IMLS outlines learning agenda, prioritizing child reading research to measure libraries’ role

IMLS officials onstage described a new learning agenda designed to guide multi‑year research and evaluation to produce evidence for grantmaking and program decisions. Matt Birnbaum and his colleagues said the learning agenda grew from the agency’s strategic planning and will direct what research IMLS pursues to inform future discretionary grants.

IMLS identified three priority topics: libraries’ contribution to child reading, prospects for the museum sector, and equity in competitive discretionary grantmaking. Emily Plumb led the session on child reading and summarized a literature review conducted by the American Institutes for Research. Plumb said the research suggests motivation and engagement are important levers: ‘‘Getting kids to want to read makes them better readers,’’ she told attendees.

The literature review maps four components of literacy practice—content‑based approaches, integrated activities, supportive resources and spaces, and family engagement—and reports mixed levels of evidence across those components. Plumb said some school‑based studies show motivational principles that align closely with common library practices, but that direct causal evidence linking library programs to standardized reading outcomes remains limited and often anecdotal.

Presenters emphasized that the learning agenda will specify research questions, methods and dissemination processes so IMLS and its partners can use findings to shape grantmaking. Plumb and others invited state library agency participants to provide feedback and suggested the learning agenda could inform how future grants are structured to produce usable evidence.

IMLS said more detailed outputs from the child‑reading work will follow next year and encouraged attendees to review the publicly released literature review and to participate in office hours to discuss practical implications for state and local programming.