In 1987, the BPL established a system-wide literacy committee, acknowledging the importance of increasing their efforts to serve the adult education community. In the early years the committee took it upon itself to identify the ways in which librarians could be better advocates for and providers of library services to the adult education community. We asked ourselves what we had to offer and we realized early on how little we knew as a profession about adult literacy. Librarians are readers and as a group it is difficult for us to imagine life without the pleasure of reading. It was a startling realization to many of us that the fact we are avid readers creates a barrier between us and students who don't know the pleasure of reading.
We undertook to learn more by engaging the services of the Northern New England Adult Education Social Action Theater Group. We invited all library staff to attend a workshop to highlight the problems adult education students face as they walk through the door of a public library. The workshop consisted of short skits dramatizing the impressions of library staff from the point of view of an ESOL or ABE student. The skits got us laughing at ourselves and were really effective in hitting home messages about how we as a profession can improve our services by paying closer attention to eliminating judgmental messages, inadvertent or not, communicated to non-traditional library users. Years later, library staff still recount the value of this workshop. Professional development activities such as these should happen on a regular basis at the BPL. Librarians value literacy perhaps more than any other profession but we need to develop a deeper intuitive understanding of a non-reader's experience of the world. To help educate us to the information needs of the students and the curricular trends within the field, the Literacy Committee invited teachers from the field to its meetings. I found that these meetings and my subsequent work with teachers and students deepened my understanding of the adult basic education field and my role in it as a librarian.
In September of 1996, I was involved in the reopening of the Dudley Literacy Center. Although the BPL has faltered in many ways over the years in supporting literacy services, it did support us in opening a Literacy Center with a large accessible collection and a fabulous computer lab outfitted with eight multi-media computers with internet connectivity. The Dudley Literacy Center took off with community-wide support. Students participated in ongoing programs such as reading discussion groups, writing process groups, and computer literacy and internet classes. Over the last year several exciting collaborations with community groups took place. There was an author program series and a mask-making workshop for adult learners. (Thank you Martha Merson from A.L.R.I.!). Under the auspices of the Parent Involvement Project, a Dudley Square area community planning group was established to develop intergenerational math and science literacy. This group sponsored the very successful Dudley Discovery Day on May 30th at the Dudley Branch Library, the Roxbury Boys' and Girls' Club and the Urban League. Despite being understaffed and open only three days a week, the Dudley Center went a long way toward meeting student and community needs through programs, collaborations and events such as these. They are models of the range of services which an active library can promote and provide for the benefit of residents, students, teachers, administrators and local community human service providers.
The Literacy Committee, these eleven years later, has gone through active and inactive times. At present literacy services at the BPL limp along because of the hard work of a few, including two exceptional volunteers who run the English conversation groups at the central library and at some branches. Notable urban public libraries across the country (Oakland CA, Richmond CA, and Brooklyn NY, to name a few) have hired high level staff with power to make decisions and effect change, and teaching staff with expertise in supporting literacy and the acquisition of English. I am happy to say that after a year of discussion about the future of literacy services at the BPL, the committee has asked the library's president, Bernard Margolis, to demonstrate a core commitment to literacy. In a written proposal we have asked that several new positions be created to intensify our efforts.
It's high time the BPL made a commitment to literacy services. Changing BPL policy and practice around literacy services has been a slow and arduous process. I submitted my resignation from the library at the beginning of May, and left my position on June 11, 1998. My vacated position has yet to be posted as I write this article on June 22nd. I resigned from the BPL with the sincere hope that the right decisions will be made to continue and fortify the much needed service at the Dudley Literacy Center and across the library system as a whole. I urge you, as teachers and others concerned with the needs of adult learners, to use your public libraries and to advocate for library service which meets your students' needs.