Presents practical information for librarians serving Spanish-speaking people, providing historical background on various Spanish-speaking cultures and their library trends, and covering adult services, preschool to elementary children, middle grade students, teenagers, communication with patrons, and Internet resources.
As the United States becomes ever more comfortable with recognizing the cultural diversity of the many groups that make up its population, library services must seek to meet patrons' needs as they are shaped and expressed by their cultural backgrounds. This goal is particularly important for youth library services. For young people of Hispanic heritage, library services attuned to their specific needs and interests are crucial. Many librarians struggle with how to properly create and maintain library programs and collections that are suitable to the needs of Hispanic youth. In this series of essays prepared for the Trejo Foster Foundation for Hispanic Library Education Fourth National Institute, national leaders in librarianship present their insights about how best to meet the needs of young Hispanic library patrons. The text is introduced by the editors, and the essays are arranged in parts: Programs; Collections; Planning and Evaluating; Bibliographical Resources; and For the Future. Information about the contributors and an index conclude the volume.
If your library serves a Latino population, you'll want this book. It will help you better serve the needs of Spanish-speaking patrons of all ages. The author gives background information on various Hispanic groups, explaining some of the cultural differences that can lead to misunderstanding. She then offers a variety of program and collection building ideas. A list of distributors of Spanish-language materials-books, periodicals, AV materials, computer and other educational resources-is provided, as well as Web site addresses of Spanish-language sites. Vocabulary lists for library and computer-related words and phrases and guidelines for correctly writing Spanish words are also included.
This anthology of 17 professional readings provides effective strategies for serving Latinos in the library. These selected case studies focus on the organization and expansion of Spanish-language collections, meeting the demands of Latino children, eliminating cultural and linguistic barriers, and developments in electronic resources and the World Wide Web, among other topics. This work will help stimulate discussion about some of the pressing professional issues of relevance to Latino librarians, such as leadership development, outreach, recruitment and mentorship.
In 1996, nearly 40 million United States citizens were reported to be living in poverty. This enormous number set in conjunction with the rapid growth in demand for more information technology presents librarians with a wrenching dilemma: how to maintain a modern facility while increasing services to the economically disadvantaged. Karen Venturella has gathered a diverse group of librarians and facilitators--including Khafre Abif, head of Children's Services for the Mount Vernon Public Library in New York; Wizard Marks, who directs the Chicago Lake Security Center in its mission to improve the area; Lillian Marrero, who has concentrated on providing services to the Spanish speaking population; Kathleen de la Pena McCook, director of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida; and 15 others--to find strategies for dealing with the current crisis of disparity. These writers address both the theoretical issues of ensuring access to information regardless of ability to pay, and the practical means for meeting the needs of low income populations. Appendices include the ALA's "Policy on Library Services to Poor People," "The Library Bill of Rights," and a listing of poverty-related organizations.