November 6, 1998

Faculty member helps fight illiteracy

Loyola librarian and associate professor Laurie Phillips Gibson is helping to fight illiteracy in collaboration with a New Orleans Literacy Coalition program by training literacy providers on how to use the Internet. As chair of the board of The Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy and member of the board for the New Orleans Literacy Coalition and YMCA’s Educational Services, Gibson’s community work is an extension of her professional commitments at Loyola.

During a workshop held last spring in the WAC Lab, Gibson and her colleagues from the library trained over 25 literacy providers on how to use the Internet. “Many of the trainers had no prior computer knowledge, so the workshops were designed to be very basic,” explained Gibson. In addition to learning the basics of surfing the Internet, the participants learned how to do research and search for literacy sites.

Gibson has been working with literacy programs since 1992. She became involved with this particular program when the new library began to develop plans for a literacy center. Gibson plans to conduct a workshop next spring for the same group of literacy providers that would focus on how to find grant information over the Internet.

–Alison K. Verges, A’99, Intern in the Office of Public Affairs