preschool literacy initiative

public librarian recruitment

certification

PLA’s Preschool Literacy Initiative - Background

The Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association, has partnered with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to provide information and training that will help parents and teachers of preschool children get ready to read. PLA has agreed to help disseminate information from research findings on how children learn to read. Additionally, the two groups will work together to help build public library services for preschool children based upon the findings in NICHD studies and the recommendations of the NRP Report.

NICHD officials have partnered with PLA because they recognize that parents, teachers, and day care providers rely on their local public library for resources to help their children learn to read. Public libraries will provide the public infrastructure to broadcast research-based information on reading readiness across the country.

This PLA and NICHD partnership will include the design and funding of model projects that incorporate the findings of recent research in the field of emergent literacy. These model projects will create some best practices, for public libraries, to help children start school ready to read.

PLA and NICHD are committed to extending this research into the development of best practices for public library services. Information about progress on this initiative will be available later this year.

The first phase of the PLA / NICHD initiative is to provide libraries with the programs and materials they need to a) inform parents and other caretakers of young children about the meaning and importance of emergent literacy, and b) to train parents in ways to help their children get ready to read.

This site provides libraries with an information pamphlet for distribution to parents and others, and three parent training programs that can be conducted at libraries or in conjunction with other community agencies. These information and training materials were developed Applied Research Partners, Inc., utilizing the services of two internationally recognized experts in emergent literacy: Dr. Grover Whitehurst, Leading Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Dr. Christopher Lonigan, Associate Professor of Psychology at Florida State University.