About us
Mission
The National Adult Literacy Database (NALD) Inc. is a Canadian non-profit registered charity. NALD’s mission is to provide Internet-based literacy and essential skills information and resources in both of Canada’s official languages.
"Literacy matters more than ever – given the world we live in now. It truly is a passport to prosperity and the great enabler for success."
Frank McKenna
Keynote address to CMEC Pan-Canadian
Interactive Literacy Forum, April 2008
The literacy issue
Low literacy skills extend across a broad educational, geographical, ethnic, cultural, class and age spectrum in Canada. The diversity of need requires a combination of solutions but there must be a shared vision at the core of the literacy development effort.
That means learning facilities, educators, businesses, organized labour, policy-makers and non-profit groups must join together to raise the literacy levels of Canadians.
The NALD response
As a digital library, the National Adult Literacy Database links the diverse players and contributes to a united literacy community.
NALD is an information service that:
- Provides learning and research materials as well as an annotated bibliography of resources
- Designs and hosts websites for literacy organizations
- Researches and organizes educational material found elsewhere on the Web
- Connects partners with experts in the field
- Publicizes literacy-related activities and events
The challenges ahead
Access to education is a basic human right. The first round of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (2003) measured literacy skills among individuals aged 16 to 65 in Canada and six other countries. Results indicated that the challenge to improve literacy performance among Canadians was far from over.
UNESCO says constant and rapid changes in the workplace, driven in part by globalization and the rapid growth of new technologies, mean that most adults will need to frequently upgrade their existing skills and learn new ones.
"Understanding and managing the demand for skill, the adequacy of supply and the efficiency of markets for skills that match the two is simply a matter of economic self-interest."
J. Douglas Willms and T. Scott Murray
Gaining and Losing Literacy Skills Over the Lifecourse, 2007
NALD at your service
The National Adult Literacy Database. provides information free of charge, leveling the playing field for learners and practitioners. Since its beginnings in 1989, NALD has changed the way resources are accessed and broadened the numbers of people who access them.
During the fiscal year 2007-2008, NALD’s website services were accessed by approximately 5,000,000 users who viewed more than 13,000,000 pages of information and downloaded more than 6,000,000 full-text documents (PDF files).
NALD@Work
NALD expanded its services in late 2007 with the launch of NALD@Work, a website designed to benefit the workplace literacy and essential skills community in Canada and beyond.
In order to participate fully in the workforce and in a democratic society, individuals must have a firm foundation of literacy and essential skills. NALD@Work is a key building block to that end and a one-stop resource centre that can be used to develop workplace education programs.
A tour of NALD@Work is an education in itself. Its unique features include a digital library with research and learning materials; news items; a calendar of events; and links to workplace-related contacts, websites and tools.
Information
National Adult Literacy Database Inc.
Sterling House
767 Brunswick Street
Fredericton, NB E3B 1H8
Tel: 506-457-6900
Toll free: 1-800-720-6253
Fax: 506-457-6910
contactnald@nald.ca
www.nald.ca
www.naldatwork.ca
NALD gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. It is also supported by a significant contribution from the Government of New Brunswick.
