Libraries and Black Males report

In 2010 the Council of the Great City Schools released a report entitled A Call 
for Change: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of 
Black Males in Urban Schools which calls the achievement gap for 
African-American males a "national catastrophe." In response to this, the School 
of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill and the School of Library and Information Science at North Carolina Central 
University hosted the summit, Building a Bridge to Literacy for African-American 
Male Youth: A Call to Action for the Library Community in June, 2012. The 
summit, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, brought members 
of the library community together with stakeholders from other-liked minded 
organizations to consider the role libraries can play in improving educational 
opportunities for African American male youth.  

A  report that summarizes the key summit outcomes can be found at: 
http://bridgetolit.web.unc.edu/?page_id=12. The report offers recommendations 
for how the library community can actively address the literacy needs of 
African-American male youth and encourages collaboration among the library 
community, the education community, and other local, state, and national 
agencies to address the achievement gap that exists.  

The report is intended to be a call to action for the library community-to 
provide the impetus for libraries to join this important conversation and to 
become an integral part of a nationwide network working to address the 
educational needs of African American male youth.  It is also intended to 
encourage educators, researchers, educational policy-makers, and community 
organizations to consider libraries as viable and critical partners in their 
efforts to improve the educational opportunities for African American male 
students. Constructive ideas and recommendations are welcome and will be added to the project website: 
http://bridgetolit.web.unc.edu/.  Please forward suggestions to 
smhughes@email.unc.edu.