Almost 5000 items of The Centre’s resource collection are now on our web site in a searchable catalogue.

What’s on-line?

The Centre’s collection on adult literacy includes books, documents, serials, software, and audio-visual materials — of relevance to teachers, tutors, researchers, policy-makers, parents, and interested members of the public. There are two special collections, one on media literacy/education, and one on English-language materials created in Quebec through the IFPCA projects (Federal-Provincial Initiatives in Literacy.)

How to borrow

You can borrow our resources from anywhere in Canada using mail or courier provided you agree to pay the costs for distance borrowing. Details of our policy are on our site. Contact us by e-mail, telephone, or fax with your requests.

You can search by title, author/editor, subject, keywords, ISBN, year of publication, publisher, language, or document type. Our library catalogue is now on-line

The Needs Assessment for a proposed Health Literacy Centre at the Montreal General Hospital (MUHC) was designed in two parts. The project is considering the needs of patients with low literacy, with cultural and second language barriers, and with cognitive and physical disabilities, all of whom we designated “hard-to-reach.”

We have produced a Background Paper outlining the current state of health literacy initiatives in Canada and outside, providing the rationale for this study. It contains thumbnail descriptions of related programs and projects across Canada in the literacy and health sectors. A draft of this Paper was posted on our web site from May until June 12 with an invitation to comment and fill in gaps. The final document incorporating the information and feedback from colleagues will be completed by the end of June.

The second part of the assessment collected data from patients, health care professionals, support staff and family caregivers about the communication needs of “hard-to-reach” patients. The analysis of the findings will make connections to related research. It will also be completed in June with recommendations to the hospital and the MUHC. The paper with recommendations will be available later this summer on our web site. Preliminary analysis indicates that the word “literacy” is problematic for both patients and professionals, and that further initiatives will need to be renamed.

We expect to move into Phase II during 2001-2002 setting up pilot-projects in three hospital departments to test alternative approaches in communicating with the target groups. Watch our site for updates.

A National Center for Literacy and Social Justice has been established in the US with a mission to build capacity among literacy practitioners to provide services that are responsive to adults with a history of educational low achievement.

ITS GOALS ARE:

To increase awareness and knowledge among literacy practitioners about the relationship between low levels of literacy and the following: institutionalized racism, inter-generational poverty, learning disabilities, and language and cultural acquisition problems (Vehicles: publications, web page, listserv, conference presentations).

To develop research-based training modules and conduct professional development activities for literacy providers on the above topics; and

To provide technical assistance and follow-up support to literacy programs that attempt to effect changes to make their services more responsive to the needs of the low-achieving learner.

Contact: Mary Ann Corely, Ph.D., Director, NCLSJ,
720 Rural Street, River Ridge, Louisiana 70123,
Tel: 504.738.1093, Fax: 504.738.9444,
E-mail: macorely1@earthlink.net

For the second year, October has been declared Health Literacy Month by a coalition of health care and literacy providers. It is intended to raise awareness and to focus professional attention on the creation of understandable health information. To guide this work, a Health Literacy Toolbox is on-line at www.prenataled.com/healthlit/hlt2k/script/. Organizers are also collecting and posting a list of activities.

The Movement for Canadian Literacy is putting out a regular bulletin on literacy-related developments at the national level stemming from the Learning and Skills Initiative announced in the January Speech from the Throne. They are recommending that the government take an inclusive approach recognizing literacy as an element of social cohesion in addition to its importance as a labour market requirement. MCL is keeping the lines of communication open for input from everyone connected to literacy in Canada. To follow unfolding developments, visit the MCL web site at www.literacy.ca and send in comments and responses.

The Canadian Literacy Thesaurus/ Thésaurus canadien d’alphabétisation, first published in 1992 by the Canadian Literacy Thesaurus Coalition is now available on the Web. This will make it more accessible to individuals and organizations in Canada and beyond. The on-line Thesaurus is easier to use and update, and encourages user feedback and suggestions for new terms.

The Thesaurus is a list of subject terms in English and French relating to the field of adult literacy. Developed in consultation with the Canadian literacy community, it reflects the diverse regional literacy practices across Canada.

With the extensive production of literacy resources across Canada in the past decade, it has become necessary to organize them in a useful way. The Thesaurus can be used to index print, audio-visual or electronic documents and to organize reading lists and bibliographies. It is also helpful to people who wish to familiarize themselves with terminology or emerging concepts in the Canadian literacy field.

With a grant from the National Literacy Secretariat, the Web project was developed by the Centre AlphaPlus Centre in Toronto, the Centre FORA (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources en alphabétisation) in Sudbury, the Centre de documentation sur l’éducation des adultes et la condition féminine in Montreal, and the National Library of Canada.

Information: Canadian Literacy Thesaurus Coalition, 2040 Yonge Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto ON M4S 1Z9 Telephone: (416) 322-1012 ext. 129 or
1 800 788-1120
Fax: (416) 322-0780 or
1 800 788-1912
Web: www.thesaurusalpha.org