The NCLA Literacy Committee has met twice since the last NCLA Executive Board meeting. The committee met in Raleigh at the State Library on May 22, and in Chapel Hill at the Spice Street Restaurant on July 3.

Agenda items discussed at the two committee meetings included the following:

• NCLA Literacy Award and criteria for the award. The creation of the award was approved by the NCLA Executive Board at its April 25, 2003 meeting. Plans for publicizing the award and reviewing nominations were put in place at the July 3 committee meeting. The Wallace Readers Digest Fund is a co-sponsor of the award, and to date, has given the committee $1,500 in support of the award program.
• Roundtable status for the Literacy Committee. Approval to pursue roundtable status by the committee was granted unanimously at the April 25, 2003 meeting of the NCLA Executive Board. As of the July 3 meeting, a total of 108 petition signatures have been received by the committee, which will be presented to the NCLA Executive Board at its meeting of July 18, 2003. Draft bylaws for the proposed roundtable have also been prepared by committee members, but will require approval by the membership of the new roundtable, and therefore will be held until the first membership meeting, to be held at the NCLA Biennial Conference in September, 2003 in Winston-Salem.
• Biennial Conference Programs. Committee members submitted a Special Projects Grant application to support our luncheon program at the NCLA Biennial Conference. This grant was awarded in the amount of $1,500. The luncheon speaker will be Dr. Dale Lipschutz, Literacy Officer in the Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, American Library Association. The title of Dr. Lipschutz's presentation will be "Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Library Services for New Americans." A second conference program sponsored by the committee and titled "ESL at the Library: Enriching Lives," will include the results of a survey committee members have prepared and posted to the NCLA website on support of English as a Second Language Programs in libraries. Speakers for the second program will include committee members Gale Greenlee, Trish Bean and Mary Siedow.

The committee will meet again in August, 2003, in Greensboro, on a date yet to be determined.

Submitted by:

Mark Pumphrey
Chairperson,
NCLA Literacy Committee
7/14/03