From ALA Direct online:

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has called for librarians, educators, health and recreation officials, and parents to join him in a “call to action to ensure Chicago’s future.” During an all-day conference titled “Creating a City of Readers, Starting at Birth,” held at the Chicago Public Library November 30, the mayor spoke with more than 300 key representatives from city government and from dozens of private educational and philanthropic organizations.

“The highest priority in our society,” said Daley, “should be the education we give our children.” He observed that “if children are not reading at grade level by the 3rd grade, they will never catch up,” adding that in the Chicago Public Schools—which he took control of managing in 1995—“we require every student to have a library card.” Student scores have risen consistently since his management team took over, and his support for the Chicago Public Library has earned Daley a national reputation for innovation; 52 branch libraries have been renovated or constructed since he became mayor in 1989.

Keynote speaker Mem Fox, an Australian writer whose books for children have become bestsellers around the world, effectively demonstrated the value of reading to children by reading to the delighted conference attendees. Children must be read to from birth, she insisted, “but that is not enough, they must also be engaged in the text.” The human interaction is fundamental, she urged: “The cuddles and the laughs are the secret of education.”

Laysha Ward, vice president for community relations for Target Corporation, one of the program’s sponsors (along with the Chicago Community Trust and the Chicago Public Library Foundation), announced that the retailer will launch a program to revitalize school libraries in 2007. “Target recognizes that reading is the foundation for lifelong learning,” she said, noting that by next year the company’s philanthropic level will have reached $3 million a week, much of it for reading initiatives.

Attendees emerged from the conference with four fundamental objectives and a mandate to spread the word:

• Get a library card and use it.
• Read aloud with a child for 20 minutes a day.
• Have books in your home.
• Get caught in the act of reading.

Posted December 1, 2006.