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This article is an excerpt from ¡Bienvenidos! ¡Welcome!, by Susannah Mississippi Byrd, published by ALA Editions.
Librarians have always shared their resources and experience. [Byrd's] book draws heavily on the experience of libraries in
predominantly Latino communities to share advice for those who are just beginning to serve Latino populations. Readers will
benefit from reading the entire guide, but will also want to use it as a reference tool from time to time. With that in mind,
I have drawn what I consider to be the most important “lessons learned”—from both this guide and my own experience.
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Know your community (I cannot stress this enough).
...[D]aily involvement with your community is critical in any situation, but particularly when you are just beginning to serve
a particular facet of the community.
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Assess your community’s needs.
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Conduct focus groups, interviews and surveys.
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Get involved! Join community groups that will allow you to interact with people in your neighborhood.
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Take advantage of the many resources (both human and otherwise) available to you.
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Join REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking. I
have been a member for over ten years, and have benefitted enormously from the many resources available from REFORMA—particularly
the newsletter and REFORMAnet, an online discussion list.
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Visit the Spanish-language book fairs, such as the Féria Internacional del Libro (FIL) in Guadalajara or other locations.
The American Library Association has a wonderful program available to help defray the cost of attending the FIL, held in late
November/early December each year.
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Attend the Foro, AMBAC, and other conferences of interest that will bring you in contact with librarians from México and other
Latin American countries. Much of what I have learned about the Latino populations I am serving in this country came from
my interaction with my generous colleagues across the border.
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Learn the language—it is the most important bridge you can build.
People in El Paso are constantly surprised when their library director—clearly a gringa—can communicate in their language.
I have been invited to speak at community meetings conducted primarily in Spanish, and I am interviewed frequently by the
Spanish-language media here—which, by the way, is watched and listened to significantly more than the English-language media!
There is no better way to get your message out to the community about the library services and programs available.
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Recruit library staff—including librarians—from your community.
“Grow your own” librarians if you are not successful in recruiting them from other places. There are many scholarship opportunities
available, such as the American Library Association Spectrum Initiative that provides graduate level library school scholarships
for people of color. The library profession still has work to do to reach the diversity levels of the communities we serve.
In 2001-2002, 4,119 people received their master’s degree in library science—but only 3% of those individuals were Latino.
(See Isabel Espinal. “Wanted: Latino Librarians,” Críticas, An English Speaker’s Guide to the Latest Spanish Language Titles, September/October 2003, Vol. 3, No. 5.)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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