Corona Library :: Literacy as a tool: Library director finds niche in helping folks

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."

On July 16, Armstrong will oversee the transformation of the library into a variety of settings from Agatha Christie's 1934 mystery novel, "Murder on the Orient Express," as part of a fundraising event.

The children's room will become Istanbul, Turkey, where food such as spicy shrimp skewers will be served. The teen area will become Milan, Italy, with appropriate food. The periodicals section will become the Serbian capital of Belgrade with shepherd's bread on the menu.

The community room will take on a Paris theme with mini-cream puffs covered with chocolate sauce being served. Children from the Christian Arts Theater are scheduled to sing and dance.

The event is the first major fundraiser for the library's foundation in its 20-year history, Armstrong said.

Inspired To Help

In 1987, Armstrong saw the made-for-television movie "Bluffing It" starring Dennis Weaver, who kept his inability to read or write a secret. The movie inspired Armstrong to volunteer as a tutor at the Los Angeles County Public Library in La Verne. There he met Irish immigrant William Heeney, a construction worker who never finished school in his native Dublin.

Heeney said in a phone interview that he would often get lost in Southern California because he could not read a map. Heeney, who lives in Alta Loma, also saw the movie, which inspired him to enroll in the Mount San Antonio College literacy program. There he was placed in a class with young people, where he felt out of place.

Heeney, now 43, sought help at the library in La Verne where he met Armstrong. They worked together for five years. "Steve is like a brother to me," said Heeney. "He's one of the best people I've ever met. He did so much for me. I will be forever grateful to the man."

Heeney eventually became a construction foreman. He said he lives in a different world than before. Armstrong said Heeney did a lot for him, inspiring him to go back to college and earn a degree.

Before meeting Heeney, Armstrong preferred work to study. "I liked being self-sufficient, making money, being independent," he said .

Heeney convinced Armstrong he belonged in a library. At the time, Armstrong wasn't happy with his work at a rehabilitation hospital in Pomona. "I was doing a lot of collection work," said Armstrong. "I wanted to help people, not collect money from them."

Armstrong attended Citrus College in Azusa off and on for 13 years before enrolling at the University of La Verne.
He went to work at the Glendora library in 1993 and rose to the position of development and educational services director. Heeney said of Armstrong, "He turned me around more than I turned his life around."

Palm Springs Library - Volunteers Boost Literacy

Volunteers Boost Literacy
Desert Sun: June 27, 2005 by Jennifer Larson
Jennifer Larson

If you can easily read this sentence, you have an advantage over nearly half the adult population of Riverside County. But pretty soon, you may not have much of an advantage over Sefika Kaya.

Kaya, 26, is a pastry chef at a local hotel, and she is learning to read English under the auspices of the adult literacy tutoring program at Palm Springs Public Library.

Kaya sought out tutoring about three months ago after briefly spending time in a local adult school. Turkish is her first language, but since she wants to become an executive chef one day, she realized she had a lot to learn. "I need to learn this language," she said.

Enter Jennifer Robinson, 28, a graduate student who also works at Rancho Mirage Public Library.

Josette McNary, principal librarian and literacy program coordinator at Palm Springs Public Library, matched the two women together. Now, Kaya and Robinson meet regularly for tutoring sessions. As they have worked through flash cards of vocabulary words and flipped through books, they've become friends, too.

Many of the local branches of the Riverside County Library System have adult literacy programs now. The Palm Springs program is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

All the programs have the same goal: to help adults learn to read - or learn to read better. With reading and writing skills, they will have a better chance at getting a good job and sustaining a higher quality of life for themselves and their families.

The Palm Springs Library program now has about 34 tutors and about 80 students, according to McNary. Some pairs meet once a week, but others meet more frequently, depending on the students' needs.

"What they like here is the one-on-one," McNary said of the students.
Robinson and Kaya love to pore over the library's cookbooks that Kaya picks out for dessert ideas - and to get more reading experience by reading the recipes.

Robinson also prepared a set of flashcards that are attached to a key ring for Kaya so she can flip through, read the words and practice pronouncing them.
Sometimes the words trip her up. For example, Kaya is still having trouble pronouncing the "o" sound in English. "Floor. Flower," Kaya said, trying to make the words sound different. "English is tricky," noted longtime volunteer Sue Sutton, 78. "Just when you say, 'This is the way it always is,' it's 'well, usually.'"

But she tries to make it fun by teaching her students little rhymes about grammar. For example, "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" to explain how to pronounce words like "receive."

Sutton has been working with her current student, Brenda Galvez, 25, for about a year. Galvez, who is from Mexico, could speak Spanish and English, but she had trouble reading and writing in English, even though she graduated a few years ago from a local high school.

The two have also worked on life skills to help Galvez, who was in a welfare-to-work program, successfully negotiate the work world.

That should be a key component of adult literacy initiatives, according to the National Institute for Literacy, which cites the 1998 Workforce Investment Act's definition of literacy as including the ability to "compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job."

Volunteer tutor Angela Dam, 34, of Palm Springs agreed that it's not enough simply to teach an adult to read. "You want to give them skills to raise their children better, to have better knowledge of the world," she said.

Dam, who also teaches a group of Spanish-speaking women through a parenting program affiliated with the Palm Springs Unified School District, can relate to her students; she had to learn English when she was 9 after moving from Vietnam to Canada.

So she tries to relate her lessons to real-life scenarios. She also came up with the idea of asking her students to write in a journal and practice their newfound English skills. "Since I started doing that, their writing has improved immensely," said Dan. "They're using adjectives, adverbs."

Galvez has already experienced some success on the job front, too, thanks to Sutton's help. She had to take a multiple-choice test for her new job as a courtesy clerk at a local discount department store, and the tutoring sessions helped her develop the skills necessary to do that. (She passed the test.)

Galvez wants her twin daughters, now 2, to learn to speak and read both English and Spanish. "So they won't have the problems I had," she explained.

Robinson is very proud of her pupil, too. "You read the newspaper and you use the library all the time now," she said to Kaya, who smiled over her stack of homework worksheets.

McNary said she's glad to provide an effective avenue for people to learn to read - and speak - English better. Students are tested in English in school, and most good jobs for adults require them to use English. "I think it's vital," she said of the tutoring program. "This is still an English-speaking society."

If you are interested in becoming a tutor for an adult student or want to refer someone for help, try the following agencies:

Palm Springs Public Library's adult literacy program: 322-8369 The Riverside County Library Adult Literacy Program's local office:342-2580. The program serves the following libraries: Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Indio, La Quinta, Lake Tamarisk, Mecca, Palm Desert and Thousand Palms

Huntington Beach Library - James Earl Jones, Verizon, and Literacy

James Earl Jones, Verizon, and Literacy
Sneakeasy’s Joint: Feb 8, 2005

If, like me, you have had the honor, and pleasure, of being in the presence of the great actor James Earl Jones, then you will never, ever, forget it.

The voice, and the personality of the man it belongs to, are a force to be reckoned with.

On Monday he was in Huntington Beach, at the public library, for a worthy cause: Literacy

The library rolled out the red carpet to welcome the Tony-winning, Emmy- and Oscar-nominated actor, who came to Surf City to read to local youth and help bestow a generous grant to the Literary Volunteers of America-Huntington Beach Library.

The $25,000 grant was given by Verizon, during Monday's special event.

Jones has been the company's spokesperson since 2000.

He read a story to a bunch of local elementary school students, and had an important message as well.

"Literacy is now, and was then, the key to freedom," said Jones. "To my forbearers, books were a cherished possession. When I was a child, I stuttered and was illiterate, but I found voices in books. That's how I learned to read," he said.

It seems the Library was one of 18 programs to receive grants.

2005 SCLLN Tutor Conference - Success Guide for the Immigrant Life

Success Guide for the Immigrant Life
Catholic Online
Workshop at the SCLLN Literacy Conference
Jan. 22, 2005 at Cal State, Dominguez Hills

LOS ANGELES—The 6th Annual Southern California Library Literacy Network ( SCLLN ) Conference will be held on Saturday, January 22, 2005 at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Founded in 1984, the SCLLN is an association of about 49 member-libraries in Southern California. Its goal is to strengthen each member-library’s literacy services by sharing resources and expertise in promoting literacy and lifelong learning among the communities the libraries serve. For the sixth year, tutors and learners from the various member libraries have been attending this much awaited annual event. The president of the SCLLN is Rod Williams of the City of Palmdale Public Library.

Among the presenters for this year’s SCLLN conference is Glendale, California-based Monette Adeva Maglaya, author of the book, “The Complete Success Guide for the Immigrant Life: How to Survive, How to Thrive, How to be Fully Alive” and editor of its companion book, “The Immigrant’s Little Quote Book for Success.” The New York Times has called the success guide, “a remarkable new book.” Gary Shteyngart, the Times reviewer admits that “few books have come closer to telling me what it means to be an immigrant in America today.” Libraries across America are finding this book a good reference guide that addresses some of the needs of their immigrant population. Implicit in the book is the Catholic faith-based perspective of the author. The Success Guide workshop is scheduled for 10:55 to 11:55 AM and will address both tutors and learners.

Other presenters in the conference include the head of the Glendale Library Literacy Program, Mary Miller, who will talk on “Tutoring Tips from a New Model”; Lorrie Mathers, “Playing with Poetry”; Rose Saylin and Diane Moseley who will present “Writing for Fun”; Kristine Addicks “Working in the New Year - Job Hunting and Resume Workshop” and many other speakers who will address the many aspects of promoting literacy and lifelong learning in the various communities.

This year’s SCLLN’s keynote speaker during the luncheon will be Reuben Martinez, a well-known and multi-awarded advocate of literacy in Southern California.