Literacy Advocacy

Today while researching the topic of "Library Advocacy" for my small group presentation, I was distracted by a link on the Friends of Libraries website about the 50th birthday of The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. For this milestone, Random House is teaming with a literacy group, called First Book. For every birthday e-card sent to the infamous Cat via this link, Random House is donating one book to the First Book organization.
http://www.seussville.com/CITH_50th/

I of course sent Mr. Cat a card, and then emailed some friends and family urging them to do the same. It's really important to me to dedicate a significant part of my future career as a library science professional to promoting literacy for children. Adults also, but the earlier that you can introduce literacy in a person's life, obviously the more they can benefit. Looking at this website, and sending my little e-card contribution got me thinking - "why can't I start now?" Juggling a full-time job, a Masters program, and keeping up with my house, pets, husband, friends and family is certainly time-consuming, but I want to start looking for little ways that I can become more involved in the literacy movement.

I started by searching for national literacy groups, but decided instead to start with my own public library. I sent an e-mail to the coordinator of youth services....we will see what happens!