rudimentary literacy rates of white men and women, self-reported to the US Census, were nearly equal. In 1979, only 0.6 percent of all persons fourteen years of age and older reported that they were illiterate, but this equaled nearly one million people (Kaestle). As early as 1930 the term 'functional literacy' gained popularity, usually defined as the ability to read at the fourth or fifth grade level. As the definitions of literacy have changed, there have been few studies of literacy on a national level until the 1992/93 Adult Literacy Survey in the United States. Bramley (1991) commented that during the 1960s it became very apparent that, in both Britain and the US, there were adults in society with severe literacy problems. What followed were the literacy campaigns of the 1970s and the 1980s. The adult education movement and the term adult basic education (ABE) have tried to focus on the academic skills needed to function in society (reading, writing, spelling and handwriting, and basic numeracy). Later, the concepts of social and life skills (coping or survival skills) became part of ABE. Educational opportunities centered around these concepts. Bramley presents the role of public libraries in Britain and the United States in both the early literacy and the later adult basic education programmes. He believes that these literacy campaigns sparked the incentive for the emergence of public library services to ABE students and also to the educationally disadvantaged. Literacy needs and services through public libraries are presented not only for ABE programs but also for those with special educational needs including racial and ethnic groups (African Americans in both the U.S. and Britain, the Hispanic communities in the United States, Asian communities in Britain, and groups with physical disabilities). In the 1970s the US Office of Education commissioned the Adult Performance Level study, to establish what was meant by functional literacy, including relating levels of academic competence to economic achievement. Three levels were established, with only one level being established as less than functionally literate. Until the 1960s it was assumed that the introduction of compulsory, full-time education had led to the elimination of illiteracy. Suddenly it was recognized that this was not true, first in the US, and then later in Britain. This led to several waves of literacy campaigns and advocacy. Also in 1973, the Russell Report in Britain concerned itself with adult education Shirley A. Fitzgibbons 92 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 2 and adult literacy. In May 1974, the British Association of Settlement and Social Action Centres (BAS) published a document, A Right to Read: action for a literate Britain after two million adults were identified with literacy problems. A series of TV programs was introduced by the BBC for adults with reading problems. An Adult Literacy Resource agency was established in 1975, to allocate funds to local bodies for literacy purposes. Later the Adult Literacy Unit was established with Education and Science. Britain has in the 1990s established a National Curriculum, trying to ensure all would have a "good basic education." In the United States a similar pattern can be found but occurring a bit earlier. Evidence of a large number of illiterates was found due to the large number of non-English speaking immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries; and later, during the two world wars, an alarming number of registrants in the armed forces were found to be lacking literacy skills. As part of the literacy movement in the US, voluntary organizations continue to make a substantial contribution to teaching literacy skills, especially Laubach Literacy International (LLI) and the Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA). Laubach, a one-onone teaching method for adults, began in the 1930s in the Philippines (though established as a formal organization by Frank C. Lauback in Syracuse (NY) in 1968); while LVA began in Syracuse (NY) in 1962 through the Church Women United. The role of federal and regional governments in each country is very important in literacy efforts. Early on in the United States, efforts were tied to employment issues such as with the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964. In 1966 the Adult Basic Education Act (ABE) was approved as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and the establishment of a National Advisory Committee on ABE. In 1969, the Right to Read Campaign was started, and in 1974, the National Reading Improvement Program. The general population was startled and perhaps stimulated to action by the stark picture of illiteracy in the US presented by the well-known writer and educator, Jonathan Kozol, in 1985 by his book, Illiterate America. Consequently, Congress authorized the Department of Education in 1988 to address the need for information on the extent of adult literacy. Finally through many efforts, the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) was designed and conducted in 1992 (Adult Literacy, 1993). The 1990s have seen a major response by the US government concerning the literacy problem. For example, at the 1989 National Governors' Association, one of the six national education goals listed was the following: By the year 2000, every adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Congress passed the National Literacy Act of 1991 "to enhance the literacy and basic skills of adults, to ensure that all adults in the US acquire the basic skills necessary to function effectively and achieve the greatest possible opportunity in their work and in their lives, and to strengthen and coordinate adult literacy programs." In 1993, a report from the US Office of Technology Assessment described the current patchwork of programs that provide adult literacy education, suggesting that even the governmental programs had led to greater fragmentation of efforts. This report analyzed the ways technology (computer software, interactive video, and multimedia) can expedite literacy training in an efficient way. Though the authors felt the technology had great potential, they found only about 15 percent of programs utilizing such technology. Some advantages of the use of technology included: – reaching learners outside of the institutional setting both in recruiting and retaining learners through sustaining motivation – using learning time efficiently through improved curriculum and individualizing instruction – meeting staff development challenges – enhancing assessment and evaluation – streamlining administration and management – augmenting funding and coordination. Though libraries are listed in the report as one of nine providers of literacy, only one example of a specific library literacy program was noted. The report strongly recommends more funding to encourage public and private partnerships to bring technology to literacy training. The book trade has been closely associated with campaigns for national literacy, including an intensive effort with the Coalition for Literacy, which was mainly an informational and marketing campaign to expedite literacy training. The Coalition was administered by the American Library Association (ALA). Private foundation monies have been and continue to be important. Workforce literacy needs have brought the business community into the various efforts and coalitions. Major National and International Studies of Adult Literacy A study of literacy was conducted in the United States in 1992, the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), sponsored by the National Center for Educational Statistics in the US Department of Education (Adult Literacy in America, 1993; also see Kirsch in Smith, 1998). This was a very major study in terms of methodology and population studied. Trained staff interviewed nearly 13,600 individuals aged 16 and older during the first eight months of 1992. All had been randomly selected to represent the adult population. Another 1000 adults were Libraries and Literacy: a Preliminary Survey of the Literature 93 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 2 surveyed in each of twelve states to look at state-level results comparable to the national data. Also, 1100 inmates from prisons were interviewed to ascertain information on the literacy of the prison population. Over 26,000 individuals were surveyed. This study developed the methodology later used in the international literacy survey; with the three scales (prose, document, quantitative) used to define levels of literacy. The study made connections between literacy skills and social, educational and economic variables. For example, "where one is in the literacy distribution is strongly associated with the likelihood of living in or near poverty" (Kirsch). It was found that there was a relationship between literacy and employment status: individuals with more limited literacy skills are less likely to be employed, less likely to work full-time, less likely to be professionals, managers, and technicians but more likely to be "laborer, assembler, or involved in fishing and farming," or in "craft, or service jobs." In general, a clearer view of why so many US adults demonstrated limited English literacy skills was presented including the following profile of those with lower literacy skills: – 25 percent who performed at the lowest level were immigrants – nearly two-thirds of those at the lowest level did not complete high school – one third of those at the lowest level were over the age of 65 – 19 percent had some visual difficulty – 12 percent had some type of health condition that kept them from participating fully in daily activities. African-American and Hispanic adults were disproportionately represented in the lowest two levels of the NALS. Yet, perhaps the most interesting results included these: – half of all American adults performed at the two lowest levels of literacy proficiency – 21-23 percent (40 to 44 million of the 191 million adults) were at the lowest of five levels of literacy – 25-28 percent (50 million people) were in the next higher level of literacy – educational attainment was associated with literacy proficiency. Many of the definitions and levels of literacy in this study were used as the basis for a series of international literacy surveys. Internationally, a series of studies of adult literacy in countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were conducted between 1994 and 1999. The first International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was published by the OECD and Statistics Canada (Literacy, Economy and Society, 1995). The survey included interviews and tests of representative samples of adults aged 16 to 65 in the following countries: Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. For the first time, the literacy and numeracy of adults in different countries can be profiled and compared. The survey provided pertinent information on the economic performance and strength of each country, and the information needed to improve literacy. The survey used large samples of adults (ranging from 1500 to 8000 per country) in Europe and North America during 1994 in a uniform test of their literacy skills using the same methodology and scales of the National US Adult Literacy Survey. The IALS also followed the procedures of the 1989 study by Statistics Canada, another national assessment of adult literacy, which was the first study to assess literacy in a valid and reliable way across language and culture (English and French). Building on these two major studies of the US and Canada, the Educational Testing Service on behalf of the US Department of Education and Statistics Canada joined with the OECD, the UNESCO Institute for Education in Hamburg, and the Commission of the European Communities to encourage national governments to participate in the study. The Canadian results were published also separately in Reading the Future: a portrait of literacy in Canada (1996). Warren Clark has issued a report comparing three of the countries: Canada, the United States, and Germany (Clark, web report). The first IALS study included data from the seven countries listed above. A second study included data collected from the following countries: Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland and Flemish Belgium and the report presents comparative data from all twelve countries (Literacy Skills for the Knowledge Society, 1997). A third study included an additional eight countries: Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Portugal, and Slovenia (Literacy in the Information Age, June 2000). There are now twenty countries in this international database with comparative data on literacy levels. According to a press release on the World Wide Web regarding the final report (newly released, not available to the writer), the following conclusions were noted: – The higher a nation's literacy skills, the more likely its population will work in better quality jobs, earn more and have healthier habits and lifestyles. – There is a measurable, net return to literacy skills. – Literacy proficiency has a substantial impact on earnings when other aspects of human capital, specifically educational attainment and experience, are taken into account. The higher a nation's literacy skills, the higher its economic output measured in gross domestic product per capita. For example, Canada ranked among the top countries on both gross domestic product per capita and prose literacy. – No nation did so well in literacy attainment that it could be said to have no literacy problems. (Statistics Canada website: http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/000613b.htm) 94 IFLA JOURNAL 27 (2001) 2 Shirley A. Fitzgibbons