Community Building and Latino Families

Active and engaged involvement with community groups is central to community building by librarians.[1] The groups will vary depending on each community's demographics, but identifying and collaborating with grassroots organizations is the foundation of extending library service. Librarians will want to monitor the releases of the 2000 census scheduled for June-September 2001 to ascertain changing community demographics.[2] This column provides an ongoing space to discuss community building in libraries throughout the United States. In this issue the work of Marcela Villagran, Spanish Outreach Specialist in Oregon's Multnomah County, which includes Portland, is presented in her own words, describing the LIBROS Program. Multnomah County's population numbered more than thirty thousand Latinos in the 1997 census update, part of the 66 percent increase in Oregon's Latino population since the 1990 census.[3] Community building where populations are diverse requires librarians able to make exceptions to traditional practice as outlined by Martin Gomez in his article, "Who is Most Qualified to Serve Our Ethnic-Minority Communities?"[4] To understand the specific needs of Latino communities means that culturally competent librarians supported by resources that help activate the community's participation are required. Several recent publications provide background, notably the article "Latinos and Librarianship" in Library Trends (Summer, 2000); and the monographs, Library Services to Latinos, Library Services to Youth of Hispanic Heritage, and Serving Latino Communities.[5] Additionally, support for serving Latino populations comes from the activities of REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, which promotes the development of library collections to include Spanish-language and Latino-oriented materials and library services and programs that meet the needs of the Latino community.[6]--Editor LIBROS Program Expands to Serve More Latino Families in Multnomah County Multnomah County Library is targeting services to the Latino community. With a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Oregon State Library in July 1998, the library hired me--a Spanish outreach specialist--to coordinate its Library Outreach in Spanish (LIBROS) program. After seventeen months of working with Latino families, a library team developer and I wrote a proposal to the library executive team to continue the LIBROS program and improve our services to Spanish-speaking families in our community. The executive team agreed to continue the LIBROS program and created an administrative team to oversee it. This team's goals are to design a recommended service approach, deploy the approved program to the target population, and administer and develop over the next five years a program of service for the target population. Dia de los Ninos One of the largest bilingual programs Multnomah County Library has offered in the past two years has been "Dia de los Ninos y Dia de los Libros, A Celebration of Childhood and Bilingual Literacy." From 10 A.M. to 8 P.M. on April 27, 2000, more than thirty-five hundred people came to our Gresham Branch Library for the second annual celebration. Volunteers served refreshments, some children won prizes and all children received books and T-shirts. XS Dance, featuring high school students affiliated with the Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement, performed. Local artist Yolanda Valdes gave an art workshop, Puerto Rican author Carmen Bernier-Grand read stories and talked with youth about writing, and Cha Cha the clown did magic tricks. LIBROS worked with art teachers from three local high schools to showcase student artwork in the library during April. LIBROS worked with students from middle and high schools and community colleges throughout the county to plan events for the day. …