Neighborhoods Parched for Books :: Book Deserts

Neighborhoods parched for books 

NY Daily News: 1.04.2017 by Naomi Moland Susan B. Neuman

On the last day of 2016, the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Bronx closed its doors for good, leaving New York City’s poorest borough without a general-interest bookstore. The borough’s 1.5 million residents — including 200,000 children in public schools — are left without a place to purchase books.

Unite For Literacy

Book Desert Map

With this closure, the Bronx is joining an increasing number of communities that can be classified as “book deserts” — low-income neighborhoods with limited access to print resources. Our recently published study suggests that book deserts are becoming more common in cities across the U.S. The increasing concentration of poverty, coupled with technological advances that change how we buy and read books, is leading to neighborhoods where parents will have difficulty finding books to buy for their children.

Even if, in this age of Amazon, large brick-and-mortar bookstores are a thing of the past, city planners and retailers must find ways to ensure that poor neighborhoods are not cut off from crucial resources, including if not especially books.

And if you think bookstores are a relative indulgence for neighborhoods that lack good supermarkets, you miss the point. We recently conducted a study in Detroit, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to learn about the availability of books. In each city, we walked, biked and drove street by street in a low-income and a middle-income neighborhood, and counted how many books were available for sale.

The disparity was stunning. One middle-income neighborhood had one book available per every two children living in the neighborhood. In a nearby low-income neighborhood, 830 children would have to share a single book. Across the three cities, middle-income neighborhoods had 16 times more books available for sale than low-income neighborhoods.

Book deserts are particularly detrimental for young children. Babies and toddlers (who do not yet have access to books in schools) need to be surrounded by books to develop preliteracy skills. When very young children are exposed to books and reading, they develop vocabulary and stretch their brains. When they don’t, they enter pre-K or kindergarten behind their peers, opening racial and class disparities that only grow over time.

Libraries offer crucial access to books. But in many low-income neighborhoods, they are woefully underresourced. When cities faced tough economic times in recent years, library budgets were slashed, leading to reduced collections and shorter hours. Even when libraries are open, some low-income families struggle to find transport to the library. Others forgo checking out books for fear of fines.

Besides, many children understandably yearn to own their own books that they can reread frequently at home. When parents and children are surrounded by books at all times, they are more likely to develop reading habits.  READ MORE @

Steinhardt Study Identifies “Book Deserts” – Poor Neighborhoods Lacking Children’s Books – Across the Country

Steinhardt Study Identifies “Book Deserts” – Poor Neighborhoods Lacking Children’s Books – Across the Country

Steinhardt NYU: 7.12.2016

A NYU Steinhardt study finds a startling scarcity of children’s books in low-income neighborhoods in Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

The lack of children’s books was even more pronounced in areas with higher concentrations of poverty, according to the findings published online in the journal Urban Education.

“Children’s books are hard to come by in high-poverty neighborhoods. These ‘book deserts’ may seriously constrain young children’s opportunities to come to school ready to learn,” said Susan B. Neuman, professor of childhood and literacy education at NYU Steinhardt and the study’s lead author.

Residential segregation has dramatically increased in recent years, with both high- and low-income families becoming increasingly isolated. In their study, the researchers looked at the influence of income segregation on access to children’s books, a resource vital to young children’s development.

Access to print resources—board books, stories, and informational books—early on has both immediate and long-term effects on children’s vocabulary, background knowledge, and comprehension skills. And while public libraries are critically important in giving families access to books, research has shown that the presence of books in the home is related to children’s reading achievement.

However, a 2001 study by Neuman found a sharp contrast between low- and middle-income neighborhoods when it came to being able to buy children’s books. In a middle-income community, thanks to plentiful bookstores, 13 books for each child were available. In contrast, there was only one age-appropriate book for every 300 children in a community of concentrated poverty.

To create a national picture of “book deserts,” the new study, funded by JetBlue, examined access to children’s books in six urban neighborhoods across the United States, representing the Northeast (Washington, D.C.), Midwest (Detroit), and West (Los Angeles). In each of the three cities, the researchers analyzed two neighborhoods: a high-poverty area (with a poverty rate of 40 percent and above) and a borderline community (with a roughly 18 to 40 percent poverty rate).

Going street by street in each neighborhood, the researchers counted and categorized what kinds of print resources—including books, magazines, and newspapers—were available to purchase in stores. (While online book sales have grown in recent years, three out of four children’s books are still bought in brick and mortar stores.)

The researchers recorded a total of 82,389 print resources in 75 stores. Three of the six neighborhoods had no bookstores, while dollar stores were the most common place to buy children’s books.  READ MORE @

Librarians on Bikes Are Delivering Books and WiFi to Kids in “Book Deserts”

Soar with Reading

Librarians on Bikes Are Delivering Books and WiFi to Kids in “Book Deserts”

Good: 8.19.2015 by Susan Johnston

“Food deserts" refer to low-income areas where convenience stores are often the only viable food source and fresh produce is a rarity. But nutritious foods aren't the only thing kids need to thrive and grow.

Many of these undernourished kids also live in so-called "book deserts"—areas without easy access to libraries and reading material to nurture their imaginations and development (just think of the 12-year-old boy in Utah who asked his mailman for junk mail to read because he couldn't get to a library).

To combat these problems, creative-thinking librarians and literacy supporters are using inventive solutions to expand access to books and promote a love of reading.

In the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Soar with Reading (a project of JetBlue Airlines) installed book vending machines to dispense 100,000 brand-new free books in three locations for kids ages 0-14. Soar with Reading is now accepting votes for its next city, with Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, Houston, and Fort Lauderdale in the running.

Outside the U.S., Book Bus delivers accessible and relevant books to children in Africa, Asia, and South America. So far, the charity has reached over 10,000 kids in Zambia, Malawi and Ecaudor [sic], with the goal of reaching 10,000 more kids by 2016.  READ MORE !

The Travesty of Book Deserts

The travesty of book deserts

Why are there places in America where it’s almost impossible to buy or borrow a book?

Mother Nature Network: 8.04.2015 by Starre Vartan

It’s a fact that will strike fear into the heart of any avid reader: There are places in the United States — one of the wealthiest nations on the planet — that have no real access to books, even for students. They're called book deserts.

Concentrated in inner cities but sometimes afflicting rural areas as well, these are communities with no bookstores, few or not-often-open public libraries, and a dearth of school libraries.

It's a sad truth that many public schools no longer have libraries. According to one teacher in Los Angeles, 83 percent of L.A. middle schools don’t have a librarian and aren’t allowed to keep the library open with volunteers. (The schools only have 98 librarians for 1,309 schools!) Most charter schools don’t have libraries due to funding.

Obviously, that's not the only part of the country that has issues connecting people to places with books. The Unite for Literacy's Book Desert maps project uses data about book availability to illustrate where the need for books or electronic access to books is greatest. READ MORE !

National Book Foundation - Book Rich Environments :: Book Deserts

Eight Publishers Commit Over 420,000 Books to Second Year of Book Rich Environments Initiative

National Book Foundation: April 2018

The Book Rich Environments (BRE) initiative, now in its second year, aims to combat lack of literary access, often termed “book deserts,” by connecting communities with resources that help foster life-long, joyful relationships between readers and books. BRE is a collaboration between the National Book Foundation, which serves as lead partner, the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Urban Libraries Council, and the National Center for Families Learning, a new partner. This unique program works with HUD-assisted communities to strengthen home libraries, facilitate book-distribution events, and provide the information and tools to establish long-term connections between families, libraries, and other literary resources.

This year, with book contribution commitments from eight U.S. book publishers (Algonquin Books for Young Readers/Workman Publishing, Candlewick Press, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster), BRE has secured a total of 422,000 free, high-quality, diverse books that will go to children and families in HUD-assisted communities.

BRE programming will once again take place throughout the U.S., from Missouri to Colorado to New York, where last year, through BRE, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) received the largest book donation in its history.  37 sites across 19 states will participate, and two sites will be joining for the first time . . . READ MORE >>

Wash And Learn: Laundromats And Libraries Are Fighting 'Book Deserts' via Newsy

@laundrycares

Wash And Learn: Laundromats And Libraries Are Fighting 'Book Deserts'

Newsy: 1.25.2019 by Jamal Andress

In the Bronx, Detroit, Chicago and other cities, libraries are partnering with laundromats to provide books to low-income and low-literacy areas.

Laundry is a necessary chore — one that’s especially boring for kids who tag along to a laundromat every week. But now, a bi-weekly pop-up reading program from the Chicago Public Library is putting an educational spin on family trips to the laundromat. So, why combine books and laundromats? Well, turns out, there are several reasons. 

"We really were thinking, where can we meet the community where they're at? Like, where's the need?" Becca Ruidl from the Chicago Public Library said. 

"For one, people are stuck there. And they're stuck there for a while. Another aspect is that people often return to the same laundromat every week. So it's a really unique way of reaching families over the long term in a sustained way," said Adam Echelman, Executive Director of Libraries Without Borders. 

"Oftentimes, these laundromat locations are also sort of in a book desert type area and if you look at it, statistically, the families that are patronizing the laundromats there's a very low ownership rate for books, particularly kids books," Brian Wallace from the Laundry Cares Foundation said.

“Book deserts” are often in low-income areas, where access to books is limited and literacy rates are below average.  WATCH 03:04

Reaching Families Where They Are: Examining an Innovative Book Distribution Program via Steinhardt NYU

#soarwithreading

Study Finds Access to Books and Support from Adults Enhances Children’s Learning

Steinhardt NYU: 5.01.2018

Reading aloud to children has been touted by experts as a key to developing skills early in life that translate into later academic success. In fact, a 2014 position statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics called for parents to read aloud to their infants starting from birth.

At the heart of these recommendations is the assumption that all children have the opportunity to learn from a selection of high quality, age-appropriate books. However, a recent NYU Steinhardt study of three major cities shows that access to books remains a significant barrier to reading with children; many poor neighborhoods were found to be “book deserts,” or communities with limited to no access to children’s books.

A new study by NYU Steinhardt finds that an innovative book distribution program that provides free children’s books in low-income neighborhoods, combined with supportive adults who encourage reading, can boost children’s literacy and learning opportunities, finds

         “ Both physical and psychological proximity to books matter when it 

              comes to children’s early literacy skills,” said Susan B. Neuman, 

              professor of childhood and literacy education at NYU Steinhardt and

              the study’s lead author.  “Children need access to books in their 

              neighborhoods, as well as adults who create an environment that

              inspires reading. ”

Funded by JetBlue and published in the journal *Urban Education, the study examines a community-wide effort to promote greater access to books through a book distribution program in neighborhoods identified as “book deserts.”

Four low-income neighborhoods – three in Detroit and one in Washington, D.C. – received with vending machines that dispensed free children’s books over the summer months, a time when children traditionally have less access to books.

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The study was designed to capture how, why, and in what ways these machines were used. Neuman and her coauthor, Jillian Knapczyk, used several measures to examine how greater access to books and adult support for book reading functioned within these communities.  READ MORE >>

*Reaching Families Where They Are:

  Examining an Innovative Book Distribution Program

Rescued by Books: Fostering Teen Literacy in Low-Income Communities via LA Review of Books

@thebooktrk

Rescued by Books: Fostering Teen Literacy in Low-Income Communities

LA Review of Books: 5.05.2018 by Ruth Ebenstein

It was a Young Adult novel that inspired teenaged Jonathan to turn his life around. It motivated him to read, got him excited to learn, and steered him away from dropping out of high school.

The shy 15-year-old got to choose from hundreds of high-quality titles on display, organized by genre, at a literacy outreach event held at his high school in Los Angeles. It was an alternative school for students at risk of dropping out; most were there due to failing grades, behavioral issues, and a history of incarceration or expulsion.

The event was facilitated by the Book Truck, a nonprofit that provides literacy programming and free books to teenagers from low-income families and in foster care. The book, which he chose with a volunteer, was the first Jonathan had owned, the first he read that wasn’t assigned by a teacher — and the first with a plotline in which he could imagine himself. That had never happened before. An avowed non-reader, he swallowed the book in one sitting.

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Jonathan, who asked that his name be withheld due to security concerns related to his juvenile record, is representative of millions of teens across the United States affected by a literacy crisis that is damaging their future prospects, pushing them towards a cycle of poverty. These teens have little opportunity to get turned on to reading and boost their literacy skills because they are growing up in “book deserts.”

A book desert is a low-income neighborhood devoid of bookstores and well-stocked libraries, with limited access to print resources. In high-poverty urban communities, there is only one age-appropriate book for every 300 children, compared to 13 per child in wealthier communities. Local libraries are also often critically under-resourced in terms of collections, budgets, and hours. And less than 10 percent of low-income families take advantage of them.  READ MORE >>

Book Deserts @ literacyspace

National Literacy & Library Events :: August 2020

National Literacy & Library Events :: August 2020

Literacy & Library Events & Conferences

Events-National & International Events

Events-International: Language Magazine

Read A Romance Month

Aug. 02      National Coloring Book Day

Aug. 03      Distance Teaching & Learning Conference ONLINE

Aug. 03      Orton Gillingham Teacher Tutor Training VIRTUAL

Aug. 04      United for Libraries VIRTUAL

Aug. 09      Book Lovers Day

Aug. 09      CANCELED - Unconference to End Book Deserts

Aug. 10      Annual Picture Book 10 for 10       

Aug. 10      Introduction to Structured Word Inquiry OnLine

Aug. 10      Special Ed Law and Dyslexia OnLine

Aug. 10      What is Dyslexia? An In Depth Look OnLine

Aug. 15      CANCELED - IFLA World Library and Information Congress

Aug. 22      World Folktale Day      

Aug. 26      WorldCat Birthday       

Aug. 31      We Love Memoirs Day

State Library Associations :: Conferences

African American Book Events

Book Fairs by State Library of Congress

Children’s Book Council Kid Lit Events

College Children’s & Young Adult Literature Conferences Festivals

Everfest Book Festival Calendar

ILA :: Literacy Calendar Worldwide

Storytelling Events

US Book Festivals

Book Deserts :: Breaking Down Barriers To Reading East Of The Anacostia via WAMU

Breaking Down Barriers To Reading East Of The Anacostia

WAMU: 12.06.2018 by Sasha-Ann Simons

Unite For Literacy Book Desert Map

When Derrick Young and his wife Ramunda opened MahoganyBooks on Good Hope Road Southeast last year, it was the first bookstore to open in the neighborhood in decades.

“In this community, it’s been 20-plus years since a bookstore has been here,” Young says.

The bookstore, which focuses on African American literature, is one of several attempts to increase reading and literacy east of the Anacostia River.

A 2016 study published in New York University’s Urban Education Journal labels these neighborhoods as book deserts: areas where printed books and other reading material are hard to obtain, and particularly where there is limited access to transportation.

U.S. Census Bureau data shows that 21 percent of adults in the nation’s capital struggle with illiteracy. Residents of Wards 5, 7 and 8 have among the highest functioning illiteracy rates in the District. These adults struggle to do things like read to their children or fill out job applications.

The Role Of Libraries

Richard Reyes-Gavilan, the executive director of the D.C. Public Library system (DCPL) says that accessibility isn’t the only issue. While circulation totals for both physical and digital books in DCPL have increased to their highest level overall, participation remains poor among both adults and children in Wards 7 and 8.

“How do you go from access to being a lover of reading? That’s what the library tries to figure out every single day,” says Reyes-Gavilan.

DCPL has started some new initiatives to help foster a love of reading from early childhood.

Two years ago, DCPL launched its Books From Birth program, which mails all enrolled kids in D.C. a free book every month until they turn five. Children receive books that are appropriate for their age. There are no income restrictions to qualify for the program.  LISTEN 04:15