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Public libraries providing family literacy programming make a sound investment in the future, by developing the future of the family, the community, the library and the nation. Family literacy programs help the adult parent or caregiver to successfully fulfill his role as the first and foremost teacher of his children. Public libraries are a natural as a family literacy provider. Many public libraries deliver many of the basic components of a sound family literacy program. And, family literacy programs bring more resources into the library than they use. This article explains why this is so and provides a thumbnail sketch of the first state‐wide, state‐funded, public library‐based, family literacy initiative, California’s Families For Literacy Program.

Purpose – This chapter describes the structure and environment of the Cougar Literacy Clinic, the theoretical framework, and the transferred and transformed knowledge and practices that support the constituents as a community of learners.

Theoretical perspective/methodology – Our research embraces theories of transfer and transformation, self-extending systems, intersubjectivity, social constructivism, social learning, and social cultural that helps to explain how children, families, teachers, other educators, administrators, professors, and community members learn and benefit through mutual interactions, as they find ways to help each other become better thinkers and decision makers. The data were categorized into four types of practices from the clinical experience that have transferred to and transformed the school and community. These categories of practices include assessment, instruction, coaching and consultation, and family–school–community literacy connections. The data analysis and interpretation demonstrate the importance of having a shared understanding regarding literacy development, learning, and teaching that enhances each member's intellectual and academic growth.

Practical implications – Our Cougar Literacy Clinic innovations, built on beliefs of shared understanding, can be a model for both existing and newly established clinics that are striving to transform the thinking of each member involved. During assessment practices, each of the constituents will learn to make informed decisions on the selection of assessments and analysis of assessment data, confidently identify their own and others strengths and needs, and provide constructive feedback. In the areas of instruction, reciprocal coaching, and family–school–community literacy connections, each of the constituents will learn to focus on strengths and prior knowledge, scaffold learning, and pose and respond to questions.

In this chapter we begin by discussing the concept of inclusion, with a particular focus on inclusion in literacy learning in the early years (birth to five) in Australia. We then consider the research evidence for the potential impact of home literacy practices in the early years on later school and life outcomes, and examine some early childhood family literacy initiatives that aim to help develop young children’s literacy learning. We describe how Better Beginnings, a universal family literacy programme, supports parents/carers and children to build their skills, knowledge and understandings of early literacy. We show how Better Beginnings has operated, adapted and expanded in response to longitudinal systematic evaluations and explain how new programmes have been created to address the specific needs of particular groups of families, with the long-term intent of maximising inclusion for all families of young children in Western Australia. We identify aspects of inclusion, through which diversity is constructed as the norm rather than the exception. We conclude by suggesting that establishing connections between family literacy practices and school literacy programmes which embrace inclusivity is one of the first steps towards ensuring that all children are able to reach their potential and become active participants in a literate society.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the literacy practices of the families and communities of first-generation college students in Latin America, and how community and family literacies can inform the understanding of first-generation college students’ identity and cultural values.

This transnational ethnography was conducted in local communities around three public universities in Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica. Participants included nine fist-generation college students and more than 50 people in their families and communities (i.e. relatives, parents and friends). Data gathering occurred at the university outside the formal space of the classroom, at home, and in the community. Data were interpreted through the lens of the community cultural wealth framework.

The author found that first-generation college students and their families and communities engaged in rich literacy practices that have been overlooked in policy, research, and media. It is argued that the concept literacy capital is necessary to acknowledge the critical literacy practices communities engage in. Literacy capital was manifested in these communities to preserve cultural traditions, to sponsor literacy practices and to question and resist unjust sociopolitical circumstances.

The findings of this study should inform a culturally sustaining pedagogy of academic literacies in higher education. Beyond asset-based approaches to academic literacies in Latin America, critical perspectives to academic literacies teaching and learning are needed that acknowledge the Latin American complexities.

These findings are significant because they unveiled how people in local communities were informed about the sociopolitical dynamics at the national and international scale that affected or even threatened their local culture, and how they used their literacy capital to react critically to those situations.

Family Literacy Specialist, Carole Talan gives us her own impressions on how the home environment affects the young reader; both positively and negatively. Drawing from her Californian perspective, Talan outlines the role libraries can play in establishing a positive, literate atmosphere for children who do not enjoy that luxury at home.

The purpose of this paper is to report on how early years practitioners worked with the ORIM Framework to support work with parents to promote early literacy experiences.

Co-produced Knowledge Exchange (KE) was used to develop and evaluate work with parents to facilitate their young children’s literacy. Information was gathered in discussion groups, interviews with parents and practitioners and feedback from all the parties involved.

Practitioners and families engaged with each other in the further development of an established literacy programme, and families demonstrated “ownership” of the co-produced knowledge after the end of the project.

Project design in co-produced research and KE is necessarily flexible. The focus is on practitioners’ knowledge and ownership of the process, sharing knowledge with parents and enhancing children’s experiences.

Practices that can enhance parental engagement in their children’s early literacy are varied and multiple and ORIM can be used flexibly to plan, develop and evaluate innovative and community – (and family –) specific practices.

Where parents have more knowledge of children’s early literacy development they are in a better position to support them; for learning communities there are implications in terms of future development of work with families to support early literacy development.

This paper contributes an original approach to the co-production of research with early years practitioners. It also identifies specific issues around the ethics of ownership in co-produced research.

Set in a Mexican-American community of a US Gulf Coast state, the purpose of this paper was to describe how three young siblings and their family members constructed their spiritual, ethnic and communicative identities within the context of a virtual family literacy program during COVID-19.

This project was approached as an illustrative case study that focused on one family’s engagement with a children’s book in which the protagonists retell the legend of the Catholic patroness of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The case study illustrates how the children's spiritual/religious identities were inseparably intertwined with their home literacy practices and their identities as communicators with others. The children’s everyday spiritual/religious practices, routines and activities motivated familial conversations and dialogue that engage and support children’s literacy development.

Although there is a large corpus of scholarship about secular early literacy program for families with preschool children, there are few that describe the recognition and inclusion of families’ spiritual/religious identities.

This chapter is about the multiple forms of collaboration that are crucial to designing and implementing a school and community-based early childhood teacher preparation program. Maintaining quality in education and teacher education is a systemic, interdependence among individuals, institutions, and local, state, and national policy makers. We conclude that teacher education redesign is less about courses and pedagogies and more about systemic relationships, routines, and evaluations over time.

This paper presents a summary of international research in the field of family reading, a subject which refers both to the development of the literacy skills of family members, and to their shared process of reading.

It begins by defining the key terms in family reading, then introduces the research methods employed in research in this area.

Research specifically focusing on parents is presented, with particular reference to young parents and fathers in prison. The issue of intergenerational reading is also introduced, whereby (in this instance) the young and the elderly share experiences via reading. The final theme of the paper is that of families sharing reading for pleasure, and public reading events for families are described. The paper concludes with a series of barriers to family reading, and a suggested model of effective family reading, for families and communities in any country.

In a paper of this scale and length, it is impossible to give more than a limited perspective of international research on family reading, yet the author believes that sufficient examples are given – and the research methods sufficiently globally applicable – for the paper to be of theoretical and practical value to public and school librarians, and academics.

The paper collates and reflects on examples of international research and practice, whilst providing a solid framework of research methods in the area of family reading.

The purpose of this chapter is to define the role of libraries as civic institutions that assist citizens in significant transition points in the lives of children and adults. Libraries play an important role in society as essential democratic spaces that help create a sense of belonging in diverse communities. They provide opportunities for inclusive services to the marginalized, a wide range of literacy development services, from early childhood to older citizens, including literacy in more than one language for immigrant families. Libraries also provide community outreach programs, such as resources for access to healthcare, housing, and food. Many of these programs are connected to life transitions, such services for veterans and a pathway for immigrants to obtain US citizenship. Most of these programs are funded by grants and use community volunteers. This chapter highlights the work of one library, referred to as City Library, in a predominantly Latinx community in Southern California, including services and resources on literacy and essential neighborhood connections and partnerships.