Libraries as centres for community literacy

Abstract

In developing countries, as well as in many so- called developed societies, libraries have tended to remain the domain of the literate and more 'educated' sectors of society. Library and literacy workers alike have been faced with the question of how libraries can serve those without literacy skills and the bigger issue of how to make libraries accessible to this often large and untapped group within so many communities. Calls for a rethinking of the traditional role of libraries and suggests that both taking the library to the people as well as the people creating their own texts within the library setting can do much to encourage adult literacy.