History of BPLC
The Belser-Parton Reading Center Endowed Support Fund was established by Birdie Belser of Montgomery, Alabama, through an estate bequest in 1972 to support the operations of a reading center within the College of Education's Area of Curriculum and Instruction. The reading center was established in memory of Miss Belser's sister, Dr. Danylu Belser, and Dr. Daisy Parton, both of whom were members of the College's elementary education faculty.
The center ceased to exist in 1989 during a period of restructuring in the College. The endowment gradually built up and in 2006, new leadership in the College re-established the center, now called the Belser-Parton Literacy Center (BPLC). The BPLC exists to serve a triad of participants: families, schools, and The University of Alabama, with the central focus on children and how their literacy needs can best be served through excellent teaching and meaningful research. The center's four areas of focus are:
- to create a Resource Center: A Place for Housing and Sharing Materials;
- to do Community Outreach: A Place for Connecting with and Supporting the Larger Community;
- to support Teacher Education: A Place for Connecting Theory and Practice; and
- to facilitate Research and Scholarship: A Place for Sharing, Developing, and Funding Ideas.
The director of the center is Dr. Carol Donovan, an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities Programs at UA. Her experience includes more than fifteen years in the field of education as a regular education teacher as well as a university professor and researcher. Her research is focused on children's reading and writing development in different genres, as well as the development of elementary reading/language arts teachers. She has presented her work at national/ international conferences and published it in top education research and practitioner journals including Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, The Reading Teacher, Young Children, Elementary School Journal, and Exceptionality. Dr. Donovan has worked as a consultant for the Alabama Reading Initiative, an Alabama State Department of Education program providing professional development for teachers across the state in the area of reading. Her teaching in the Multiple Abilities program, an interdisciplinary K-6 special education/elementary education program is taught at school sites serving children of high poverty and minority backgrounds, where students learn about reading/writing development and instruction for the range of students in any given classroom.