In Memoriam :: Steve Armstrong

Corona library employee, literacy booster dies
Press-Enterprise: 10.23.08 by Alicia Robinson

Corona lost a library worker, community volunteer and literacy booster Saturday when Steve Armstrong died of kidney cancer.

Mr. Armstrong, the library's support services division manager, was 50.

Originally from Pomona, Mr. Armstrong worked in Los Angeles County and Glendora libraries before moving to Corona in 2002.

He oversaw literacy and circulation services, worked to raise funds for the library foundation, and volunteered for the Relay for Life, library Director Julie Fredericksen said.

"He was just one of those people that everyone loved talking to," Fredericksen said. "He had a real curiosity about people."

Literacy as a tool: Library director finds niche in helping folks
Press Enterprise: July 1, 2005 by Jerry Soifer

Steve Armstrong, a former businessman-turned-librarian, knows about transformations. Armstrong has been a record-store assistant manager, a paint company accountant and a hospital accountant.

Then Armstrong took an interest in literacy, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of La Verne in 1990 and a master's degree two years later. Now, at 47, he's the director of special services for Corona Public Library. He oversees the literacy program, community liaison, outreach office, the heritage room and the library foundation.

He lives in Rancho Cucamonga with his two golden retrievers. "He's really found his niche," said John Zickefoose, Corona's community liaison at the library. "People think of libraries as books. We're far more than that. We're taking care of people. He's really good at that."

SCLLN Tutor Workshops: November 2008

SCLLN Tutor Workshops: November 2008

Southern California Library Literacy Network

Tutor Workshops & Events: October 2008

- visit SCLLN for more events -

Nov 1 – 10 am
ESL Training
San Diego County Library
Ray & Joan Kroc Salvation Army
Community Center
6605 University

Nov 2 – 11 am
Celebrating Literacy & Multicultural Event
Santa Maria City Library
421 S. McClelland Street

Nov 6 – 5 pm
Trivia Bee
Pomona Public Library Literacy
Hinds Pavilion Pomona Fairplex
White Ave (Gate 12)

Nov 6 – 6 pm
Tutor TrainingBurbank Public Library
Library Auditorium
110 N Glenoaks

Nov 8 – 10 am
Tutor Training
Beverly Hills Public Library
Library Meeting Room - 2nd Floor
444 N Rexford

Nov 8 –10 am
Tutor Training
Los Angeles Public Library
Junipero Serra Branch
4607 S. Main St.

Nov 8 – 10 am
Tutor Workshop
Palmdale City Library
Larry Chimbole Cultural Center
38350 Sierra Hwy

Nov 15 – 10 am
Tutor Training
San Diego County Library
Vista Branch

Nov 15 – 12 Noon
Writer To Writer Awards Ceremony
Martin Luther King, Jr. Library
San Jose State University

Nov 18 – 9 am
Tutor Training
Newport Beach Public Library
1000 Avacado

Upcoming November Events

Local Conferences and Events

Bakersfield Festival of Books
Nov 1, 2008

San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival
Nov 7, 2008, 7pm
San Luis Obispo CA

CATESOL Regional - Los Angeles
Nov 8, 2008
Biola University

L A Storytelling Festival
Nov 15, 2008, 8:30am
Expo Center - Exposition Park

Tellabration 2008
Nov 22, 2008

Santa Maria Library - Central Coast Literacy Council celebrating 25 years of dedication

Central Coast Literacy Council celebrating 25 years of dedication
Santa Maria Times: 10.19.08 by Shirley Contreras

The history of the Central Coast Literacy Council goes back to the late 1960s, when Dr. Frank C. Laubach, founder of Laubach Literacy, spoke at Santa Maria's First Methodist Church.

Some time later, after a tutor training course was taught in the area, a group of tutors was organized at St. Andrew Methodist Church, with Polly Bendle serving as leader. The students were Vietnamese families who had come as refugees and had sponsors in the local area. After Ms. Bendle passed away in 1979, the organized group was disbanded.


Enthusiastically gathering up her tutoring materials, Dona Marie began telephoning offices of California Literacy Inc., which at that time was located in Alhambra. The San Luis Obispo Literacy Council was also generous with information and material.

The local literacy program began in November 1982, when Dona Marie, with helpers Doris Pine, Irene Schmitt, Ione Gustafson and Claire Magee began tutoring in the Community Service Center in Guadalupe

In January 2007, the Santa Maria City Library and the Central Coast Literacy Council joined in partnership. Such an agreement permits the council to offer its services in the library itself. The council now has an office and at least two study rooms for tutoring in the new library building.

I first became involved with the Literacy Council when I began teaching a class at the Community Center in Guadalupe on behalf of the Altrusa Club. Although I only taught for a few years, I can still recognize the need for such classes.

I'll never forget the testimony of one man who told about being afraid to order breakfast in a restaurant, because he could not read the menu. When he'd see the waitresses bringing scrumptious looking meals to other patrons, since he couldn't read English, he could only look with longing. However, he knew “ham and eggs” and that was his standing order. This went on for many years, until he finally enrolled in the literacy program. When he received his first certificate, the audience roared with appreciation when he told of the liberation he felt when he was finally able to read and write English, “if only to be able to finally order something other than ham and eggs!”

The Central Coast Literacy Council will celebrate its 25th anniversary Oct. 25 in Santa Maria with a “mystery dinner” held at the Shepard Room in the new and beautiful Santa Maria Library.

For information regarding the Literary Council, call Isa Ponce-Jimenez, PH D., executive director, at 925-0951, Ext. 836. READ MORE

San Diego Co Library - Adult Literacy Program 2008 Acts of Caring Award Winner

The Adult Literacy Program
of the San Diego County Library

2008 Acts of Caring Award Winner

National Association of Counties
2008 Acts of Caring Award Winners: Libraries

San Diego County:

LEARN/Laubach ESL Program
Cumberland County: Service to Adult Readers (STAR)

April 2008 -- With its high immigrant population, San Diego County officials recognized the high cost of illiteracy, including unemployment, decreased tax revenues and increased social services costs. Seeing a need to teach English as a second language (ESL) to the county’s growing adult immigrant population, representatives of Libraries Empower All to Read Now (L.E.A.R.N.) and the Laubach Literacy Council met to discuss the benefits of creating a literacy collaboration to share the costs of tutor training and working together on publicity for an ESL tutoring program in county library branches.

This partnership brings together volunteer tutors with adult immigrants whose first language is not English. There is no cost to the students. Results of the program show that immigrants who are proficient in English are more able to communicate ideas, find meaningful employment, become more effective parents, contribute to the community and become life-long learners.

In 2006, 25 tutors were trained and paired with 76 students and met an average of 3.5 hours a week over the course of a year for a value of $164,696 in volunteer time. Six library branches participated and two more have agreed to add the program this year. Libraries and L.E.A.R.N. referred 150 new students to Laubach in 2007 for matching with tutors. The program’s budget for 2007 was $5,265.

The partnership has enhanced the services of both organizations, and the program is changing and improving lives daily.

Contact: Nancy Saint John, Adult Services Coordinator, San Diego County Library
Phone: (858) 694-3833

Pomona Library - Pomona trivia bee has a vital purpose

Pomona trivia bee has a vital purpose
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin: 10.10.08 by Suzanne Sproul

For the past 18 years, the Pomona Public Library has hosted a trivia bee to raise money to help people learn to read.

Supporters are putting together teams to do battle in the annual upcoming event. The fundraiser is the brainchild of Muriel Spill, the library services manager, who said she borrowed the idea from a Redwood City library. It has been a fun and successful way to raise money to support the library's adult literacy program and to keep literacy in the public eye.

The fun is set for Nov. 6, at Hinds Pavilion at Fairplex in Pomona. It will begin at 5 p.m. with dinner followed by the high school competition at 6 p.m. Two adult contest rounds will follow, culminating in a championship round finishing off the evening.

Sponsorships are $300 for each three-member team. Teams are being formed now. A $10 donation is asked for those who simply want to enjoy dinner and root on their favorites without having to tackle the trivia.

"It's become very successful for us and very competitive. Teams know which ones are tough and plan accordingly, and they really want to win," Spill said.

This year the trivia bee is loosely tied to the library's and city's participation in the Big Read program, encouraging residents to read the same book. This year the book is Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird." Spill isn't giving any hints out, but she did say if you've read the book you might have a bit of an advantage in the contest.

For information about the trivia bee or volunteering for the literacy program, call (909) 620-2047 or (909) 620-2473. READ MORE

Palmdale Library - Literacy Tutors Sought

Literacy Tutors Sought
Volunteer training set for Saturday
Antelope Valley Press: 9.09.08 By Kim Rawley

Larry Evans was 49 years old and functionally illiterate when he arrived at the Palmdale Literacy Program with a yearning to read books. Today, at 52, he is a tutor with the same program and a college student. Oh, and an avid book reader. When asked his favorites, Evans says, "I like all books. I haven't read a bad book.

"But then, I haven't been reading long enough to distinguish a good book from a bad book," he said with a laugh.

The retired carpenter and Palmdale resident may be a stellar example of the literacy program's success, but he is not the only one. There are about 95 learners in the program right now, and new tutors are always needed. A new class begins Saturday.

According to the program's coordinator, Rod Williams, even with roughly 60 tutors it still takes learners between two to six weeks to get started with one-on-one tutoring, although they can begin the process with an assessment and participate in small-group workshops.

Evans arrived at the Palmdale Literacy Program reading at a roughly third-grade level, even though he had graduated from high school. "I played football, so they just scooted me right on through."

"The literacy program broke the language down to be so understandable," Evans said.

According to Evans, you don't have to have teaching experience to be a tutor, just empathy.

"A good tutor is someone who will listen to students to get an understanding of their level."

It takes a lot of talking and listening for tutors to get a sense of what learners already know.


As well as becoming a literacy advocate, Williams said Evans "has been working with New Beginning Outreach and the city of Palmdale's Neighborhood House, creating and facilitating a vocational training program aimed at helping to teach prevocational skills (such as how to dress for an interview, interview tips and general expectations of the workplace) and providing job leads to those who successfully complete the course."

"The class is structured to remind the students that in order for people to want to write a check to you, you have to be productive every day," Evans said.

He sees his community work as a way to honor the volunteers who helped him achieve literacy.

Literacy training is a free service for English-speaking adults. All tutoring is done by volunteers, who need to be able to commit to a six-hour training session and two to three hours a week.
For details, call (661) 267-5682. READ MORE

Oakland Public Library Literacy / Follow-Up

Save Second Start !

What Measure Q ?
More broken promises from the City of Oakland.
from abetteroakland.com: 10.02.08 by V. Smoothe

. . . At least, I could see myself supporting the elimination of the Library’s literacy programs in these tough times If the people of Oakland hadn’t voted specifically to tax themselves to pay for it only four years ago! I’m sorry, but this is just completely unacceptable.

Measure Q, which pays for the bulk of the library’s literacy programs, was passed in 2004 with an overwhelming 77.2% of the vote. Sixty-two thousand Oakland residents stepped into a voting booth and checked “I want to pay $75 dollars every year for the next thirty years to support library services.”

And what is written there, clear as day, under the “Use of Proceeds” section of the measure (PDF)? “To expand library-based programs in support of literacy, lifelong learning, and information technology.” See? It says expand, not eliminate!

Library Director Carmen Martinez and then-Mayor Jerry Brown signed a very straightforward ballot argument in favor the tax, promising that Measure Q will “Maintain literacy programs that teach Oakland residents to read.” And people said “Yes, I will pay for that. Send me the bill.”

End of story. Seriously, what else is there to discuss? As long as they keep collecting Measure Q dollars (that would be until 2024, FYI), any talk of eliminating the library’s literacy programs should be completely off the table. The City cannot keep breaking promises about how they’re going to spend the taxpayer’s money! Why, why, why should I, or anyone else, ever vote for another tax in this City again when we cannot trust them to spend the money as promised?

Second Start isn’t the only unconscionable cut in the Mayor’s proposed budget, and hey - it isn’t even the only one to library services. The Mayor also proposes to save us $120,000 by eliminating the Bookmobile. READ MORE