College and Research Libraries Support for Literacy Education in Academic Libraries Ruth J. Person and Kenneth 0. Phifer Functional illiteracy among adults is a growing national problem, yet a scarcity of research suggests that academic libraries do not play a role in the support of literacy education efforts. To better understand the current status of academic library services to support literacy education, a survey was conducted using twenty matched pairs of community college and four-year college libraries in eight Eastern states. The study revealed that all colleges in the sample have literacy-related programs, and that nearly all of these programs received library support. In some cases this support was extensive. II n the United States, a sophisti- cated nation of advanced tech- , nology, it is e'stimated that - more than twenty-five million adults can neither read, write, nor per- form basic mathematical computations. 1 Because the definition of literacy now has expanded to include a more functional emphasis, i.e., possession of the essential knowledge and skills which enable a per- son to function effectively in his or her en- vironment, this estimate also can be ex- panded to include thirty to forty million Americans who cannot function well enough to hold entry-level jobs that re- quire such skills. 2 To this pool of function- ally illiterate Americans, one should add nearly half a million immigrants and refu- gees with multiple literacy problems. In its broadest sense, then, adult illiteracy and its concomitant problems could be termed a ''U.S. disease.''3 Some of these literacy problems were addressed in the 1960s and 1970s through a variety of well-publicized and visible programs in higher education, particu- larly in the community college setting. Most public community colleges devel- oped two literacy-related goals: service to the community and provision of reme- dial/ compensatory/ developmental pro- grams. Although four-year colleges per- haps were less likely to move in this direction, some programs for the im- provement of literacy-related skills for four-year college students were in evi- dence. In Functional Literacy in the College Set- ting, Richard Richardson discusses three kinds of college literacy-related programs. Remedial programs were designed to rem- edy students' deficiencies so that they could enter a program for which they were previously ineligible. Compensatory pro- grams were designed to remedy deficien- cies seen as the result of deprivation in the students' sociocultural environment. De- velopmental programs met students "where they were" and took them to "where they wanted to be" by dealing with both academic and human skills. 4 Academic libraries and learning re- source centers also played a role in literacy education in support of these college Ruth J. Person is associate dean, School of Library and Information Science, Catholic University, Washington, D. C. 20064. Kenneth 0. Phifer is librarian, Montgomery County Department of Public Libraries, Rockville, Maryland 20850. 147 148 College & Research Libraries goals. Contributions included provision of materials for teachers, development of curriculum resource centers, actual devel- opment of teaching and learning materi- als, and cooperation with community pro- grams. In spite of growing, well-documented literacy problems, the emphasis during the 1960s and early 1970s on special literacy-related programs for disadvan- taged students in higher education seems to have waned. Instead, the focus of liter- acy education efforts appears to have shifted to schools, public libraries, and community agencies. Certainly the litera- ture reporting library support for college literacy programs is sparse, suggesting the possibility that academic libraries are not concerned with such services either because they are not deemed important or because they are not necessary, given an institutional lack of concern for literacy ef- forts. As part of a general U.S. Department of Education survey of libraries and literacy, 5 Smith examined over two hundred refer- ences to libraries in relation to literacy pro- grams; there were almost no references made to the college environment. In fact, Smith's survey represents the sole major study that addresses the role of college li- braries in literacy education. Even here, the college library represents only one segment of a larger library sample. On a smaller scale, Phifer and Person, 6 Truett, 7 and Shaughnessy8 also examined aca- demic library services to support literacy education. Both Truett and Shaughnessy found evidence of only low levels of li- brary support for such college programs. Also, except for the 1981 American Library Association program on ''Adult Literacy: Programs and Materials,'' little library as- sociation programming for academic li- brarians is evident. Several indicators point to an increase in the need for literacy programs in higher education. Recent studies suggest that a growing number of students will seek to enter college in the decades ahead without certain fundamental literacy skills. In dis- cussing this "new academic revolution," the Carnegie Council predicted in 1980 that ''one-half of the students in the class- March 1985 rooms of the year 2000 would not have been there if the composition of 1960 had been continued. " 9 Accompanying this prediction, Richardson indicates that ''special educational programs and ser- vices have increased during periods of open admissions and a need for stu- dents."10 Thus, as the pool of potential college students declines, an increasing number of enrollees will not meet tradi- tional admission standards and will need special programs to remedy literacy defi- dencies. As colleges compete for stu- dents, the literacy-related educational programs that they offer will become more and not less important. Given these predictions, certain funda- mental questions need to be reexamined. Are colleges preparing for this "new aca- demic revolution'' by providing literacy- related programs? Has this emphasis spread to four-year colleges? How do aca- demic libraries respond to the increased need to support such college programs? Are four-year college libraries involved in such support, or is the focus still evident largely in community college libraries? METHODOLOGY: SURVEY OF ACADEMIC LIBRARY INVOLVEMENT IN LITERACY EDUCATION In order to determine academic library involvement in literacy education, to ex- plore the perceptions of academic librari- ans about this potential problem, and to examine the possible differences in sup- port between junior- and senior-level in- stitutions, a survey of two types of aca- demic libraries in eight Eastern states was conducted. The focus of the study was on the gathering of data for twenty matched pairs of community college and four-year college libraries. These institutions repre- sented a cross-section of both geographic settings and enrollment sizes. Because the mandate for addressing literacy problems is generally stronger in public education, only public institutions were included in the survey. Because community colleges were ex- pected to have a greater involvement in lit- eracy education efforts, a questionnaire consisting of both closed and open-ended questions was mailed first to the directors of five community college libraries within eight Eastern states. Of these forty com- munity colleges, thirty-one (77.5 percent) · responded. Based on this initial encouraging re- sponse, questionnaires were sent to thirty-one directors of four-year public college libraries in the same geographic area as the responding community col- leges (within a fifty-mile radius). Of these, twenty (65 percent) responded. Using these four-year respondents, twenty matching pairs of academic libraries were created in order to determine possible geographic and community influences on programs and to ascertain whether a local commitment to literacy within the public education structure existed. The matching pairs of institutions represented a cross- section of both urban and rural geographic sites within each state, and a range of en- rollment sizes from twelve hundred to thirteen thousand students. The questionnaire used for both types of institutions addressed five aspects of liter- acy education: • Perception of functional illiteracy as a community and college problem • Nature of college programs for literacy education • Relationship of the library to these col- lege programs • Nature of community literacy education programs • Relationship of the library to these com- munity literacy programs. FINDINGS The results of the survey suggest that higher-education institutions and their li- braries are in fact making a concerted ef- fort to solve growing literacy-related prob- lems among students and appropriate community members. In spite of the rela- tive scarcity of literature on the subject, ac- tivity to counteract the new wave of stu- dents with literacy deficiencies is progressing in both community and four- year colleges and is being supported by ac- ademic libraries (see table 1). There was an almost universal percep- tion among community college respon- dents that functional literacy was a prob- Support for Literacy Education · 149 TABLE 1 SUMMARY DATA Community Four-Year Colleges Colleges (Percent) (Percent) 1. Functional literacy is a perceived community/student problem 95 70 2. College has literacy eogram(s) 100 100 3. ibrary provides support to college literacy program(s) 95 95 4. Library provides support to community literacy p~ams 45 5 5. Library st belong to . literacy coalition 25 0 lem among their own students as well as in the larger communities of which their colleges were a part. Although somewhat less common, this view was also prevalent among the four-year college respondents. Supporting the general perception that lit- eracy problems were a reality, every col- lege included in the survey sponsored programs for individuals with reading and other functional literacy problems. Thus, in this sample of forty colleges, the idea that remedial/developmental/com- pensatory education is no longer a focus in higher education was clearly false. The concentration of literacy-related col- lege programs was in remedial reading and writing courses for students who had deficiencies in these areas. While both community and four-year colleges had ad- ditional programs, English courses for speakers of other languages and prepara- tion courses for a variety of competency exams were focused more heavily in the community college. Overall, the level of involvement in the community colleges was somewhat higher for the four types of programs listed in table 2. The average number of program types was three, while the average for four-year colleges was two. Because all colleges in the survey pro- vided special literacy-related programs, it might be expected that the library would support such programs. In all but one of each type of college, this was the case, al- though the level of support varied. The 150 College & Research Libraries TABLE2 COLLEGE LITERACY-RELATED PROGRAMS Type of College Program Remedial reading and writing courses English courses for speakers of other languages Preparation classes for competency exams Other programs No programs Percent Having Program Community Four-Year Colleges Colleges 85 70 55 35 0 95 40 30 25 0 March 1985 language materials, and an equal number of bibliographies. For the overall sample, there was no dis- · tinctly positive relationship between com- munity or enrollment size and library ser- vices, although the matched pairs approach yielded eight schools with de- cidedly similar characteristics, as shown in figure 1. For the remaining sites, such relationships were much less apparent. For example, four minimally involved li- braries were in small communities, but . one was located in a city of two million. Conversely, one of the most actively in- volved libraries, which sponsored student majority of the libraries provided the tutorial programs and reading laborato- kinds of services that might typically fall ries, was located in a rural environment, within the ''traditional'' mission of an aca- while another which provided a full range demic library-making reading materials of services was located in a major metro- available, providing teaching materials, politan area. and offering bibliographic instruction. In spite of the traditional nature of li- Services requiring a greater extension of brary services offered, the degree of col- the library's resources-program sponsor- laboration between faculty and library ship, establishment of special collections, staff in collection development related to development of bibliographies, and the literacy materials was promising. At the like were much less likely to be provided. community college level, close to two- The level of library cooperation at the com- thirds of the libraries cooperated with aca- munity colleges was generally higher in demic departments in this effort. At the terms of the ten kinds of cooperation sug- four-year colleges, half of the libraries re- gested in table 3. The average number of ported cooperative efforts. This colla bora- kinds of cooperation for community col- tion was in marked contrast to the low lege libraries was four, whereas the aver- level of cooperation reported by age for four-year colleges was three. The Shaughnessy in his earlier study of educa- percentage of community college libraries tional opportunity programs. 11 Likewise, that provided each kind of service was some noteworthy programs extended li- higher than that of the four-year colleges brary services-for example, one commu- with three exceptions. Four-year college nity college library developed a "mini- libraries provided more bibliographic in- course" for classroom instructors, struction, more English-as-second- librarians, tutors, administrators, and TABLE3 LIBRARY COOPERATION IN COLLEGE LITERACY EFFORTS Cooperation Provided by Library 1. Make reading materials available 2. Provide teacfiing materials 3. Provide bibliographic instruction 4. Provide space for classes and labs 5. Develop reading and writing labs 6. Maintam bibliographies of instructional materials and adult books in simple language 7. Set up special shelves of high:-interest/low-vocabulary material for adults · 8. Set up shelves for material on English-as-a-second-language 9. Sponsor the program . 10. Sponsor tutorial programs using student volunteers Percent Providing Community Four-Year Colleges Colleges 75 60 50 45 35 35 25 20 15 10 50 45 60 40 5 35 10 15 0 0 • Extensive college involvement in literacy ed- ucation • Awareness of literacy problem and commu- nity literacy programs among library direc- tors • Faculty/library staff collaboration in collec- tion development • Metropolitan location • Large enrollment • Extensive community involvement in literacy education FIGUREl Characteristics of ''High Involvement'' Pairs adult educators on ''How to Establish Reading Levels for Library Materials," while a four-year college offered a pro- gram called "Setting the Book Straight." While there were many similarities both in the level of college involvement in pro- grams and in library support for such pro- grams, the differences between commu- nity and four-year colleges were more readily apparent when examining the re- lationship of libraries to the community at large. While three-fourths of the commu- nity college respondents and half of the four-year college respondents indicated that they knew of other providers of liter- acy education in their respective commu- nities, only half of these libraries actually worked with such agencies, and almost all of those were community colleges. Paral- leling library involvement in college liter- acy programs, the major services pro- vided were reading materials, teaching materials, and bibliographic instruction. One-fourth of the community college li- brary directors indicated that they or their staff participated in a coalition of agencies concerned with literacy. No four-year di- rectors indicated such participation. In an effort to understand more about the possible influence of geographic area, enrollment size, and general community "climate" on a library's willingness to participate in and support literacy educa- tion efforts, the matched pairs approach was used. In most cases, in spite of initial expectations that community college li- braries would have a much heavier in- Support for Literacy Education 151 .volvement in providing services than their four-year counterparts, there were strik- ing similarities between most of the pairs of schools. Sixteen pairs of libraries had similar levels of involvement, which ranged upward from moderate (one and two types of support efforts) to very high (in the case of four pairs). Among these four ''high involvement'' pairs, the colleges themselves were heav- ily involved in special literacy programs (all four of the kinds of programs repre- sented in table 2 were indicated). Library directors at these colleges all indicated an awareness of literacy problems both in the community and among students, as well as of community literacy education ef- forts. All of these respondents indicated that faculty and library staff collaborated in library collection development for literacy-related materials. All eight of the schools in the matched pairs were located in or near metropolitan areas with a population of two hundred thousand or more and were at the upper end of the enrollment-size range for the sample. While it is difficult to generalize from such a small sample, this location and enrollment combination suggests that institutions with these characteristics have not only a heightened awareness of literacy problems but undoubtedly greater resources to undertake programs; they may also have a greater demand for a mul- tiplicity of efforts to support diverse popu- lation needs. In all eight schools, commu- nity involvement in literacy education efforts was also high, suggesting that in these locations, a concerted effort was be- ing made to remedy literacy problems at all levels. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS In one way it is discouraging to learn that more than three-fourths of the library directors in this survey viewed literacy as a problem in their environment. At the same time, it is encouraging to note a real- istic level of awareness among the respon- dents and their involvement in solving this growing national problem. In spite of the scarcity of literature on library services to college literacy education programs, 152 College & Research Libraries this survey suggests that academic li- braries have an important role to play in such programs, and that this mission is being carried forward by the respondents. Further, the study indicates that, at least for this sample, comparable efforts are be- ing undertaken in the two-year and four- year college library settings. The results of the study also suggest two possible directions for further study and improvement of library services in order to meet the challenges of the ''new aca- demic revolution.'' Literacy education services provided most often by the li- braries in this survey represented a gener- ally passive approach, such as making ma- terials available and providing bibliographic instruction when requested. Even within this somewhat traditional framework, several kinds of services could be improved without extensive ef- fort. In particular, bibliographies of avail- able instructional materials and adult books in simple language are an important part of the teaching-learning process and could easily be supplied. Likewise, special shelves of materials for individuals with literacy problems could be provided. March 1985 In the face of declining revenues, there is also room for more active involvement by improving the degree of cooperation with faculty, other educational institu- tions, and community agencies. Such co- operation can produce more comprehen- sive services and prevent duplication of effort. The most comprehensive involve- ment in literacy education support can be accomplished through cooperative efforts in which each participating organization provides a set of services that capitalizes on its expertise. The college library admin- istration and staff first must define their role in literacy education and perceive their involvement as appropriate . Cooper- ating agencies also must recognize the li- brary as a useful resource. Then, when each agency is involved in the planning, development, and evaluation of literacy education programs, successful imple- mentation will more likely occur. This in- creased level of cooperation and under- standing will be our most valuable ally in , confronting the ''new academic revolu- tion" and its accompanying literacy prob- lems. REFERENCES 1. Jonathan Kozol, "How We Can Win: A Plan to Reach and Teach Twenty-Five Million llliterate Adults," Wilson Library Bulletin 54:640 Oune 1980). 2. Ibid. 3. Carman Hunter and David Harman, Adult Illiteracy in the United States (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979), p.1. 4. Richard Richardson, Kathryn Martens, and Elizabeth Fisk, Functional Literacy in the College Setting (Washington, D .C.: American Assn. for Higher Education, 1981), p .5. 5. Ester G. Smith, Libraries in Literacy (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1981). 6. Kenneth 0. Phifer and Ruth J. Person, "The Role of Community College Libraries and Learning Resource Centers in Literacy Education," Community & Junior College Libraries 2:9-22 (Fall1983) . 7. Carol Truett, "Services to Developmental Education Students in the Community College: Does the Library Have a Role?" College & Research Libraries 44:20-28 Oan. 1983). 8. Thomas W. Shaughnessy, "Library Services to Educationally Disadvantaged Students," College & Research Libraries 36:443-48 (Nov. 1975). 9. "Carnegie Panel Says Enrollment Declines Will Create a New Academic Revolution," Chronicle of Higher Education 19:11 Oan. 28, 1980). 10. Richardson, Martens, and Fisk, Functional Literacy in the College Setting, p.3. 11. Shaughnessy, "Library Services," p.443-48.