Because the core curriculum for reading education evolved in an unsystematic manner, it has no "official sanction" and is thus very difficult to challenge or to supplement. The traditional "publish and wait" means of challenging existing conventions or submitting alternative propositions has changed without notice, largely due to increased political activism and information inflation. One approach to combatting these two factors is to establish a core literature that would provide a body of commonly known facts that could be alluded to in discourse among members of the field. Developing a core literature would necessarily involve ranking the most frequently cited articles, studies, and books; critically annotating the most highly ranked citations; and maintaining a committee responsible for recommendations and revisions. The list developed by Nancy Wilcox contains 43 ranked citations, but none of the logical refinements to which this list lends itself diminishes the value of a departmentally sanctioned list. A sanctioned core literature would be very much like a "controlled substance" in pharmacy: it could be powerful when appropriately governed and used by ethical, well trained, practicing professionals, although dangerous where any one of these elements were absent. The Wilcox list is appended. (HTH)