Despite the growing prominence of programs and funding related to family literacy, a comprehensive review of the professional literature on the topic has yet to be published. The need for such a document is great, both from the point of view of researchers, policy decision makers and those new to the field. For this study, two primary indexes within the ERIC system, Resources in Education (RIE) and Current Indexes to Journals in Education (CIJE) were searched using the descriptor "family literacy." In all, 409 abstracts were read and reviewed and 135 primary articles were analyzed. The abstracts and papers sorted themselves easily into three main categories: research emphasis (19%), program descriptions (33%), and position papers (38%). Additionally, 10% of the files either did not open, or were found to be completely unrelated to the topic under study. Three primary findings result from the synthesis of article and abstracts within the area of research emphasis. They are: (1) that many of the studies in this area have addressed highly focused areas as opposed to broad ones; (2) that many of the studies focused on areas that have been well-documented in other disciplines; and (3) that few of the studies concentrated on program efficacy. Of the 73 articles and abstracts in this category, 35 were found to have a primary focus well-documented in other fields of literature. Review of this literature reveals therefore problems, strengths, and needs within the discipline. One of the most prominent problems is the absence of well-agreed-upon definitions within the field. Another problem is the extremely small percentage of publications examining family literacy initiatives from an academic research perspective. And a third and related problem is that academic researchers are choosing questions of narrow focus. (Contains 33 references.) (TB)