In addition to the Table of Contents found at the beginning of the manual, there is a description of contents at the beginning of each chapter to provide you with an overview and to assist you in locating information.

At the back of the manual, you will find a set of worksheets that you can use to put the recommended strategies and exercises into practice. There is also a set of appendices that contain sample documents that you can use in your development work, plus a list of works cited and recommended resources.

Sources of data
Primary information used for this manual includes: FLAG's 1994-95 research, including the 1994 survey of Alberta literacy practitioners; personal interviews with selected Alberta family literacy practitioners and their community partners (see below); and discussions and correspondence with family literacy practitioners.

Secondary information includes: reports, articles, and books in FLAG's collection; 1995 literature review specific to collaboration; documents shared with FLAG by government agencies and literacy practitioners; and theses and dissertations specific to partnerships or family literacy.

Personal Interviews
The following criteria were used to select five communities for conducting personal interviews with family literacy workers and their partner agencies. We wanted to visit communities that had indicated in our 1994 survey that they had experience in building partnerships to support their programs. We also wanted to get a cross section of the various family literacy program types in the province, as well as representation of the geographic and demographic diversity in this province. Some communities had more than one type of family literacy program in operation.

Coordinators of the programs identified through this process were contacted in the summer of 1995 to gain their cooperation. They assumed responsibility for contacting their community partners, establishing a schedule of interviews, and obtaining appropriate locations for conducting the interviews.