Louisville: Where People Want to Stay for a Spell

Lou-ah-vul, Looieville, Lewisville, Louisville. . . .
Everyone in Possibility City knows there are lots of different ways to spell and say Louisville, so it should come as no surprise that this city is home to a couple of the nation’s preeminent bibliophiles (and yes, we looked up both those words in a dictionary), as well as some pretty impressive institutions dedicated to literacy.

First, The Library Journal, the country’s top library publication, has awarded Louisville Free Public Library Director Craig Buthod its Librarian of the Year Award for 2010. The award was presented to Buthod in Boston as part of the annual American Library Association Conference. Buthod, nominated by a number of his peers nationwide, is also featured in a cover story in the January issue of Library Journal.

Sharon Darling, the founder of the National Center for Family Literacy, is known far and wide, and is credited with starting the family literacy movement in the United States. Her recognitions include the National Humanities Medal and the the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and she’s been featured on the Arts & Entertainment series, Biography.

NCFL, which is also headquartered right here in Louisville, is credited with pioneering family literacy models and approaches that improve the lives of America’s most at-risk children and families. The organization’s work is frequently cited by the media and academics for its innovative approaches and groundbreaking results.

And last, Jefferson County Public Schools was recently selected as one of only five school systems in the country to receive a $600,000 grant to implement the Toyota Family Literacy Program (TFLP), which provides language and literacy skills for Hispanic and other immigrant families. You can read all about the program and its impressive history by clicking here.

And that, as they say, is all she wrote