ALA and Spanish Speakers—Too Much of a Divide?

by Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 7/15/2007

This year’s American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, held in Washington, DC late last month, featured only a handful of Latino-related panels. Of those few, only one—which was listed with the wrong time in the schedule—addressed librarians serving Spanish speakers. Saturday’s “Serving Spanish Speakers with Disabilities” focused on “a part of [the Hispanic] population whose information needs have yet to be met,” offering valuable information and suggestions. Despite the mistake in the program schedule, many librarians attended.

Brooklyn Public Library’s Carrie Banks, who directs BPL’s Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs, brought up some of the issues surrounding staff training, such as achieving cultural competency, ensuring there are Spanish speakers on staff, and avoiding negative attitudes about disabilities that permeate U.S. culture. Cindy Jiménez Vera and Elizabeth M. Rivera Hudders, both students at the University of Puerto Rico’s Graduate School of Information Sciences and Technologies, highlighted the success of the university’s Servicios Bibliotecarios para Personas con Impedimentos (Library Services for People with Disabilities) in implementing the use of assistive technology, which includes specialized software (screen magnifiers, voice recognition) and hardware (intelligent keyboards, braille printer). Moderator Loida García-Febo, manager of Special Services for Queens Library, touched upon collection development, stating that there isn’t “much to say because there isn’t much available” and what has been published is no longer current. (She did, however, provide a list, compiled by Bilingual Publications, of Spanish-language titles on diseases and handicaps.) García-Febo told librarians to contact publishers to persuade them to address these concerns so that publishers, in turn, can create necessary materials. Unfortunately, there were no Spanish-language book editors or publishers present, so I can only hope the librarians there will indeed follow her advice. (Críticas can be a conduit, too, between librarians and publishers. As always, I encourage you to send me your requests, not just for books on/or for people with disabilities, but for other subjects as well.)

I must admit I wasn’t fully aware of some of the issues surrounding this matter, thus I found this panel very enlightening. But as the conference progressed, and I attended other panels, it finally sunk in that there weren’t enough panels at all addressing the Spanish-speaking population. “Libraries, Immigrants, and the American Experience,” organized by ALA’s EMIERT (Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table), focused on how American libraries have empowered immigrants, refugees, and minorities but didn’t touch on issues relevant to Hispanics, though the program lasted four hours. I found this rather surprising and, frankly, disappointing. It sometimes takes a year or two for panels to wend their way through ALA committee approvals, but Hispanic issues were just as relevant two years ago as they are today.

The disconnect with the Hispanic community was apparent to me on the show floor as well. If it weren’t for the directory listing, it probably would have taken me a whole day to finally find Spanish-language publishers, who were on the far side of the convention hall. It helped that I knew what I was looking for, but what about the librarian who is just starting to buy Spanish-language books and isn’t even sure where to start? Or the librarian who simply wants to know what’s available in Spanish and to meet a few publishers? In fact, the publishers were none too happy, either, at their location or traffic. Next year, as a corrective, they are planning to join forces and display their products in a shared booth with the hope that this will result not only in more visitors stopping by to see what’s new, but as a reminder to all librarians that ALA is also about books (and for those of us serving Spanish speakers, how to get them in our patron’s hands).

ALA is the perfect opportunity to showcase all the good work being done in libraries across the country. The 2007 Diversity and Outreach Fair is an excellent example of how to celebrate outreach efforts; however, that, too, was at the far end of the show floor and the time conflicted with several other events and panels. We need to reach out to all librarians, not just the Spanish speakers, and encourage them to take advantage of the few panels that do focus on providing information and guidance on how to best serve Spanish-speaking communities (which, after all, exist almost everywhere in the United States) and to visit the Spanish-language book publishers and distributors that support and embrace U.S. librarians and the great work they do.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this matter. What are some of the challenges you’re facing while trying to provide services and outreach to immigrant communities? Or, how have you successfully involved the Spanish-speaking immigrants in your town? What would you like to see addressed regarding library services for Spanish speakers at next year’s ALA?

Aída Bardales
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