Basic Literacy and Your Library

Monday's post brought mention of civic and social literacy, one of the five being stressed by the new PA Forward initiative, and today and over the next couple of weeks, you'll be hearing a bit about each of the others. 

The rationale for stressing the importance of literacy can be found at the PA Forward website and what you'll find in this blog post is some of what your local library is doing to impact literacy levels in the community it serves.

Not only does the Frank Sarris Public Library offer tens of thousands of books in print and in audio format, as part of the Washington County Library System, it now offers eBooks, too. 

Of course, we understand that not everyone can read alone just yet, so Story Hour is offered in several sessions throughout the year, introducing parents and children as young as 9 months old to the wonder of the spoken word and the magic of books! 

For school age children, we offer a multitude of books and a very special computer.  If you weren't aware, some years back, the library partnered with the Canon-McMillan School District and became the first public library in the world to offer the Accelerated Reader tests. 

Since that time, we’ve increased our investment in the program, purchasing additional quizzes and student capacity.  

Once your children are reading independently, they're encouraged to take advantage of the library's AR Test computer—it's available for use any time the library is open. 

We also have BookFlix for children! To get started, simply log on through our website and enter your library card number. Once at the website, you can choose from pairs of classic storybooks and related non-fiction. Each pair also offers related educational games, an author profile, and Internet links.

Naturally, we have books - both fiction and non-fiction—for adults, too...and not only that, we also have book discussion groups. 

Detecting Women meet monthly to talk about a different mystery or suspense book each time, and a brand new Sci-Fi/Fantasy discussion group is holding its first meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8th...Everyone is welcome to join in one or both!

Whatever your age or your interest, we hope that you'll soon visit the Frank Sarris Public Library and see all that is available to you.