Reading beyond School: Literacies in a Neighbourhood Library

Abstract

This ethnographic study describes family and community literacy practices in a neighbourhood public library. As an intercultural research team, we observed patterns of library use and held extended conversations with librarians and neighbourhood parents about literacy activities in the library. The neighbourhood public library was a hub of contiguous communities of practice. It has emerged as a setting with shifting boundaries between formal and informal literacies and between traditional print media and multimodal literacies. The study reveals the dynamic nature of literacy practices in a setting that supported both formal and informal literacies.