Azusa Library - Promotes Literacy For All Ages

Azusa City Library promotes literacy for all agesAzusa Pacific Univ-The Clause: 2.15.2012 by Annie Yu

Literacy skills are developed from a young age, and a child that has access to plentiful books will often continue to develop his or her reading skills well into adulthood. However, many kids have limited access to a library. Enter the Bookmobile, Azusa City Library’s very own customized Dodge van.

The colorfully decorated van has steps, a ramp, a pull out canopy for shade and a generator for air conditioning. The Bookmobile is handled by a two-person team, providing library cards as well as book checkouts. Occasionally, the Bookmobile also has story time and crafts for the kids.

There are 10 different locations around Azusa that the Bookmobile visits: one preschool, four elementary schools, one junior high school, one high school, one adult school and two senior citizen centers. The students are free to walk into the Bookmobile to browse and to lounge on the chairs or cushions often set up outside.

Adult Literacy Services: Helping adults in reading and writing
Over 30 million adults in the U.S. lack the basic literacy skills it takes to read and fully comprehend this sentence. According to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), these adults are placed in the “below basic” category, with “no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills.”

The NAAL shows that while a shocking 14 percent of the national population cannot read the newspaper or follow directions on a bottle of painkillers, the percentage is overshadowed by the 23 percent of Californian adults and the 33 percent of L.A. County adults who lack these basic literacy skills.

The Azusa City Library offers a free literacy program, Adult Literacy Services, to help struggling adults improve their basic reading and writing skills, as well as simple math skills. The program is a part of the California Library Literacy Services, which started in 1984 to improve literacy among Californian adults. The Azusa chapter of the program was shut down for several years due to funding cuts, but they were able to reopen last April. They currently have around a dozen students, with a few more on the waiting list. READ MORE !