Spanish-Language Collections Come of Age
Críticas's first survey of U.S. public libraries shows that work still needs to be done, but for Spanish speakers the public libraries have never looked better.
by Barbara Hoffert -- Críticas, 8/1/2002
The Phoenix P.L., AZ, will spend an estimated $80,000 on Spanish-language materials this fiscal year, which will include the purchase of some 500 new titles and other materials for its million-plus patrons. Efforts at the San Diego P.L., CA, will also be supported in style--the administration has allocated $35,000 to co-sponsor a regional library book fair alone--but the Camden Free P.L., NJ, must rely on state library grants for its Spanish-language purchases and will add only 10 new titles. Even tiny Hornell P.L., NY, is adding 20 new titles, drawing on a budget that approaches $500. The Fort Bragg branch of the Mendocino County Library, CA, has grander plans. Though it serves the same size population as the Hornell P.L. (under 10,000), it will spend closer to $5,000 to purchase hundreds of titles for a clientele that is a quarter Hispanic.
Clearly, charting Spanish-language collection building in U.S. public libraries is no easy task; collections range widely in size and nature according to the needs of the community and the strength of each library's budget allocations, which range from barely acknowledged to thoroughly committed. But one thing is certain: after years of struggling, libraries aiming to provide better service for their Spanish-speaking patrons have finally found their footing, and they are steadily climbing upward.
To measure the success of Spanish-language collection building in U.S. public libraries across the country, Críticas recently surveyed 1,000 libraries, distributed equitably in type from urban to suburban to rural and in size of population served from under 10,000 to over one million. Some 60% were Críticas subscribers; the remainder were located in areas with substantial Hispanic populations.
The results reveal that Spanish-language materials now have a powerful presence in U.S. public libraries. Of the libraries surveyed, 86% boast a Spanish-language collection, and most of those currently doing without are hastening to start collections within the next few years. Only 2% of respondents state that acquiring Spanish-language materials is not in their immediate future.
In addition, libraries that do buy Spanish-language materials are often drawing on impressive budgets. This fiscal year, over half of Críticas's respondents will spend $3,000 or more on such materials, and over one in five will shell out more than $10,000, with some libraries serving populations over 500,000 reaching nearly $130,000 in their expenditures. On average, these libraries will spend $16,325 to prop up their Spanish-language collections.
What's more, despite precarious times, budgets are not tumbling. Over half of the respondents report that their budgets for Spanish-language materials held steady this year, and 40% can claim an increase, with only 8% acknowledging that they will be losing funds. Funding has risen 50% and more at some libraries, with budgets up 12% overall--a princely figure compared with materials budgets generally. According to Library Journal's 2002 survey of U.S. public libraries, materials budgets were up only 3%, and 12% of LJ's respondents saw a decrease in funding.
Of course, these numbers don't begin to reveal the richness of the purchases made or whether they are indeed adequate to demand. In that regard, libraries across the country vary considerably. For instance, Cathy Brasher of the Salt Lake City P.L., UT, can claim sunnily that her funds are 'more than adequate. We are moving to a new library, and I have lots of funds to buy new books. Half of the money for foreign-language collections, of which I am head, go to Spanish-language materials.'
Many librarians echo Brasher's assessment, but others aren't so lucky. 'Do I think my budget is adequate?' snorts Janice Swan of Indianapolis-Marion County P.L., IN, which serves a population--just over one million--that is 10% Hispanic. 'Until this year, my budget for all languages has been just $7,500. It's so much better I hate to complain--my budget was one of the few that increased this year--but I've already spent most of it, with over half going just for Spanish-language books.'
One twist, as described by Laurie Sundborg of the Tulsa City-County Library, OK, is that some libraries support their Spanish-language purchases through grants, which can give collections a boost but don't last forever, making planning difficult. Nearly one in five of Críticas's respondents relied on such grants, with benefactors ranging from the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) to local governments and foundations, state library associations, and chapters of Friends of the Library USA. Even the Texas Book Festival has managed to enter the grant-giving business.
Tulsa's experience is typical. Responding to the library's request to help service the Latino community, a local foundation called Founders and Associates funded materials purchases for two years, offering $158,000 the first year and following up with an additional $182,000. Then another foundation, Bama Companies, agreed to fund the library's Hispanic Resource Center, joined in the second year by the Hispanic American Foundation of Tulsa and by the library itself. This funding proved 'vital to programming efforts and community outreach,' avers Sundborg, but she acknowledges that the library does not yet know whether it will be receiving additional grants. Monies from standard taxation have been allocated for the resource center, but they hardly represent the windfall of the past two years.
| PurchasingSpanish-LanguageMaterials | |
| Average Percent of Budget by Type of Material | |
| Adult titles | 52% |
| Children's/YA titles | 32% |
| Videos | 11% |
| Audio books | 5% |
|
Top Sources for Purchasing Decisions* | |
| Reviews & Articles in Críticas | 75% |
| Publishers catalogs | 46% |
| Wholesale/distributor catalogs | 43% |
| Patron Request | 35% |
| Vendor/wholesaler databases | 30% |
| Reviews in online & print international sources | 15% |
|
Most Cited Acquisition Problems* | |
| Limited selections | 76% |
| Selections are out-of-stock | 63% |
| Slow shipments | 48% |
| Prices for books aren't set, so you have to 'shop around' at several distributors | 14% |
| Poor quality binding | 6% |
| *Respondents were able to check more than one area so figures, add up to more than 100%
| |
However strong budgets have become, a continuing disparity in the funding of Spanish-language materials is still evident. Spanish-language budgets never average more than 10% of total materials budgets (interestingly, this is at the smallest libraries, which seem to be playing catch-up in this arena) and fall as low as 1% or 2% for the larger libraries--even where the Hispanic population may be a quarter or more of those served. But many respondents cautioned that because of usage patterns these figures are nowhere near as abysmal as they seem.
'We sometimes feel that if a population is a certain percentage, then that same amount of money should be spent on material geared to just that group,' muses Adrian Mixson, Hall County Library System, Gainesville, GA. 'Yet much of what the library purchases is crossover; your ethnic heritage has nothing to do with sewing, repairing automobiles, or using computers.' As many respondents assert, Hispanics are as interested in U.S. culture as they are in their country of origin--and they don't limit themselves to Spanish-language materials. Recent immigrants want to learn and use English, swelling the demand for ESL materials (see Best of the Backlist in the print July/August issue) that echoes throughout the survey, and more practiced speakers routinely check out materials in English--thus benefiting from the materials budgets as a whole. That Spanish speakers often borrow in both languages doesn't diminish the need to upgrade Spanish-language budgets, but it does make calculating a serviceable budget more complex.
What They're Buying
As always, the real issue for librarians is finding what their readers want and getting it for them. Just what Spanish-language materials are librarians buying these days? A quick perusal shows that on average Críticas's respondents spend about half their funds on adult materials and a third more on children's materials, with very little left over for video and audio, which weighed in at 11% and 5%, respectively. These expenditures partly reflect availability; many respondents say they need more audio and video, particularly English-language films dubbed in Spanish, and a demand for Spanish-language software is surfacing rapidly.
In terms of content, children's fiction and general adult nonfiction lead the way; not only do most libraries own books in these areas (nine out of 10 in the case of children's fiction) but they are cited by about half the respondents as among their three best-stocked categories. Health/medicine, how-to, children's nonfiction, and fiction best sellers translated from English are available on the shelves of seven out of 10 libraries and are among the top categories in at least a third. Not surprisingly, libraries want more books in these areas, particularly in how-to and health/medicine. But a crying need for books on law and particularly immigration is evident among the respondents, fully half of whom demand more in this area, and computer books and self-help books aren't far behind. As Lisa Regimbal, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR, concludes, Spanish speakers often see books 'not as entertainment but as a source of information.'
It's not that fiction isn't in demand. Certainly, many libraries buy broadly in this area, though some respondents insist that Latin American and Spanish authors do better in their libraries, while others find that translations of major U.S. authors predominate. In any case, the accent here is on popular titles, with the likes of Danielle Steel and Stephen King flying off the shelves and one in five respondents claiming that they need more mystery and romance. A number of respondents seem to agree with Becky Tatar, Aurora P.L., IL, that 'few titles by García Márquez circulate'; while over half the respondents have literary fiction on their shelves, they're ultimately looking for more easygoing material. As Tatar explains, 'Many of our patrons have little or no education, and Danielle Steel is easier to read than Elena Poniatowska. And I bet that in most libraries, Steel circulates better than Jane Austen as well.'
Yet while fiction is strong, in most libraries nonfiction is far stronger; notes Multnomah County's Regimbal, 'I buy nonfiction to fiction seven to one, as recommended to me by librarians with more established collections.' How-to books form the core of Spanish-language collection building at most libraries, and while health, childrearing, computer books, and mechanics come up most often in conversations with Críticas's respondents, everything from beauty to cooking to gardening gets a nod. In addition, legal how-to is very important--books not just on obtaining citizenship but on obtaining divorces and writing wills. In the end, 'it's not that different from what our English-speaking customers are asking for,' concludes Tulsa City- County Library's Marilou Marlar--advice that should take some of the mystery out of collection building for neophytes.
The Right Level
One big difference, though, is that many Spanish speakers are less well educated than their English counterparts, and librarians need to buy materials pitched to their level. 'Our community draws a lot of low-skilled workers,' observes Wendy Woodfill, Hennepin County Library, Minnetonka, MN, pointing to the nearby meat-packing plants and the Mall of America. 'They need job-skills manuals, books on how to use the computer, and books on health and how to get around the U.S. health system'--not the latest scholarship on the new technology or medical breakthroughs. And of course they need these books in simple language; Woodfill regrets that much of what she finds at the Guadalajara Book Fair is written at too high a level for her readers.
Indeed, the limited language skills of many newer immigrants complicate the buying process. 'Many of our Spanish-speaking patrons are not particularly literate in their own language,' explains Salt Lake City P.L.'s Brasher, 'so I look for books with lots of graphics to help them.' Books for these readers need to be geared below the college level, and even that can be a problem for newer immigrants. 'Our Spanish speakers have nominal English skills,' observes Hall County Library's Mixson, 'and though their verbal skills in Spanish are good they cannot read in either language. I am on our county's adult literacy board, and we have discussed the need to teach Spanish-language literacy as an aid for teaching English.'
Children's books, the staple of most Spanish-language collections, represent problems of their own. Some librarians are looking for more easy picture books, others for books with cassettes or CDs--not readily available in the Spanish-language market. Language itself is a problem, as vocabulary can vary from country to country, and even tense can get in the way of a good read. 'I tend away from the preterit tense, common in Spain and Argentina but not the United States,' says Marie Kaneko, Commerce P.L., CA. 'It's a pain during story hour when you have to switch tenses on the fly.' Kaneko also warns that children's librarians should check illustrations before purchasing books from Spain, due to cultural differences in the presentation of imagery.
In terms of Spanish-language purchases, perhaps Madeline Gaudioso, Pomona P.L., CA, best sums up what respondents had to say: 'The patrons who use our Spanish-language books are primarily blue-collar workers looking for automotive repair and machine manuals, housewives who want anything that appears on the Spanish-language channels, and elementary and high school students who need books to do their school assignments.' But Spanish speakers are a diverse lot that includes college-educated professionals. Many readers demand poetry--there's a run on books by Octavio Paz, Federico García Lorca, Alfonsina Storni, and Amado Nervo at the Pomona P.L., CA--and nearly half of Críticas's respondents say that they need more biography/ autobiography, with subjects embracing historical figures from the United States and Latin America as well as popular figures. As always, librarians must get to know their community before they start buying.
Críticas
's respondents drew on many sources to decide what they would purchase for their collections--a major one being the magazine itself. Publishers' and vendors' catalogs also ranked high, though as Indianapolis- Marion County P.L.'s Swan suggests, 'Buying things based on the vendor or publisher description just because we need books on a particular subject has its downfalls.' Swan often checks the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), to see what books are widely held elsewhere before she makes a purchasing decision, and also looks for Spanish translations of titles that circulate well in English. Other librarians prefer to visit websites like Mexico's Sanborns (www.sanborns.com.mx) and Submarino (www.submarino.com.mx), and still others prefer to go to local bookstores or to the major book fairs in Guadalajara and elsewhere. That way, at least, they can pick up a book and look at it before buying.
| Subject | Holding | Listed as Top 3 |
Looking for More | ||||||
| Children's Fiction | 91 | 48 | 38 | ||||||
| General Fiction | 82 | 48 | 36 | ||||||
| Health/Medicine | 80 | 34 | 51 | ||||||
| Children's Nonfiction | 80 | 20 | 38 | ||||||
| How-To | 77 | 26 | 58 | ||||||
| Fiction Best-Sellers (in the U.S.) | 76 | 29 | 36 | ||||||
| Law/Immigration | 75 | 10 | 50 | ||||||
| Psychology/Self-Help | 74 | 10 | 38 | ||||||
| Biography/Autobiography | 73 | 6 | 43 | ||||||
| Computer | 73 | 5 | 43 | ||||||
| Reference | 66 | 3 | 30 | ||||||
| Crafts | 65 | 1 | 33 | ||||||
| Business/Finance | 60 | 3 | 33 | ||||||
| History | 58 | 4 | 31 | ||||||
| Science | 50 | 2 | 34 | ||||||
| Young Adult Fiction | 45 | 3 | 28 | ||||||
| Young Adult Nonfiction | 36 | 1 | 31 | ||||||
| Fotonovela | 30 | 6 | 22 | ||||||
| Source: Críticas Spanish-Language Collection Public Library Survey, 2002 | |||||||||
Once librarians decide what to buy, they need to decide where to buy--and that can be tricky. More than 80% of Críticas's respondents buy Spanish-language materials from Baker & Taylor, with Lectorum Publications, Libros Sin Fronteras, and Ingram Library Services following close behind. But a dozen more distributors come into play, from Bilingual Publications Company, Chulainn Publishing Corporation, and Downtown Book Center to Astran, Books on Wings, and Latin American Book Source. While some librarians claim that their distributors serve them just fine, most aren't altogether happy with the service they get.
'Out of every order I place with Brodart or Baker & Taylor, I receive less than half,' sighs Jennifer Shelly, Frisco P.L., TX. 'Buying these materials takes dedication, and my advice to beginners is to use a variety of distributors, as fill rates are so poor.' Aside from out-of-stock titles, the biggest complaints include limited selections and slow shipments--one librarian says it has taken her two years to get what she has ordered. Poor paper, poor bindings, and higher costs for best sellers are also big gripes. Finally, some distributors come in for criticism because they don't catalog and process Spanish-language materials, so librarians are left with that time-consuming task when the books arrive. Perhaps, as the Spanish-language market grows, these complaints can be addressed. In the meantime, many librarians confide that having a good contact at the distributors one uses and building a good working relationship can get the job done a little faster.
Promoting To Patrons
The best collection in the world is worthless if no one is using it, and some respondents are dismayed at how difficult it can be to get Spanish speakers into the library. 'I really don't know what our readers are looking for, but they are not checking out many of the 'standard' items, like dictionaries, books on immigration law and citizenship, medical books, and books on child care,' says a clearly flummoxed Laura Gottlieb, Hedberg P.L., Janesville, WI. 'We have the collection well marked in Spanish and attractively displayed at the front of the library, and we make it easy for Spanish speakers to get library cards.'
So far, the library is doing everything right. But one thing it has yet to do, concedes Gottlieb, is to gather together community leaders to ask their advice--which seems to be the key to marketing collections effectively. 'Buying materials is only part of the equation,' argues Kirsten Serrano, Tippecanoe County P.L., Lafayette, IN. 'I would not counsel any library to spend any of their budget on Spanish-language materials if they are not doing outreach to the community.'
Outreach can take many forms, from working with local agencies to pitching the collection at local ESL classes or soccer matches to partnering with local institutions in various programming efforts. Having people on staff who speak Spanish is a big help but not absolutely necessary; some libraries have devised crash courses in 'library Spanish' to help staff members reach out to patrons. Ultimately, the point is to sell the library itself. When Serrano takes new Spanish-speaking patrons on tours, she stresses that the library is theirs and that they can make a difference by telling her what they need.
For years, building Spanish-language collections in U.S. public libraries seemed like a mysterious venture, but the word is finally out: it's not that different from building an English-language collection. There are a few tricks to be learned, but they can always be picked up 'by checking with the big systems that already have collections,' advises Marina Claudio-Perez, San Diego P.L., CA. The key, as libraries across the country have demonstrated, is to find out what the community wants and then market vigorously. Good Spanish-language collections are now available from Maine to New Mexico, and the readers have finally arrived.
Barbara Hoffert is editor of Library Journal's Book Review and a coordinating editor at Críticas.
| Population Served 2002 | Operating Budget | Spanish- Language Materials |
Total Materials | Total Adult Books | Total Children's Books | # of Spanish- Language Titles to Purchase | |||
| Under 10,000 | $ 172,000 | $ 3,238 | $ 28,600 | $ 16,600 | $ 12,500 | 85 | |||
| 10,000-24,999 | $ 554,000 | $ 4,815 | $ 67,000 | $ 36,600 | $ 16,200 | 150 | |||
| 25,000-49,999 | $ 1,199,000 | $ 5,069 | $ 163,100 | $ 78,500 | $ 33,600 | 250 | |||
| 50,000-99,999 | $ 2,355,000 | $ 6,036 | $ 242,900 | $ 138,100 | $ 49,500 | 445 | |||
| 100,000-249,999 | $ 3,784,000 | $ 6,750 | $ 396,100 | $ 216,100 | $ 49,700 | 450 | |||
| 250,000-499,999 | $ 8,835,000 | $ 10,923 | $ 1,083,600 | $ 517,800 | $ 181,300 | 600 | |||
| 500,000-999,999 | $ 18,584,000 | $ 30,227 | $ 2,925,200 | $ 1,237,700 | $ 503,600 | 735 | |||
| 1,000,000+ | $ 44,848,000 | $ 128,791 | $ 5,746,700 | $ 2,928,100 | $ 1,313,000 | 750 | |||
| AVERAGE | $ 7,342,000 | $ 16,325 | $ 940,700 | $ 458,900 | $ 180,000 | 433 | |||
| Source: Críticas Spanish-Language Collection Public Library Survey, 2002 | |||||||||
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