ABSTRACT
This chapter uses boundary theory to analyze the role of public libraries and librarians working at the intersection of cultural practices around reading and literacy in the United States, and the ways a theory of multiliteracies might inform this space. The chapter argues that the tenets of public libraries potentially afford a radically different view of literacy than the frequently narrow views constructed through government initiatives, dominant research paradigms, and formal education sectors. The analysis includes a discussion of two children's library programs as examples of different approaches to literacy. The first example is a traditional storytime program that integrates school-readiness skills and various preliteracy components such as rhyming, singing, talking, and listening to stories. The second example is a child-led play program focusing on children's investigations of open-ended materials and integrating reflection and writing as part of the children's design processes. These two examples are used as illustrations of different ways librarians examine, construct, and reconstruct the meaning of literacy in relation to other institutional understandings of literacy. The chapter argues that a multiliteracies approach can assist librarians' boundary work as they expand a view of literacy to incorporate social aspects of meaning-making, multimodal forms of communication, and a focus on transformation and remaking in communicative processes.
