The Idaho Commission for Libraries is excited to bring you our first Bilingual Resource Letter. The hope for this blogpost is to create a document that holds important dates, information, digital resources, and even some materials you all will be able to order to help with your programs! If you find yourself needing more information for any of the material you see below, please contact me, the Bilingual/Bicultural Project Coordinator Ismael Mendoza Medina. You can also contact our Youth Services Project Coordinator Kristina Taylor. Both contacts can be found at the bottom of the post. This document will also be located on our website on our Bicultural Services tab under ICfL Programs.

Here we have a list of important dates that include special holidays, events, and grants to keep an eye out for!
• June 21 at 1 p.m. MT marks the return of our LITT: Latinx series where we discuss important issues regarding our Latinx patrons. We will be talking about summer slide within the Latinx community and hear from others about what they have done. We will be having Latinx LITT chats every other month, so if you can’t make this one, watch out for the next one in August!
• September 15 marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month as well as the release of the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs Hispanic Heritage Month Cookbook! The cookbook is filled with Latinx leaders who are part of amazing organizations that would be great to connect with! Just like last year, we hope to order some extras to be able and give out to our libraries. If you would like to be on the list to receive one, please contact Ismael Mendoza!
• August 26 – September 18 is the tentative time to submit proposals for Reforma’s Noche de Cuentos Mini-Grant Application of $300. For the Reforma grants, you must be a Reforma member. The purpose of this grant is to encourage families in ethnically diverse communities to read and learn together to help preserve the art of storytelling within our Latinx communities in the U.S. You can learn more here.
• November 30 is the ICfL’s deadline for the Welcoming Libraries Grant. The $1,000 grant is available to Idaho public, school, or tribal libraries working with children ages 0-18. The grant focuses on supporting activities that improve equity, diversity, and inclusion in libraries to better serve Idaho’s underserved groups of children.
• January 18 – February 18, 2024 is the tentative time to submit proposals for Reforma’s Día Mini-Grant Application of $500. For the Reforma grants, you must be a Reforma member. The purpose of this grant is to help you plan your own Día de los Niños event during the month of April.
• April 30, 2024 is the date for the ICfL’s second Día de los Niños event! You can see more about the event on our DDLN Webpage.

We would also like to highlight some of the digital resources that are available for you to use.
• The Idaho Public Television Read to Learn Videos are great for parents of incoming kindergartners to focus on new skills with their children. Under this resource, if you scroll down the page, you will see “PBS KIDS for Parents en Espanol.” There you will find more than 150 resources in Spanish that are digital or able to be printed!
• Staff of the Nampa Public Library have created videos to help parents get their children ready for kindergarten. The K ready videos can be found on their YouTube channel. The videos are bilingual. After hearing the instructions in English, you will then hear them in Spanish.
• Another robust resource is the ICfL’s IDEA collection. There are more than 21,000 e-book titles, of which, approximately 700 are in Spanish. Here are instructions to get to those Spanish e-books. Go to idea.overdrive.com, click “search,” click “Advanced >,” and choose “Spanish; Castilian” under languages, then click the “Search” in the purple rectangle. Now you can see a complete list of the available Spanish titles.
• Here is a resource geared for librarians. The “Core Collection en Español” is a tool to provide impartial collection development guidance and to assist library staff who are trying to establish and grow their Spanish collection. To find it, you must go to lili.org, click the dropdown bar that says, “User Groups,” click “Recursos En Español” and then click “Go,” Core Collections en Español should be the first option. We also recommend looking at the other resources if you can!
• Each year, the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs releases a Hispanic Profile Data Book for Idaho. This report provides trends and statistics on Idaho’s Latinx population. This has been a very useful tool for examining demographics and learning more about the growing Latinx community here in Idaho. If you would like a copy, please email Ismael Mendoza Medina.
• The Texas Library Association has the Tejas Star Reading List, which has been updated for 2023-2024. This is a great resource for improving your Spanish collection and checking out some new titles.

Another exciting resource is ICfL’s Early Literacy Support Materials Store! All the materials are free (including shipping) for Idaho public and school libraries, so we highly encourage you all to take a look. Many of these materials are available in Spanish or in an English-Spanish bilingual version. Aside from the store, we have connected with other agencies to bring you all additional support materials that we feel may be beneficial. In addition to this blogpost, there will be a separate flyer featuring different educational materials and descriptions that you can find here under our Bilingual Materials Page. If there is anything you would like added, please email Ismael Mendoza Medina. Please allow us at least two weeks to fulfill your order.

Sincerely,

Ismael Mendoza Medina
ismael.mendoza@libraries.idaho.gov
Kristina Taylor
kristina.taylor@libraries.idaho.gov