This article synthesizes the history and research trends of the National Reading Conference through a global analysis of 2,139 articles published in the Journal of Reading Behavior and the NRC Yearbooks. All articles published in JRB and the Yearbook through 1991 were classified by topic and method of analysis and stored in a permanent database. Systematic searches of the database yielded summary data for topic popularity, authorship trends, and methodological and philosophical shifts within the organization. The article includes recommended reading lists of NRC “firsts, classics and oddballs.”
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