Stigma-Free Reading for Adults :: How Nashville Public Library Rebooted its Hi-Lo Offerings

Stigma-Free Reading for Adults

How Nashville Public Library Rebooted its Hi-Lo Offerings into the Fresh Reads Collection

Library Journal: 11.06.2017 by Megan Godbey & Laurie Handshu

Nashville Public Library (NPL), the 2017 Gale/LJ Library of the Year, launched the Fresh Reads collection to adult new readers (ANR) in 2017 to offer stigma-free reading to promote literacy and learning. One in eight Nashvillians reads below a sixth-grade level, making tasks such as paying bills, helping a child with homework, or filling out a job application challenging and sometimes impossible. Helping them also helps the next generation: the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that “children of parents with low literacy skills have a 72 percent chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves.” We need to leverage all our resources to build a literate community.

LEARNING FROM THE PAST

NPL has experimented with books targeted to ANR patrons in the past, but its previous collections were plagued by issues including confusing locations, uninspired displays, outdated materials, and the stigma attached to books written on lower reading levels.

Books were shelved inconsistently, and they were often in a lonely, dark corner. Some of the titles were for adults but had been adapted for new readers; some were actually children’s books; many had covers dated enough to make them embarrassing to check out.

Few patrons, regardless of reading level, would have sought out these works. Our local literacy council described the problem this way: “We found it extremely difficult to find material that was appropriate for our learners. Materials of interest to adults were written at a level that was too advanced, and content at the right level was geared to a much younger audience.” Eventually, these collections were pulled from the shelves owing to disuse, and we took a step back to reevaluate our approach.  READ MORE >>