Literacy is complex. It is more than just knowing how to read, although that is an essential skill for success. It involves media literacy, which is the ability to discern the actual message in an ad, political statement, or television commercial. It also involves technology literacy and information literacy. Literacy requires a combination of skills and knowledge that enables an individual to derive intended meaning from all types of messages. To be able to do this requires a person to repeatedly access new information and relate it to personal experience and prior knowledge. These experiences must take place, in various contexts and with increasingly sophisticated materials. Although literacy skills can be taught to a class, it is an individual who becomes literate.
21st Century Literacies refer to the skills needed to flourish in today's society and in the future. In complement to the Cleveland Literacy System, the District’s comprehensive literacy plan, the Library/Media division has compiled a list of books—divided by grade level—to help students, teachers, and parents learn and/or teach literacy skills. Today discrete disciplines have emerged around information, media, multicultural, and visual literacies. It is the combination of these literacies that can better help PK-12 students solve the issues that confront them.