At the level of service infrastructure, some urban library systems are taking an integrated approach so that adult literacy programming and services emulate mainstream library services. Adult literacy learners use computers for library searches, can get specialized computer training courses and have resources and assistance available to explore and use the library.
Libraries serve readers and literacy organizations serve non-readers. Can libraries make the leap to literacy? We are part of the community.
Adult literacy is marginalized in the library field just as literacy is in the whole adult education field. (1995 Summit participants)
Three frequently-mentioned challenges in community and external collaboration are territorial issues, funding models and limited staff time. Librarians working with local literacy organizations have felt a tension around territory and competition for scarce, short-term. Project-based funding models discourage long-term planning and frustrate willing partners. In addition, the library’s goals are different than many government initiatives based on outcomes such as employability. Libraries have a broader mandate and encourage reading for pleasure, for instance, which is difficult to match up with an outcomes-based funding model.
Staff are taking on heavier workloads to support successful adult literacy as well as continuing to perform their regular library duties. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to push beyond local level collaboration where time has to be invested in finding the right constituencies before the hard work of cooperation even begins.
Finally, libraries themselves or perceptions of libraries can be a barrier to populations of non-users which the library is trying to attract. These institutions of knowledge and learning with their own rules, requirements and culture about ownership of materials instill fear in some people rather than delight and welcome.
Internally, the challenges libraries face in collaborating with each other include geographical distance, decentralized municipal structures, the difficulty in joining different library systems each with distinct populations, size and needs, the use of volunteers to operate some rural libraries, and the infrequent opportunities for librarians to get together in some jurisdictions. While the traditional types of cooperation (book rate, inter-library loan, copyright) thrive, the lack of a structure in some systems for delivering adult literacy services hinders collaboration both internally and externally.