Are You Living in a Book Desert?
We all know that a desert is a dry, arid region with harsh conditions for sustaining life. The desert metaphor has been used in many disciplines to describe a lack of resources. For example, a “food desert” is a geographic area where affordable and nutritious food is in scarce supply.
Book deserts illustrated
Unite for Literacy uses the desert metaphor to illustrate the availability of literacy resources in geographic areas. We even developed a book desert map that illustrates the widespread problem of book scarcity and helps to initiate conversations about the impact that has on the lives of children.
In 2014, we introduced the first version of our book desert map at the Clinton Global Initiative—America conference. The map was developed with the help of ESRI, the geographic information system (GIS) experts. We provided Esri with data gleaned from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the U.S. Census Bureau that included a range of prediction variables, like actual book counts, family income, culture, and home language. The resulting map predicted the percentage of households in a geographic area that contain at least 100 books.
In 2023, we worked with the Colorado State University Geospatial Centroid to refine the book desert map. The Centroid team compiled and analyzed data from NAEP, the Census Bureau, and Diversity Data Kids, along with survey responses from more than 10,000 participants in the Unite Growing Readers program. We believe the new map more consistently and accurately identifies how likely households within census tracts are to have an abundance of books when compared to other tracts.
Look at the map
When you look at a book desert map, you’ll notice five varying shades of burnt orange. The lighter the color of an area, the more likely its households are to contain 100 or more books. Conversely, the darker the color of an area, the less likely its homes are to contain books. Darker colored areas also expose areas of structural inequality where families historically do not have access to a regular stock and flow of culturally and linguistically relevant books.
The optimum number of books
A research study that gathered data from 27 countries around the world over a 20-year period identifies 100 books as being an important indicator. This comprehensive study by experienced sociologists interested in social mobility found that the very best predictor of school success across this array of rich and poor countries from every continent was the number of books in the home. Their data indicate that 100 seems to be the optimum number of books for early school success. That number then was associated with the nature of in-depth and elaborate conversations, which they referred to as Family Scholarly Culture, that were more likely to occur in homes with 100 or more books. Those books and the conversations they inspired taught children about the world beyond their direct experience and created rich language, as well as open and curious minds, preparing them for academic success.
This kind of study provides us with insights into what parents can do to ensure that their children both enjoy and succeed in school during the ages where the foundations of all learning are laid.
Using the book desert map to analyze your own community, what could you do to eradicate book deserts and to plant and cultivate more book gardens? What might a family do? What might educators do? What might the business community do?
Contact us to learn about effective strategies you can use to change the literacy landscape where you live.