About the top photo: The Caroline and Henry E. Singleton Adult Literacy Center in the Central Library.
 

 
Adult illiteracy remains one of the most economically and socially crippling problems facing Los Angeles area residents. The Library's Adult Literacy Services are designed to help English-speaking adults, ages 16 and above who are not in school.
 
The Library currently maintains 15 literacy centers, through which it offers resources and programs free of charge to anyone who needs them. They are administered through the Adult Literacy Services Department, headquartered at the Central Library, which also houses the Caroline and Henry E. Singleton Adult Literacy Center, the largest and most heavily used center in the system.
 
Each center features an extensive collection of books, audiotapes, and videotapes for the self-paced learner or to use with a tutor. Computer workstations in each literacy center provide access to a wide range of tutorials for workplace literacy, basic reading skill development, vocabulary building, and GED test preparation, among others.
 
Specially trained literacy coordinators help match students with a tutor or make use of print and computer-based self-teaching resources. The coordinators help students select the resources they need and/or enroll in a suitable program to meet their goals.
 
The Following are Services Offered By the Library

• Students can work one-on-one with a trained volunteer tutor with the goal of being able to read and write at the sixth grade level. Tutors meet with students in the library twice a week for one to one-and-a-half hours sessions for a minimum of six months.


• Limited English Proficiency (LEP) is a self-guided program for adults with limited English skills. Students use books and videos to achieve English literacy skills. There is no time limit and staff provides assistance as needed.


• Families for Literacy is offered to parents of children under the age of five who are enrolled in the adult literacy or LEP program. They are taught to read children's books and upon completion receive books as gifts to take home to read to their children.


• The LAPL's Adult Literacy Web site provides self-paced online teaching tutorials for independent study that can be accessed from any library in the system and from any computer – at home or at work – with access to the Internet.

 
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hen the Los Angeles Public Library first opened in 1872, it was a subscription library: $50 gold for a Lifetime membership or $1 per month. Subscription service was removed in 1891 when the library became supported by municipal appropriation and private gifts.
 
Watch the Gift of Literacy Video (10:00)