Abbie,

I know this is a day late and a dollar short, but I'm part of a team 
that developed a Family Literacy Library Services Plan Contiuum for use 
by public libraries. The Continuum helps libraries assess their 
currrent capacity for family literacy and then guides planning to 
optimum levels of services.

The Continuum of Family Literacy Library Services  includes four levels 
of service; Traditional, Targeted, Priority, and Model Builder/Leader.  
N Service Components are analyzed with examples of activities (outputs) 
and goals (outcomes). The Service Components are; Collections, 
Technology/Computing, Access, Programs, Outreach, Individualized 
Services, and, Planning and Evaluation. Library Organization is also 
addressed through the following components; Policies and Procedures, 
Marketing and Recruitment, and, Staffing and Volunteers.
    This Library Literacy Service Plan Assessment project employed an 
outcome-based model to assist the design, development, and evaluation 
of family literacy services. The outcome-based model consists of four 
phases; data collection (survey, strategic planning), out-come based 
criteria development (research driven), identification of activities 
and services, and evaluation. This process is embedded in a logic model 
that will help libraries determine the difference between what the 
service plan says they do and the impact these services are having.

If you contact me off the list I'd be happy to send you a copy. I 
believe I'm doing a session on this at the NCFL conference in April 
(Louisville).

Jeri Levesque, Ed.D.
Evaluator, Missouri and Kentucky Even Start Programs

-----Original Message-----
From: Anderson, Abbie M <abmander at indiana.edu>
To: familyliteracy at dev.nifl.gov
Sent: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 17:33:57 -0500
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy] thank you re: family literacy and libraries 
responses

            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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