Welcome to the Literacy Research Center and National Center on Adult Literacy's Gopher server!! The Literacy Research Center, administratively part of the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, houses four organizational units that focus on different aspects of literacy work. The National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) engages in research and development on adult literacy in the United States; the International Literacy and Education Program (ILEP) provides a worldwide network for literacy training and development; the Penn Group on Literacy Studies (PGLS) engages in a broad range of university-based research projects; and the Literacy Technology Laboratory (LTL) is promoting the use of new technologies for learning and instruction. The National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) was established to provide leadership in research and development in the field of adult literacy. Its mission is three-fold: (1) To enhance the knowledge base about adult literacy, (2) to improve the quality of research and development in the field, and (3) to ensure a strong, two-way relationship between research and practice. NCAL is an OERI (Office of Educational Research & Improvement) center and was established by the U.S. Department of Education in 1990, with federal co- funding by the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services. Gopher is a computer network protocol developed by the University of Minnesota to simplify distribution and retrieval of documents and software via the international "network of networks," or Internet. Using this Gopher server, you may learn more about the National Center on Adult Literacy and its many programs. You will be able to retrieve fully formatted documents, including NCAL Connections, the Center's newsletter, complete policy briefs, occasional papers, and technical reports, current research project abstracts, and listings of upcoming events relevant to the field of adult literacy. Current documents will be updated and new documents will be added frequently, so please log on regularly. The information on NCAL available to you through the Gopher server should be readily apparent through careful reading of the topical outline. The first file within each section will provide you with a summary of what is available within that file and directions for navigating through the file. For more detailed information on using Gopher, see the folder/directory entitled "More Information on Gopher", "Links - Other Literacy Resources" and "Links to Other Gopher Servers". If you have any questions about the National Center on Adult Literacy or about the NCAL Gopher server or would like information on any NCAL documents not available on-line, please contact NCAL via: E-mail: Mailbox@literacy.upenn.edu Telephone: (215) 898-2100 Fax: (215) 898-9804 Surface mail: National Center on Adult Literacy 3910 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-3111 USA As of April 10, 1993, NCAL will go on-line via this Gopher server. If you have any feedback or suggestions to us relating to improvement of the type and format of information and the ease of access to that information, please let us know. Thank you for your interest in the Center.