Idaho Commission for Libraries

Addressing Language and Cultural Barriers

In the last decade, Idaho's Hispanic population increased 45 percent for a population (in 1993) of 53,000. Estimates of the temporary migrant farmworker population range from an additional 40,000 to 120,000 Hispanics each season. [Idaho Legal Aid Services figures]

A survey of Hispanic farm workers conducted by the Department of Employment indicated that 94 percent spoke only Spanish and that 81 percent of those who spoke only Spanish wanted to learn English.

Hispanic youth remain the most undereducated major segment of the U.S. Population. Among Hispanic youth 18-24, only 55 percent have completed high school, compared to 75 percent of blacks and 82 percent of whites. [Spectrum article, Summer 1994]

A growing number of Idaho families are unable to communicate in English and as a result have difficulty using the library. That said, it is also important to keep in mind that Idaho's Spanish-speaking population is diverse and that not all Hispanics are Mexican by birth.

• Suggested ideas for providing better service to your community
• Books available from the State Commission
• Internet resources
• Sources of Spanish language materials

Below are some suggested ideas for providing better service to your community

• Hire bilingual library personnel. Recruit and mentor applicants. Set up summer internships for diverse students. Encourage interested staff to take advantage of scholarship opportunities like the American Library Association's Spectrum Scholarships.
• Recruit bilingual volunteers to help present youth programs to non-English-speaking families.
• Develop youth collections that reflect the language needs of the community and adjust purchases based on changing demographic trends.
• Conduct a survey to assess the programming and materials needs of families who are not proficient in English.
• Provide signs in the library in all relevant languages. Utilize banners and signs in other languages outside the library too.
• Offer opportunities for library staff to improve their interactions with non-English-speaking families. Set up workshops to teach basic foreign phrases, nonverbal communication skills, and cultural sensitivity.
• Contact leaders of ethnic groups in the community and explain what library services and materials are available for children. This can be accomplished through clubs, religious groups, community organizations, schools, and day-care centers.
• Make regular public service announcements through the appropriate media explaining the concept of a free public library and its purposes. Utilize radio, television, magazines, and newspapers published and broadcast in languages other than English to announce upcoming library programs and activities for young people.
• Publish brochures in languages other than English explaining library services for children. Distribute the brochures to locations frequented by non-English-speaking families, such as medical clinics, English classes, and businesses serving ethnic populations.
• Have a bilingual staff member or volunteer visit day-care facilities, schools, and parent groups to educate about the importance of reading aloud and what the library offers as well as assessing community needs.
• Offer meeting space and materials for English-as-a-second-language classes and tutoring.
• Work with, or form a community coalition of businesses, organizations, churches, schools, agencies and groups serving the same population. Share ideas, support and resources.
• If your library has a bookmobile, consider visiting appropriate areas during early evening hours.
• Get involved in special events that involve the entire community. Sponsor a library table or booth at county fairs, back-to-school registrations, cultural events and even sidewalk sale days in your community.
• Purchase Spanish and bilingual videotapes and Latino CDs and audiocassettes.
• Provide newspapers and magazines from native countries or in other languages. Have biographies of famous Latinos available.
• Recruit guest speakers or program presenters who are leaders in the Hispanic community. Invite someone whom the library helped adapt to life in America to join you as a speaker. Ask someone who speaks English as a second language who uses your library on a regular basis to help with a presentation or just for advise on how to help market library services. If you have local Hispanic writers or storytellers available, try to get them involved.
• Distribute bilingual "Let's Go to the Library" coloring books to families during health clinic visits, to English-as-a-Second-Language teachers to provide to students, and other places where you can get the message across.
• Develop a policy for nonresident library cards. Consider offering cards in four-month increments.
• Additional things to remember: when you target children, you reach families; the word "free" is powerful in every language; keep using your winning ideas and build on them; and commitment is the secret to success -- get your board members behind the idea and keep trying new ways to reach out to your community.

Books Available from the State Commission

Directory of Resources on Library Services to the Spanish Speaking, American Library Association, 1993 (027.63 DIRECTO)

Habla Espanol? No, But I Can Try to Help You: Practical Spanish for the Reference Desk, by Patricia Promis. Reference and Adult Services Division, American Library Association, 1991 (468 PROMIS)

Latino Librarianship: A Handbook for Professionals, McFarland & Co., 1990 (027.6 LATINO)

Library Services for Hispanic Children: A Guide for Public and School Librarians, Oryx Press, 1987 (027.63 LIBRARY)

Periodical articles:

"Are We Childproofing Our Public Libraries? Identifying the Barriers That Limit Library Use by Children," by Judith Dixon. Public Libraries, January/February 1996, p. 50-56

"Media Center and Hispanic Children," Allen. Library Trends, Winter 1993.

"Se Lea Espanol Aqui," by Barbara Hoffert. Library Journal, July 1992, p.34-37.

Internet Resources

Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents http://www.csusm.edu/cwis/campus_centers/csb/english/center.htm. Contains a list of recommended books, professional books, publishers, and related sites.

Twenty-five multicultural books every child should know http://www.soemadison.wisc.edu/ccbc/25mult.htm#repro. From the Cooperative Children's Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sources of Spanish Language Titles

For more information on Hispanic concerns in Idaho, contact the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs at http://www.state.id.us/icha/index.htm

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