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The Institute's programs and services encourage the development and provision of high quality adult education and literacy services. Individually, they address some of the most important challenges facing the field, including how to improve accountability, use technology to its full advantage, and meet the needs of adults with learning disabilities. Together, they help build and support an integrated system that allows us to serve adults as effectively as possible.

• Bringing technology to the literacy field through LINCS, a state-of-the-art Internet-based information and communication system. LINCS operates through a network of partners nationwide to provide a single point of access to a broad array of literacy-related information and public discussion lists as well as technology training opportunities.



• Improving services to adults with learning disabilities through Bridges to Practice, a four volume research-based guide. The Institute has provided training in more than 30 states in the use of Bridges and is now focusing on training trainers.



• Promoting adult literacy system reform through Equipped for the Future, a long-term initiative that developed content standards to ensure that every adult can gain the knowledge and skills needed to fulfill real-world responsibilities as workers, parent,s and citizens.



• Connecting those in need of adult, child, and family literacy services with information about programs in their communities through America's Literacy Directory, an easy-to-use on-line searchable database.



• Providing copies of NIFL publications through the National Institute for Literacy Hotline and Clearinghouse, where English- and Spanish-speaking operators are available between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. EST Monday through Friday. Hotline operators also make program referrals using America's Literacy Directory.



• Offering policy information to government agencies, Congress, and the adult literacy field through briefings, Policy Updates on developments of national importance, and State Policy Updates on issues of concern to state and local literacy programs.



• Developing and disseminating scientifically based reading research and research-based products to educators, parents, policymakers, and others through the Partnership for Reading, a collaborative effort among NIFL, the US Department of Education (ED), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).