Literacy one book at a time
A literacy worker's story

by Flora Doehler
Librarian, AlphaPlus Centre
fdoehler@alphaplus.ca

I could say that the satisfaction I get from working as a librarian in a literacy library is the sense that I'm working for the greater good of raising literacy levels, but that wouldn't really be true. No. My satisfaction comes from connecting one by one with instructors and other literacy workers because they help people to live fuller lives under difficult circumstances. Let me explain. A literacy coordinator can call in from a northern fly-in community where an apple costs $2 and a public library or a bookstore isn't in the picture at all. Another instructor can e-mail from an urban school board where adult education has slid down the priority list. What both people have in common is that they are swamped with work, pressed for time, coping with continuous intake and multiple goals, needing help to find materials that will balance the learner's needs with LBS requirements. I figure that I'm here to help support overworked but diligent program workers by listening and by connecting them with practical materials so that they can perform heroic acts.

People want books from AlphaPlus for many reasons:

"I am working with a learner who had a brain injury 5 years ago and has lost his spelling ability, but can read well."
"We're developing a literacy program for workers in the hotel and restaurant sectors."
"I'm looking for resources that practitioners can use with teaching ideas, and practical applications."

Regardless of the request, they all lead back to helping one person: the learner. And when I'm lucky, I get to witness it.

Recently I was helping a practitioner when a man came in to deliver a package. He stopped in his tracks when he spotted the practitioner. She was his former instructor! He declared her to be the best teacher he'd ever had and proudly told her that he had his own delivery business and that, "Life is good." He left to continue his deliveries, the practitioner resumed her book search, and I felt that I'd been treated to a live vignette about the drama that is literacy. What a great feeling!

So, if you are a literacy worker and need some materials, give me a call and perhaps we can both get some satisfaction.

Can I be replaced by technology?
A literacy worker's query

Can I be replaced by the computer in my program?
By the software loaded into it?
By online resources on the Internet?
By chat rooms and online discussions?
By virtual classrooms?
By video conferencing?

Were teachers replaced by books?
By pencils?
By pens?
By telephones?
By movies?
By tape recorders?
By televisions?
By VCRs?
By DVDs?

Technology and its advance has always been with us. And we are still here.

Can technology ever really replace the interaction that takes place when two or more people meet to learn, whether that meeting is face-to-face, using a telephone, e-mail, or within a virtual classroom?

I mean, can it, really replace the value and importance of the interaction of two or more people?

Is technology a good thing or bad thing within literacy practice? Can it replace us? Should we be wary of it?

Think of the pencil and paper advanced now to stylus and palm pilot–the new look of the tool.
Can I be replaced by a stylus?
I think not!