'Reading the Fine Print: A history of the Victorian Adult Literacy and Basic Education Council (VALBEC) 1978 – 2008 by Beverley Campbell. This significant publication is an engaging and comprehensive account of thirty years in the life of this professional organization. It recounts some of the policy and pedagogical struggles of the adult literacy field that have shaped VALBEC’s identity. Reading the Fine Print also explores how VALBEC’s journal, Fine Print, acted as a trend-setter in its choice of articles for publication, and as a mirror by reflecting some of the major themes of adult literacy education in Victoria in the last thirty years.

Beverley Campbell has been involved in education for thirty-five years, twenty-five of those in adult literacy education. In that time she has held positions in secondary schools, community education programs, and as project worker and lecturer in adult literacy education at La Trobe University, Victoria University and University of Melbourne. She is a past president of VALBEC (1989-91) and a former member of the Adult Community and Further Education Board of Victoria.