Glendale Library :: Joins Reading Improvement Effort

LIBRARY IN GLENDALE JOINS READING-IMPROVEMENT EFFORTDaily News: October 22, 1989 by Denise Haddix-Niemiec

The Glendale Public Library Adult Reading Program and 45 other libraries have pooled their financial resources to fund two public-service announcements aimed at people who want to improve their reading.

The Glendale program contributed $500 in California Adult Literacy Campaign funds to $14,000 gathered to produce 30- and 15-second television commercials set to be broadcast on independent and national stations statewide sometime this month, said Georganna Ahlfors, coordinator of Glendale's tutor service.

"About one-third of the people in California need reading-and-writing help," Ahlfors said. "It is the (people with reading problems) that we need to reach because they don't read the newspaper and they don't read billboards or signs, so we need to reach them in a different way."

Bea Lewis, manager of public service for television station KNBC, said the station received their tapes of the commercials this week.

If the messages are cleared for air time, the spots could be broadcast on Channel 4 within two weeks, Lewis said.

Ahlfors said there are always tutors volunteering, but the ratio is 200 prospective teachers to 100 students.

This disparity prompted the Glendale Library System to spend part of their $79,000 annual operating budget on the promotion that is geared to finding readers who need help, she said.

The Santa Barbara-based Bradley Mansfield Agency and Los Angeles director Daniel Berkowitz developed the concept for the commercials which depict black- and-white images of adults who have reading problems and its effect on their job and family situations.

The final color segment shows the learners getting help in a library setting.

Glendale officials hope that the commercials will expand awareness of their program's offerings because the state library system plans to start phasing out the funding.