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.
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