While perusing my Facebook Newsfeed the other night I came across this NBC News article about the 16th Annual Latino Book Awards, which was posted by one of the Library-related organizations I "follow." The awards were started by Latino Literacy Now and Edward James Olmos to honor the work of Latino writers and promote sales and over 180 Latino/a authors gathered at the ALA conference in Las Vegas over the weekend for the award ceremony. Author Meg Medina pointed out that "we know from 10 years of data that the needle has been stubbornly stuck at about 3 percent of all books being by or about Latinos." But, their mission seems to be succeeding; this year there was drastic increase in book submissions (41%!) for the 87 categories, which reflects the growing market for books targeting Hispanics. According the author of the article, Latinos will purchase over 500 million dollars worth of books in English and Spanish this year!
The article linked to the #WeNeedMoreDiverseBooks site, which prompted me to actually dig deeper into the campaign, which I had only scanned headlines about (also through Facebook!) before. The campaign started in April of this year after bloggers Ellen Oh and Malinda Lo expressed their frustration through Twitter about the lack of diversity in children's lit, in particular the fact that BookCon had an all-male and all-white panel this year. The campaign spread like viral wildfire through the social network world and an ongoing conversation about the value of multicultural children's books has been started across the Web. Here are some interesting stats and statements I came across in my perusal of the associated sites:
In 2013 there were 3,200 children's books published. 93 of them were about African Americans.
As of June 2013, 37% of the US population was considered "multicultural" but only 10% of books published in the last 18 years had multicultural content. Check out this infographic for more on those stats.
According to UW-Madison's very own Kathleen Horner from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC): "I think we saw the numbers of multicultural books flatlining when school and public libraries began to get funding cuts, so that publishers came to rely more on bookstores for sales. At around that time, we also saw the rise of Amazon, Borders, and B&N. I’ve heard many times from publishers that the “buyers at B&N” believe multicultural books don’t sell. When they are not stocked in these bookstores, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Children look for characters like themselves in books they read. According to Rudine Sims Bishop, author of the 1990 article “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Doors,” "When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.”
It seems like the campaign has served a great purpose already in just getting these discussions on the social media radar, which as we know in these networked times, can lead to important shifts in opinion. Needless to say, I've now "liked" #WeNeedDiverseBooks on Facebook so I can keep following the conversation and the wealth of multicultural resources they provide!
Originally celebrated in Mexico as a day honoring children, Día de los niños was co-opted by Pat Mora (Latina author of children's classics like Tomás and the Library Lady) and REFORMA, in 1997 as a celebration of children's literacy. In 2001 the ALA and the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) came on board, and by 2004 the celebration had become well-established across the country. While related literacy programming can be held year-round (“Día! Today and Every Day of the Year" is a slogan of the event), the celebration is meant to culminate on April 30th of each year, when libraries across the country plan fun-filled events for local children including book giveaways, crafts, music and dance performances, storytelling, food, and general outdoor fun. According to the ALA fact sheet about Día (as it is commonly known), the event is meant to:
Connect children to the educational possibilities of books and libraries.
Cultivate literacy in a way that respects and honors a child's home language and culture.
Increase family literacy efforts.
Respect the diverse cultures and heritages of our communities.
One of the first celebrations was held in El Paso, as I mentioned in my previous blog post. The librarian planning the event expected around 50 children, but 300 children and families showed up; since then, the event has grown into one of the nation's largest, with hundreds of local organizations now involved in the celebration. They have given away over 150,000 books over the years!
ALA has created a great website for the event with a wealth of resources for libraries planning their own events. You can register your event through the website to receive promotional materials and have your celebration featured on their interactive map.
I especially like the idea of hosting a Día because the celebration stretches way beyond just the Spanish-speaking children in your user population. Not only can it be used to promote children's literacy in general, but also to celebrate the diversity of your library's community, teaching children the importance of respecting other cultures. A win-win!
The next chapter of the book shared some great tips for programming, recommending that librarians always try their best to make sure that events are "accessible, useful, and interesting" for Spanish-speaking populations. Here are a few of the general take-home tips I gathered:
Location: try hosting your first events outside of the library in a community space where your target population already feels comfortable, co-hosting with a community partner to build trust in the library.
Like the librarian in El Paso, take storytime on the road. Consider hosting children's programming in malls, day-cares and schools.
When giving introductions to the library, never assume people already know certain things about libraries.
A bilingual storytime format can boost second language confidence.
Two presenters can read the story (both holding copies of the book), switching back and forth between one presenter reading in English and the other in Spanish.
Or you can try a mixed approach where you enrich the first language with the second language, introducing new words gradually (this works well for highly repetitive stories).
When selecting materials for programming, make sure that the children are able to see themselves reflected in the story. Stories form Latino cultural traditions like La Llorna or El Cucuy are always a good option.
Think about creative ways to incorporate crafts, rhymes, puppets, plays, and food (just like any storytime!).
A Día de los niños/Día de los libros celebration is a must (an entire blog post on the holiday to come...)
Regarding Literacy and Educational programming:
Family Literacy programming: Instill a love of reading within the "family and community tradition."
In El Paso they developed the "Estoy Aprendiendo/I am Learning" program. Hospital employees inform new parents that they can get a free baby t-shirt (which, of course, says "Estoy Aprendiendo" on it) if they go to the library sign their child up for a library card. Librarians then use the opportunity to introduce the parents to the early literacy materials available at the library, while also asking if their other children and the parents themselves have cards.
ESL: Partnerships are key! Look to community colleges and universities for curriculum help.
Cultivate a child-friendly environment. Lack of childcare can be a major barrier to attendance
Keep a policy of open enrollment. Life happens!
Incorporate the library's ESL resources in the curriculum.
A bilingual facilitator can monitor conversational groups between native Spanish-speakers wanting to practice their English and native English-speakers wanting to improve their Spanish.
Computer classes: Offer Spanish-language classes! Keep up to date with Spanish-language search engines like https://espanol.yahoo.com/ and https://www.google.com/intl/es. Email is a highly popular way for Latino patrons to connect with family in other parts of the country/world.
Services to new immigrants can fill a gap within the community:
Host an informal program to help them navigate the community and its services.
And finally, when thinking about other events and celebrations:
Make displays: always tie back to the library's collection and resources!
Create a Día de los Muertos altar for deceased famous authors.
DON'T IMPOSE!!!!
Hispanic Heritage month is September 15th-October 15th: think about planning readings, discussions, lectures, art projects, and movie showings.
Themed book club offerings: for example, the El Paso P.L has the Sor Juana de la Cruz Book Club, which reads Latin American women writers.
The last two chapters of the book focus on outreach, publicity, and general library access.
Highlights of the outreach/PR section included:
Focus on finding out as much as you can about the flow of informal social networks within the community.
Seek out the "connectors" who spread information. Include them in library planning etc. Keep them informed!
Connect with local businesses and community organizations like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, churches, and non-profits. Ask them to share library events and information in their newsletters and on their bulletin boards.
Partner with teachers and school librarians.
Make sure there is a library presence at Latino festivals and gatherings; a "friendly face" and personal contact can go a long way in building trust.
Always keep in contact with Spanish-language media outlets. They are often more interested in cultural programming news than other medias.
Send press releases, ask for PSA spots, and personally invite them to come to library events.
Print promotional materials in Spanish and English, one language on each side rather then interspersed on a single side.
Make sure the translation is as close to the native-speaking level as possible!!!!!!
And in terms of bettering accessibility:
Hang a "Bienvendios, Se Habla Español" sign on the door outside the library if you have bilingual staff.
Directional signs should be either be in the symbol form or bilingual.
Forms and informational materials should be available in Spanish. (See the SOL-PLUS website for ideas)
Educate staff on the importance of Spanish-language services. Offer basic "Library Spanish" trainings.
Make sure that immigrant populations understand that there is no law keeping them from using the library. Accept Mexican Consulate IDs in conjunction with other documentation.
Like I said in my first post on the guide, ¡Bienvenidos¡ is a must read! After reading it cover to cover (besides the Spanish Language Marketplace guide section, of course), I can definitely say I have gained a basic Spanish-language services toolbox that I will be utilizing for my entire career!
After reading ¡Bienvienidos! ¡Welcome¡: A Handy Resource Guide for Marketing Your Library to Latinos, by Susannah Mississippi Byrd, I'd definitely say that this book is an essential for any librarian looking to build a Spanish-services program from the ground up, as well as someone looking to improve their current efforts. Published by the ALA, this easy to read guide has chapters on "responsive collections," programming, outreach, and publicity. The last section of the book is dedicated to a comprehensive guide to the "Spanish Language Marketplace," complete with contact information for wholesalers, distributers, and publishers. My next few posts will detail some of the most salient points from each section of the book starting with the introduction and first two chapters.
In her introduction to the book, former ALA president (2004-2005) and El Paso Public Library Director Carol Brey-Casiano talks about her experience with Spanish-language services in a community that is close to 80% Latino. She tells the story of one of her branch employees who noticed a large group of Hispanic children who would play every day in the park across from the library, but would never come inside. So, she took the library to them, holding storytime and other programs in the park. Eventually she gained their trust--and the trust of their families--convincing them to come inside and make the library a regular part of their daily lives. One the events held in that park was the city's first annual Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros celebration, which has now become one of the nation's largest incarnations of the festival.
The first chapter of the book highlights the initial steps to take towards establishing Spanish-language services. She starts off with some stats to put things into perspective: The U.S. is the second most populous Spanish-speaking country after Mexico. At the time of the writing of this book (2005), the Latino population of the US was larger than the entire population of Canada, which led Byrd to comment that we would never think of the whole country to our North as a "niche market" like we do Latinos here in the US.
Like other authors I have read over the past few weeks, Byrd suggests a community assessment as a jumping off place. How is the library perceived within the community? What are the obstacles to use? What is the language preference? Media venues? Reading interests? Local issues of concern? Where do they gather and share information? How do word of mouth networks flow? Who are the "community leaders and connectors? After your initial analysis, conduct interviews, surveys, and questionnaires. Create an advisory council of community leaders that meets regularly. Continue gathering suggestions by placing a "Sugerencias" box prominently in the library.
Now that you have done your background research, you can move on to collection development concerns. Byrd advocates for what she calls a "responsive collection," a term I particularly like. She writes that as Latinos generally place a high value on being able to maintain customs, an emphasis on culturally relevant materials is key. She details the selection process at the Boulder Public Library in Colorado, where librarians give copies of book catalogs to Latino volunteers, who then bring them out into the community to get input on what to buy. Later, when those community members who helped in the selection process see their choices on the library shelves, they feel a sense of pride and encourage friends and family members to come into the library as well.
Byrd recommends buying books that relate to the Latino experience in the US, both in Spanish and English. Balance translations of English-language materials with books originally written in Spanish. Buy the work of authors from the countries that match the demographics of your Latino population. Films and music from Latin America are always popular, and don't forget the older classics. Keep a constant dialog with distributors, publishers, and users. Starting from scratch? Try a small "test collection." The Queens Library keeps a rotating collection of "tried and true" materials that can be requested by branches for six months to see what is most popular in that particular neighborhood. And finally, follow relevant book awards; they can be a great source of selection and display ideas. Through tips from this guide as well as my other studies, I have complied a "Collection Development" tab at the top of the blog where I've listed some of these awards for both children and adults.
A quick note about a population milestone here in Wisconsin: as I was listening to Wisconsin NPR as I was eating my breakfast this morning I heard a quick news bite about new figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau that show that Hispanics are now the largest minority population (6.34% of the total population) in the state, surpassing African Americans (6.26%) for the first time. As I looked into the story more later in the day, I that the Hispanic population of the state has quadrupled since 1980. Since 2000, Milwaukee, Dane, and Brown County have seen the largest Hispanic population increases. Just another reason to keep increasing our Spanish-language services locally!
To conclude my mini-study of migrant farm workers, I watched a documentary that I had been wanting to see for a while now, The Harvest/La Cosecha. Here is the trailer:
The powerful film tells the story of three child migrant workers, all of which had been working in the fields for basically as long as they could remember. Here in the U.S. each year there are over 400,000 children picking the produce we eat. Both the opening sequence of the film and the trailer present the hard facts: "In some countries children 12 and younger pick crops." "In some countries, children work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week." "The United States is one of those countries." As upstanding, moral citizens of this country, we decry child labor in the Asian factories, but how many of us know about this kind of transgressions in our own country? I definitely had my moment of liberal guilt as I was eating strawberries while I was watching the film. There was a whole scene where one of the girls was complaining about how strawberries were one of the worst crops to pick as you are bent over all day searching for the berries among the leaves. Yes, my berries were organic, so my conscience was clear there, but who had picked them? The physicality of agricultural labor is challenging at any age, let alone for a child. One of the migrant children, Victor, recounted how he carries around 1,500 pounds of tomatoes each day in Florida in the fields. And then at end of the day he carries each pound again unpacking the crates.
And now for some more statistics: Poverty rates for migrant families are two times greater than those of other occupations. The dropout rate for migrant children is four times the national average, as these children are often moving around the country following the harvests with their families from May-November. All of the children in the film talked about how difficult it was come and go from school. Victor said he envied the fact that his younger siblings were able to go to school regularly: "They give us everything there. They have air-conditioning there. There is no air conditioning in the fields." Of the other two other girls in the film, Zulema outright said she didn't think she'd make it to high school, and Perla had already been held back one year. And health-wise? Children are often exposed to dangerous levels of pesticides in the fields; E.P.A. safety regulations are developed based on the average 154 lb. male. But of all the statistics presented in the documentary and on the film's website, the one that struck me the most was this: according to the calculations of a UC Davis researcher, raising the incomes of migrant families by 40% would only add $15 to the yearly produce budget of the average family. Now that's a stark statistic!
Throughout the film, both the children and their parents (and even grandparents!) showed a profound sense of awareness of the cycle they were trapped in, all expressing that they didn't want the same life for their children. Yet, each generation was still deeply embedded in the migrant world; parents bring even their youngest children to the fields because they cannot afford day-care. The most heartbreaking narrative of the film for me was Zulema's fatalism about the whole situation. At the beginning of the film she is asked about her dreams. "Dreams?" she says, "I'm still working on those." At the end of the film, when she is interview again after a year or so has passed, she says "Maybe I'll have goals, but dreams?"
To tie things back to libraries and my studies, I was reminded of the inspirational story of the woman whose life was changed by the bookmobile coming to the migrant camp. The books and ideas it brought to her taught her that there were things to dream about beyond the camps and fields. Watching this film also really hit home for me the idea of migrant workers as a truly "isolated population." Just to logistically figure out how to reach out to these families and make sustainable connections is a huge amount of work as they travel from state to state. It is clear that bringing our services to these families is the best plan of action. I know if may sound a bit idealistic, but I think that libraries are in a key position to make up for some of the ways our other institutions are clearly failing these children (and their families)!
As an add-on to my work surrounding migrant farm workers this week, I also read a 2004 paper on the information seeking habits of migrant populations in the Yakima Valley, written by researchers at the University of Washington Information School. The article introduced the population by stating that immigrants are generally considered to be an "information poor" population, yet overall, little research around their information habits has been conducted. The authors of the study used established Community Technology Centers (CTCs), which I mentioned in my previous post, as a starting point for their research. They completed both field observations and in-depth interviews at the centers and also used CTC testing and intake data. Sidebar: this paper also gave me a better picture of how the CTCs work in Washington. They are often housed in the same buildings as other organizations already providing services for migrant populations, places that are known to be sources of information on a variety of services; this automatically increases the CTCs' credibility and positive perception within the community. The CTCs detailed in this study each had 25 computers, available for both instructional and personal use, in a lab that was open six days a week. When asked about the benefits of the CTCs, respondents talked about a sense of community, an increase in language and technology confidence, homework help for their children, and the ability to communicate with family in their home countries via email. The researchers framed their study around the theories of information habits detailed by Harris and Dewdney and Pettigrew's theory of information grounds. Harris and Dewdney claim that information seeking habits are deeply ingrained and that people tend to seek information from easily accessible sources, which are more often interpersonal than institutional. Pettigrew defines informational grounds as "environment[s] temporarily created when people come together for a singular purpose but from whose behavior emerges a social atmosphere that fosters the spontaneous and serendipitous sharing of information." Examples of these kinds of spaces include barber shops, quilting bees, bus stops etc. Further work on information grounds has detailed the importance of drawing on opinion leaders/gatekeepers to facilitate information flow. In terms of their findings, the researchers detailed a general emphasis on the importance of interpersonal sources, along with the extreme informational influence of Spanish-language radio. Respondents described churches, schools, and workplaces as the most important information grounds; The migrant medical clinic, barber shops and hair salons, a day-care center, and a Pizza Hut were also specifically mentioned as other information sharing locations. Obviously, language was found to be the biggest barrier to information seeking; instead of actively seeking out a translator, many individuals simply wouldn't ask questions, rather waiting until someone helpful came along. One of the greatest information sources for newly arrived immigrants were their family members that had already established themselves in the U.S., along with connections they made in the workplace after they had arrived. Schools were also an important information source, particularly migrant education programs and bilingual teachers who gained the trust of families. As with other immigrant populations, the children of migrant workers often function as a primary information source, which often leads to them also acting as an information barrier to their parents' English-language acquisition. And now, what can we take away from this study in terms if of library services? Well, the findings of this study reaffirmed some of the material I've come across in my other readings, for example, the importance of children as facilitators for drawing the larger community into the library. Along that same line, forming relationships with local schools can be incredibly valuable. In terms of outreach efforts, it is obvious that libraries must seek out the important information grounds for their desired population, often thinking outside of the box of traditional locations. Once those grounds have been defined, it is then key to discover the individuals who act as informational gatekeepers; in communities that revolve around word-of-mouth communication, their value is paramount. I also think that the CTC model can be a great source of inspiration for libraries serving these communities. With a little work and advocacy, there is no reason these populations should continue to be informationally impoverished!
This week I spent some time looking into library services to a specific Spanish-speaking sub-population: migrant farm workers. I started my research off with a power point of the three winning presentations of the REFORMA "Research
At Your Service! ¡Investigaciones
para servirles! Latinos
&
their Information Needs on Center Stage" research competition. One of the presentations, given by Kaitlin Peterson, was entitled "Including
the Culturally Excluded and Socially Forgotten: Information Services for
Spanish Migrant Workers in the United States." The presentation was a great overview of the challenges and successes of serving this population. Peterson starts off by discussing the idea of the "theory of information worlds" as developed by Gary Bune and Paul Jaeger: information behavior is shaped by the influence of our family and friends, as well as "larger social influences;" only a limited number of people, what would be considered truly isolated populations, live in a small information world. Peterson goes on to make the argument that Latino migrant workers constitute one of these isolated populations. Peterson highlights some statistical information (from the Institute of Food and Development Policy) on the population:
There are an estimated two million migrants workers in the US, including 100,000 children.
Of those two million, 2/3 are immigrants, and 80% are Mexican.
The average grade completed is 8th.
35% do not speak English at all.
3/5 of the population lives beneath the poverty line.
From her research, Peterson defined the following information needs of Latino migrant workers: education, employment, health/family planning, housing, legal/political, geographic, consumer information, home, and welfare. These needs are complicated by the following barriers to information seeking: language/literacy, isolation, misunderstanding of legal system, time, transportation, perception of libraries, and most importantly, access, plain and simple. After highlighting a few programs for migrant workers across the US (to be detailed in a later section of the post), Peterson goes on to make a few recommendations for serving this "isolated population" including bringing the resources where they are, partnering with organizations already serving the population, creating relevant library policies for the workers (but being flexible), and most importantly, always, always being an advocate for the information needs of migrant workers.
Once again, the "word of mouth" social network was emphasized as the most important locus of information sharing within the population. Spanish-language radio stations function as an extension of that trend.
Mastery of email was an important learning milestone, increasing personal digital confidence levels and social capital.
Latino migrant workers are looking for family-centered, safe, and respectable social spaces. Marketing public technology centers (and libraries in general) as such can be very effective.
Some specific recommendations for increasing the efficacy of technology services were detailed:
Increasing the availability of quality of media and web-based tutorials that encourage self-directed learning, which would help overcome time barriers common for the population, while also building off of the increase in "mobile uptake" throughout the population.
Building peer- and intergenerational-learning into instruction.
In my research, I came across some specific examples of outreach services to migrant populations including:
Fresno Co. Public Library in California has a bookmobile that stops at migrant farm camps and communities.
The University of Washington and the Department of Education partnered to create "Community Technology Centers" for area workers.
Miami Dade Public Library's Hispanic Branch located in the bottom floor of an affordable housing complex where many workers live.
On a different note, earlier this summer I heard a great Storycorp segment on NPR about just how powerful library outreach can be in migrant camps. As the child of a migrant family, Storm Reyes grew up in a world where books were a luxury, too heavy to carry around from camp to camp. When she was 12 and a bookmobile came to camp, and she couldn't believe that the librarian would give her books of her own. Those books changed her life; she ended up working as a librarian for more than 30 years! On a more personal note, I worked for a Migrant Education program for two summers in the Flathead Valley of Montana, going out into the orchards each afternoon, putting down blankets in the rows between the trees and tutoring the children of the cherry pickers using a math game curriculum. Overall, it was an amazing experience, but I saw first hand the huge amount of logistics that go into just locating, let alone serving the migrant population. It is really clear to me how important partnerships with other organizations would be; my program had a great partnership with a mobile clinic and health care providers. I can also see how well a bookmobile service would work along with other educational programs like the one I was a part of those summers. Instead of having a "build it and they will come" attitude, bringing your services to those isolated populations is clearly much more effective.
Public libraries have been offering adult education classes for immigrant populations from their earliest inception, and today is no different. With drastic budget cuts in recent years, libraries have been picking up the slack left when government agencies were forced to downsize ESL and GED education programs. In terms of Spanish-language adult literacy programming, the Plaza Comunitaria program is a great way for libraries to provide instruction that would transition Spanish-speaking patrons into other adult literacy and ESL programming by giving them a basic educational foundation to build off of. The Mexican Government developed the certified curriculum in 2001 to help Spanish-speakers learn to read and write as well as complete elementary- and intermediate-education. Since 2004, the U.S. Government has had a "Memorandum of Understanding" with the Mexican Government accepting the cirriculm, and now there are 400 programs in the U.S.
In 2005, the Richardson Public Library in the Dallas, TX metro area received a grant from the Texas Library Association which allowed them to establish the library as a Plaza Comunitaria program center. The staff member chosen to run the program was sent to training in Mexico and an agreement was signed giving the library access to the textbooks and testing system developed by the Mexican Government. Today the program runs on an annual budget of around $5,000, which covers printing costs, supplies, institutional materials, and a graduation ceremony with a dinner.
Setting out with the goal of reaching 25 adult students, the library recruited 12 Latino volunteer tutors who would run two hour study groups each week. Tutors were trained through materials from the Plaza program and local literacy organizations. The program was advertised throughout the Spanish-speaking community of Dallas and by the end of 2006, there were 100 registered students. Today, the programs serves and average of 200 students a year. The textbooks, which are all grounded in life/work skills, take an average of 1-3 months to work through (besides the basic literacy textbook, which takes a year); twelve books count as the completion of one educational level. The program is not limited to only study time however: past programs have included workshops and seminars on everything from computers and finance to health and civic literacy, as well as field trips to museums and author lectures.
In terms of program success, partnerships with local organizations have been key. The library partnered with the Richardson Independent School District After School Program, which provided the services of two paid teachers. The Richardson Adult Literacy Center has also been another important partner. Of course, the library encountered some obstacles along the way. The program has had an overall retention rate of 70%, as family and work issues often get in the way of coursework. The basic literacy program only has a retention rate of 50%, as the curriculum is especially rigorous and requires more investment. Lack of space and trained tutors has also been an issue. The library has found that visiting local professional and cultural associations has been a good recruitment method for tutors; many former students also have gone on to become tutors.
Continuing education and the cultivation of all levels of literacy have always been a key part of the mission of our public libraries, and there is no reason that a library's Spanish-language services can't reflect that goal as well. I think that the fact that the Plazas program is established by the Mexican Government is a great way to draw Spanish-speakers into the library, while also providing them with a method for reaching their educational goals that is certified in both their home country as well as their adopted country.
Since its inception in 1987, the Fería Internacional del Libro has brought together authors, academics, professionals, and representatives of the book industry for nine days each year. In 2013, close to 660,000 individuals attended the Festival, and over 1,900 publishing houses from 43 countries were represented. The event is the second largest book festival in the world after the Frankfurt Buchmesse in Germany. This year, the event will be held November 29th-December 7th and programming will highlight the cultural contributions of Argentina. Besides the obvious shared interest of books, why should U.S. librarians be interested in FIL? Well, first of all, the Festival is known to be a fertile ground for professional networking, purchasing information, and introduction to authentic materials for all librarians serving Spanish-speaking populations. For the past 13 years, the ALA has recognized and promoted those opportunities through their "Free Pass" program, which covers some of the costs associated with the Festival, including registration, three nights of lodging, and $100 towards airfare. This year the deadline for application in September 1st, and 150 librarians will be awarded the benefits! ALA also has a presence at the event each year: they host a gala dinner and also organize the Salon de Novedades, an exhibit where 3,000 new books selected by ALA members are displayed and organized by DDC classification. The benefits of attending FIL are clear: In an American Libraries article from 2012, Oregon librarian John Hunter, who serves a user population that is 60% Hispanic, was quoted as saying "Attending FIL has made all the difference to our collection.” Attendees are able to purchase authentic materials unavailable from U.S. vendors. And if you don't speak Spanish, there is no need to worry, guides/translators are available for a 10-20% fee.
Ever since I first heard about FIL through a presentation René Bue, the Outreach Coordinator at the Hedberg Public Library, gave to the UW SLIS REFORMA club, I've been looking forward to attending someday! I've visited Guadalajara before and it truly is a lovely city, and with ALA making it that much easier make the trip again, along with the opportunity to explore timeless and popular trends in Spanish-language materials, how I could I miss it?
REFORMA, or The National Association to Promote
Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking, is an ALA
affiliate that was established in 1971 to act as a professional support
organization for librarians who serve Hispanic populations. Today there
are 21 chapters across the country who share common goals of:
"Development of Spanish-language and Latino-oriented library collections
Recruitment of bilingual, multicultural library personnel
Promotion of public awareness of libraries and librarianship among Latinos
Advocacy on behalf of the information needs of the Latino community
Liaison to other professional organizations"
In order to meet those goals, REFORMA has various initiatives in place:
Newsletter: A great way to keep up to date with programming trends and general news relating to Spanish-language library services.
Scholarships and Awards: REFORMA usually offers multiple scholarships each year to Library Science students who are interested in serving Spainish-speaking populations. They also offer a Librarian of the Year Award as well as a Lifetime Achievement award.
Pura Belpré Awards: Named for Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian in the NYPL system who was also an inspiring storyteller and children's author, the award is presented annually to a Latino/a author and illustrator whose work "best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth." The Award is co-sponsored with the Association for Library Service to Children and lists of current and past winners can serve as a valuable collection development tool for Spanish-language and culture children's materials.
Noche de Cuentos Mini-Grant: I plan on doing an entire post on this family literacy initiative developed by REFORMA, but basically, the event is celebrated yearly in conjunction with World Storytelling Day. Storytelling workshops and events are used as a tool to promote the preservation of culture as well as develop literacy skills. REFORMA offers grants to libraries across the country who want to put on Noche de Cuentos programming.
Mentoring program: “Seasoned librarians” with a wealth of experience serving Latino populations are paired with less experienced librarians interested in bettering the Spanish-language services at their library. The program is a two year commitment.
The benefits of the REFORMA support system are clear with even just a brief introductory browsing of the website; I definitely plan on getting involved in the organization in my future professional life!
Today I spent some time looking into the fascinating niche publishing world of Fotonovelas and Historietas, which for all purposes, are basically adult Spanish-language comic books. These comics, which have always been an important part of the Mexican and Latin American "popular reading tradition," make up an estimated 12% of the materials read by Mexican adults. Similar to "pulp ficiton" genres, fotonovelas and historietas feature cowboy, romance, and detective themes along with other general soap opera-worthy subject matter. "Historieta" is the traditional term for what we usually think of as a comic book, whereas the fotonovela originally featured photo stills from films and soap operas (but now the terms are generally used interchangeably). The comics are also called "libros de bosillo" because their small size (around 4"x4") allows workers to carry them around throughout the day in their pockets; which is another reason why they are considered "the poor man's novel." After publication, it is estimated that each comic is read by around five people; in addition to rental programs at local used book sellers, they are often resold at stands in public markets. Government agencies and other organizations have even used the format as an outreach tool. For example, the Mexican government published a series of fotonovelas to educate Mexican migrants on the dangers of the border crossing and health service organizations like the Rural Woman's Health Project in Florida have developed special comics that incorporate pressing health issues like HIV and diabetes.
So what does this have to do with public libraries? Well, libraries across the country have been adding fotonovelas and historietas to their Spanish-language collections, tapping the comics' potential to bring new users into the library. According to Cynthia Houston, author of "Fotonovelas and Historietas: Adult Comic Books from Mexico in American Libraries," an essay featured in Library Services for Multicultural Patrons: Strategies to Encourage Library Use, these comics serve to maintain the "functional literacy" of people who can read and write but don't necessarily have the opportunity to do so daily. REFORMA promotes the collection of fotonovelas and a search of Worldcat returns close to 1,800 titles under the subject heading of "Fotonovela." Due to their flimsy and serial nature, many libraries create only one catalog record for the entire collection and they are best displayed in CD rack displays rather than being shelved with the regular magazine collection. Popular series include El libro vaquero, Aventuras de vaqueros, Frontera violenta (Westerns), El libro sentimental, El libro semanal, Amores y amantes (focusing on relationships and other middle and upper class urban soap opera topics) and El libro policiaco (urban dectective stories). Currently, Latin American Periodicals is the only provider of fotonovelas to libraries. Many copies can be browsed at Popular Print: Hermosillo, which can prevent the unintended collection of more scandalous comics like this one. As we can see from the example linked above, many fotonovelas contain graphic images and subject matter, and there entire sub-genres like the fotonovela roja or verde which are known to be violent and/or semi-pornographic. The popularity of these racier comics was actually the impe tus behind a change in format; the comics came to be published in a smaller size so they could easily be concealed behind a newspaper. These controversial subject materials, along with anti-immigrant sentiment, caused an uproar at the Denver Public Library in 2005, when a Republic state representative and an anti-immigrant group brought complaints against the library's fotonovelas (which had been a part of the Spanish-language collection for 15 years), even asking the director of the library to resign over the issue. Since the library only had one catalog record per branch (as mentioned previously), they ended up reviewing the whole 6,500 item collection. Unfortunately, it was clear that the controversy less about the actual content and more about the fear of attracting undocumented Latino migrants to the area by developing special collections and services for them at the library (not to mention the group's anger over the population benefitting from tax-payer money). In the end, the Denver Public Library ended up canceling their subscriptions to four of the fourteen series featured in the collection. Library spokesperson Diane Schieman- Christman was quick to note that "similar English-language books have also been found, but no complaints have been made against those publications," stating, "We have millions of items in our collection, and our job is to strike a balance and serve a diverse community. We aren't going to do any reviews unless there is a request for reconsideration."
As I am a huge advocate for libraries collecting the materials that are actually popular with their user-base, I hope that fotonovelas will spread to more libraries across the country; their ability to engage Spanish-speaking populations is clear. There will always be those nay-sayers that challenge hundreds of items in our public libraries and schools each year, and we librarians and educators can't let it discourage us from carrying out our democratic mission to spread knowledge and information!
In my final posting about Library Services for Multicultural Patrons: Strategies to Encourage Library Use, I'll be highlighting a series put on by the Greenburgh Public Library Westchester County, NY. The library set out to create a programming that would highlight the culture and talent of local Latinos, simultaneously welcoming the community's Hispanic population into the library and also increasing cross-cultural understanding in the community as a whole.
The programs were held weekly over 4-6 week periods. Although they started out thinking it would only be one-time series, a third year of programs has already been funded and planned. There have even been off-shoot programs that developed from the series, like a series on Spanish cooking and a Spanish-English conversation group.
Why "Café at Seven"? The programs were held at seven, always with coffee and light refreshments. Also, the idea of the café as a social gathering place was appealing to librarians.
The programs have been funded each year by matching funds grants from the local branch of the NY Council of the Arts, ranging from $1,000-1,600. The Friends Group provides money for the refreshments.
They try to alternate between a musical event and another kind of event each week. Past themes have included bilingual health fairs, cooking demonstrations, art workshops put on by local artisans, movie showings, and book discussions.
In addition to often agreeing to perform for reduced rates, musical performers often bring contacts from their professional networks into the library for the events, increasing the attendance and diversity at the events.
PR: The library designed a colorful, special logo for the series that they used in all the materials and advertising associated with the event. Through a partnership with the local photographic society, the librarians hung posters around the library featuring pictures of each event taken by society members. Besides multi-lingual media outlets, they also really emphasized word of mouth marketing (obviously that will be a huge takeaway message for me from all these readings!), encouraging staff to mention the events often, as well as asking known Latino patrons to spread the world within the community.
Multiple local restaurants were happy to donate food for the events, and some patrons also happily volunteered to share their cooking.
Each year the final event is a concert featuring the same local band, with a "special fiesta atmosphere" with patrons and employees dancing.
Overall, I think the idea of a series of programs can be a particularly good idea, creating a sense of continuity from year to year; I liked the emphasis on creating a special logo for the series. I also got excited about the musical possibilities; I think music should be more present in public libraries in general! And of course, as other case studies have pointed out, food is a huge draw. If you are going to bring people in with food, you might as well do it right instead of just buying grocery store cookies and artificially flavored "fruit punch." I think we should all think about public libraries as a place where "fiestas" can and should happen!
Library Services for Multicultural Patrons: Strategies to Encourage Library Use features and essay that details the English Conversation Clubs organized by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina. In order to fill in the gaps left by ESL classes offered in the city, the library formed its own weekly "conversation club" with the objective of providing "an informal, fun, and safe learning environment in which participants can practice their English speaking and listening skills (p. 285)." They also hoped the clubs would increase respect for other cultures in the community and increase library use in non-traditional user populations.
The "clubs" were held weekly, running 1-1.5 hours, and hosted at several library locations.
Meetings also included potluck luncheons and cultural events.
Since January of 2008, they have had over 200 participants, with over 20 countries represented.
The average group size is 14.
In addition to group facilitators focusing on a topic such as sports, holidays, movies, navigating the school system etc., participants also bring topics or objects to share like current events, photos, and family keepsakes, which increases bonding and comfort levels.
They promote the classes through the library website, flyers, local multi-lingual media channels, ESL classes, social media, and of course (and most importantly!) word of mouth.
When members first come to the meetings, they are asked to fill out a intake form for basic demographic data collection. Members take a before and after survey for evaluation purposes.
The library has come across some challenges along the way including:
Child care: many participants arrive with their children. The library soon realized it was a good idea to schedule children's programming for the same time as the conversation groups.
Finding a time of day that worked best for the community: in the end, weekday mornings worked best.
Varied ability levels: if possible, you can divide the group by level and have a more advanced group member lead the less advanced group.
Evaluation methods: self-reported comfort levels were deemed to be the best method of measure.
Budget: in 2010, the funding cuts forced the library to decrease its staff by half. Fortunately, community volunteers stepped up and became group facilitators.
Along the way, lessons were learned, including the popularity of events focused around food, the importance of being flexible in facilitation and topic planning, and the effectiveness of introducing group members to other library resources.
As the author points out multiple times throughout the essay, this kind of service is just another extension of the public library mission of information sharing, literacy, and life-long education. And along the way, it's likely you'll create that "library habit" in a whole new user group who will always remember the impact the institution had on their life journey, a win-win!
Another relevant case study from Library Services for Multicultural Patrons: Strategies to Encourage Library Use highlights the outreach experience of the Orange Country Library System in Orlando. Of the 1.1 million residents of the region in central Florida, 26.9% of the population was Hispanic. In 2010, the library system received an IMLS grant to improve their Spanish-language services. Here are some highlights of how they spent the funds:
Materials Acquisition (67% of the funds awarded)
In terms of collection development, they added books, media, databases, and software to their collection. The system purchased "playaway" players with Spanish-langauge audiobooks loaded onto them, as well as over 600 digital titles to be added e-collection. They also subscribed to a Spanish-language version of Freegal called "Freegal Música Gratis," (which received very low use, so they ended up returning to the regular subscription to the English version). In terms of ESL materials, they bought the highly recommended Ingles sin barreras program and the Words for Work series, and in terms of job seeking resources, they subscribed to the Career Cruising database. And finally, to guide patrons in the use of these resources, the library created a "user-interest page" to gather information about and links to the new materials.
Patron Resource Education
In order to get the word out about the new Spanish-language services they were offering, the library developed the "¡Soy Culto!" or "I am Cultured" campaign, which featured slogans like "Yo soy músico. Y la biblioteca es mi DJ" ("I am a musician, and the library is my DJ!") and "Yo soy Bilingüe. ¡Y mi biblioteca también!" (I am bilingual, and my library is too!). Promotional materials featured actual library employees. They also developed a texting service to update patrons about library events, which was advertised on buses and through Spanish-language newspapers and radio stations.
Focus Groups to "Identify Barriers to Service"
With the help of a local business development consultant, the library surveyed 228 residents of the library service area, and then invited 13 of those individuals to attend a special focus group. Here are some of the takeaway points from those interactions:
Even though many members of the population speak English, there is a greater sense of community and connection when Spanish is used.
"Free time" is often a limited and valued commodity dedicated to "family time." Library programming was competing with outdoor activities.
Word of mouth plays a huge role in getting people into the library.
The library partnered with the University of Central Florida to develop ESL classes. In the process of designing the classes, educators completed an analysis of what was already being taught in existing ESL classes at local schools. They found that many adults had already completed classes that developed English skills that were sufficient for basic daily interactions, but they still lacked the vocabulary necessary for post-secondary education, promotion at work etc. Program designers developed these new ESL classes to better meet those needs.
Through the overall implementation process, the library system learned some important takeaway lessons that we can all benefit from including:
Don't just translate library material, instead "trans-create" it. A slogan in English often doesn't have the same cleverness etc. when directly translated. Shape campaigns around the culture and language.
Using staff members in promotional materials proved quite successful. Members of the community were able to come in to the library and see employees that were already familiar to them through the ads, feeling as if they were "their" library workers.
By focusing on family programming rather than just "adult" or "children's," the library was able to increase attendance and attract larger groups to their events. A "Superhero Saturday" event was particularly popular, with many adults as eager as the children to meet the costumed characters from the local comic-book store.
Despite the many hours of time investment, including outside homework, the ESL classes were always at full enrollment, due a great part to word of mouth advertising and the fact that the library marketed the University developed program as "a free course that was worth paying for ."
Besides the low use of the Spanish-language version of Freegal, the texting service was the other failed experiment. As we saw in the "Digital Divide" statistics from the Pew Hispanic Trends Project, Latinos are well-connected in terms of mobile phones, and the library approached their advertising strategy with those numbers in mind. Unfortunately, sign-up rates for the texting advertising service were quite low. Instead the library found out that old-fashioned person-to-person contact, especially with a teacher leading a group, was much more effective.
In her essay from Library Services for Multicultural Patrons: Strategies to Encourage Library Use, Ashley Ansah details one outreach method that I found particularly interesting. As a teen librarian for the Des Moines Public Library system working, she found that one of the best ways to encourage library usage among immigrant families in the area was though her outreach efforts with local middle school ESL classes. When Ansah first started at the library they already had already established decent multicultural outreach efforts including multi-lingual signage and library forms/brochures, patron involvement in collection development, and adult ESL classes. But, the library still wasn't connecting to the diverse populations they were trying to serve; all the efforts were "in-house." She cited problems of ethnocentrism. For example, a group of teens are having a loud conversation in the lobby of the library, instead of immediately scolding them as if they should have know better, think to yourself, "have I ever told them this is inappropriate library behavior?" Turn the moment into a teaching opportunity; other cultures have different relationships with the institution of the public library.
Ansah saw an opportunity in reaching out to local ESL classes. She brought classes in to the library for a basic tour and card sign-up. She organized a simple scavenger hunt to illustrate DDC organization. In the following weeks, a stream of immigrant adults came into the library, following the teens. One of the things that Ansah attributes to the adults sudden presence in the library was the fact that the teens had asked many of the questions about the library that adults wouldn't usually ask like "How much does using the library cost?" or "Why do you need a photo ID and proof of address to get a card?" With those questions answered, parents, guardians, and other members of the community felt much more comfortable utilizing library resources and services.
After these initial connections are made, Ansah recommends a few tips for maintaining good relationships. Learn more about patrons' home countries and cultures. Never assume that what we think of as basic library behavior and usage is innate; for example, use more familiar words like "return" instead of "due date" and "more time" instead of "renewal." Take all questions seriously. And learn as many names as you can. It helps teens (in her case) understand that you see them as individuals rather than than just lumping them into a category like "teen" or "Latino." It also can take some of the "anonymity" out of the actions of some of the more disruptive teens. She closes the essay by recommending that finding the "right" ESL teacher for your partnership can be the most important first step, because that teacher will be a "walking advertisement for why multicultural teens and their families depend on public libraries."
As an important takeaway here, I think it's thoughtful advice to think about targeting certain demographics within your target outreach population, always thinking as specific as possible. Know your community, but also know the communities within those communities!
