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When politics come for literacy, how do libraries ensure it’s the kids who win? Public libraries have a critical role to play.

If you're seeing this, chances are you’re someone who identifies as a reader. And, as a reader, you may be shocked to discover that there are many American adults who just aren’t.

In 2015, as an offshoot of a student leadership congress where he was a delegate, Kevin Conrad Tansiongco founded the Magbasa Tayo (Let’s Read) Movement, an advocacy campaign promoting the importance of community reading centers and public libraries in the Philippines. 

With the help of a $750,000 National Science Foundation grant awarded in September 2021, a team of researchers has launched “Adapting and Scaling Existing Educational Programs to Combat Inauthenticity and Instill Trust in Information,” a study created to understand the information literacy needs of populations usually overlooked in such work, and to test methods of improving information literacy among them. 

Help stressed ex-readers get their groove back.

Could librarian-curated Little Free Libraries be the next great outreach tool to help improve youth reading scores and strengthen community connections to libraries? University of North Carolina (UNC)–Greensboro Library and Information Science Associate Professor Anthony Chow thinks so.

From youth to adults, newcomers to lifelong locals, library literacy programs that work flex to achieve what matters to each patron—with an emphasis on practical, everyday, and community-building skills.

There is probably no single cause more popular than literacy. While libraries of all types are of course front and center in the fight, everything from a plethora of other governmental agencies to literacy-specific nonprofits international and domestic to giant for-profit corporations like McDonalds have dedicated resources to promoting reading and addressing the literacy crisis we scoped in our April issue.

The first step in solving a problem is seeing it clearly. This article, part one of an ongoing series, defines the broad scope and depth of the literacy crisis in the United States, among both children and adults. Future installments will address the complex ecosystem of schools, government agents, nonprofits, and more that are tackling this challenge; survey librarians on what they are doing to improve literacy in their communities; and highlight case studies and best practices of those making a difference.

The next generation of adult (and almost there) readers shows some traditional—and surprising—reading traits.

Part one of LJ’s deep dive into generational reading behaviors shows that the millennial generation—often credited in the media with “killing” industries in which they don’t care to, or simply can’t afford to, partake—are known to be killing it as readers in the opposite sense: they’re enthusiastic book consumers, library users, and, perhaps surprisingly, print fans.

From January 2 through 18, the Nueces County Keach Family Library in Robstown, TX, is hosting the Glass Room Experience, a special exhibition designed to spark discussion about personal data and online privacy.

A newly released American Library Association (ALA) report marks the 10th anniversary of the American Dream Literacy Initiative and celebrates the many ways that participating public libraries have transformed lives.