After Eight Years, REFORMISTAS Meet at the Border

by Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 10/1/2008

An engaged crowd of 500 people, including 56 vendors in 59 booths attended REFORMA’s long-awaited third National Conference (RNCIII). “Bridging the Gaps: Juntos @ the Border,” took place from September 19–21 at the El Paso Convention Center, TX, just a few blocks from the U.S. border with Juárez, Mexico.

Attendees took the opportunity to catch up with friends and colleagues, and exchange ideas and tips. While Pima County Public Library’s reference services librarian Adriana Rendon said the primary goal of her first REFORMA conference was to obtain more information on how to improve library services for Spanish speakers and share it with colleagues, she told Críticas she “was also trying to build my network” by connecting with librarians from other parts of the country serving the Hispanic community.

Opening session
During the opening session, Brooklyn-born El Paso mayor John Cook welcomed librarians with a song about El Paso that he wrote himself. American Library Association (ALA) president-elect Camila Alire said the REFORMA national conference was a historic event. “[We] have to get to Latino non-users and make them users,” she said, referencing the country’s growing and diverse population of immigrants and other Spanish speakers. “It’s about making them informed members of the community.”

REFORMA president Luis Chaparro, director of library technical services at El Paso Community College, addressed the 100 or so present with energy, sprinkled with pessimism. “I have to confess I’m very nervous. I’m not sure we’re going to break even,” he said. (Later, REFORMA officials confirmed they’d made a $50,000 profit.) Chaparro also said he was very proud of Alire for being the first Chicana to lead ALA. “We’re breaking the glass ceiling.”

Keynoter Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) and an award-winning poet, focused on the importance of reading and the effects of illiteracy on the whole community, referring to the 2007 NEA study To Read or Not to Read and its collaboration with Mexico’s Fondo de Cultura Económica to publish the collection Sol, piedra y sombras (Sun, Stones and Shadows). “[Librarians] work in the only institution where everyone feels welcomed. If we let libraries lose ground, we will never recover it.”

Jimmy Santiago Baca, the Mexican-American author of En suelo firme (A Place to Stand), published by Alfaguara, also addressed the audience, inspiring them with stories of Latino youths overcoming hardships and an uncertain future after discovering the power of the written word.

Popular panels
It had been eight years since the last REFORMA conference, held in Tucson, AZ, and though many attendees expressed excitement over RNCIII, some conveyed disappointment over the simultaneous programming. “It’s always difficult to choose,” Pima County PL’s Rendon told Críticas about the seven simultaneous sessions throughout two full conference days. Make Way for Books program coordinator Cecilia Tovar, also a first-time REFORMA conference participant, agreed: “It was hard for me to attend the sessions [that really interested me].”

Tovar and Rendón presented the panel “Wellness Education: Bridging the Consumer Health Information Gap,” which focused on the eponymous mentorship program. The program provides consumer health education for teens; mentors from Knowledge River (a program at the School of Information Resources and Library Science, Univ. of AZ, Tucson, that recruits Native American and Latinos to pursue MLIS degrees) and high school students then work together to share this information to the Tucson community.

Baker & Taylor’s (B&T) Larry Bennett, VP of Spanish-Language Materials and Print On Demand Bennett, along with Lectorum Publication’s Carmen Rivera, participated in the panel “What Do You Mean ‘We Can’t Get That Here’?,” which focused on the challenges of importing Spanish-language titles and on ways librarians can work with distributors. The panel was moderated by John Sandstrom, El Paso PL collection development and acquisitions manager, who also served as Exhibits Chair for RNCIII. “There was a good mix of library types,” said Sandstrom. “I think [that] added a lot to the discussion.” About 20 librarians were present at that session, which proved to be informative. “I learned quite a bit about the nuts and bolts of importing materials from Spain, Mexico, and Central and South America,” he said.

Some programs generated much buzz. “Revisiting the Digital Divide and the Latino Community,” involving panelists Richard Chabran (Univ. of Arizona), Romelia Salinas (Cal. State Univ.), and Laura Staley (Spanish-Language Outreach Program, WebJunction), emphasized the importance of getting to know your community. Staley described how Kim Iraci, a librarian at Pioneer Library System in upstate New York, where the Hispanic population was reportedly small, went out and spoke to community leaders, discovering that there were many more Hispanic residents than reported in the Census. They proceeded to reach out to this population and alert them to such library services as technology training.

“Too many people ignore [the digital divide],” said Aaron Valdivia, YA services librarian at Tucson’s Joel D. Valdez Library. “They think it doesn’t exist anymore. This [panel] was a real eye-opener.” Valdivia also serves as the tech liaison at his library.

In her presentation, Staley also referred to the recent study Latinos and Public Library Perceptions, published by WebJunction and the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, which reports Latino library use at 54 percent, higher than previously assumed, and describes how use differs among segments of the population.

In the popular “Trends in Marketing to Latinos: Implications for Librarians,” Yolanda Cuesta, founder of Cuesta Multicultural Consulting, aimed at making participants—who spilled out of the presentation room—aware of the successes and challenges associated with marketing to Latinos, as well as learning which practices are most successful in marketing library services. Cuesta also discussed population segmentation and acculturation, using New American Dimension’s acculturation study, Acculturation and Beyond, as reference. “The information I presented validated a lot of what the audience already knew or sensed about the [Hispanic] community,” Cuesta told Críticas. “It was reassuring to hear that the big companies and ad agencies are [also] trying to find a way to connect their product to the correct segment of the community in an appropriate way.”

It may be challenging for librarians to apply lessons from the private sector, given tight budgets. “There are many ways they can get the benefit [of marketing to Hispanics] without having to spend a lot of money,” she said, citing partnerships with local media, such as radio networks, and establishing relationships with other community organizations, including schools and churches.

LJ Mover and Shaker Salvador Avila, in his “Crash Course in Serving Spanish Speakers,” talked about marketing and branding. “Don’t [translate] the title of the library,” he said. “Big corporations don’t do it, they’ll [only] translate their literature.” He also stressed the importance of customer service over programs. “[Hispanics] prefer a handshake over your handout, advice over referrals.”

A quiet floor
In comparison to the first two conferences, Cuesta felt RNCIII offered just as much useful information “but the number of participants was down” compared to the 1996 and 2000 conferences. Attendance dropped since the last conference by about 25 percent. “The exhibit [floor] seemed lightly attended,” she added.

Indeed, many librarians expressed a desired for more no-conflict time. Make Way for Books’ Tovar said she had to miss sessions to visit the exhibit floor, but says she was pleased with the variety of books available.

“Despite the excellence of the panels and seminars,” B&T’s Bennett told Críticas, “I would have preferred to have the schedule arranged in a way that would have left the librarians more time to spend talking with the exhibitors, as getting to know the product that’s available is an integral part of their ongoing education, a tool to better service their patrons.”

For Marla Norman, HarperCollins’ Spanish-language consultant, the event was a success. Norman reported that a number of librarians were searching for YA titles and says many eagerly signed up for the Rayo newsletter. “Overall, the trek to the sprawling desert city was well worth the effort,” said Norman. Titles of particular interest included the Esenciales (Essentials) collection, as well as titles by El Paso native Benjamin Alire Sáenz, who spoke at a luncheon during the conference. Alire Sáenz, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, teaches the only bilingual creative writing program in the country.

Despite frustrations with insufficient no-conflict time, most librarians and exhibitors agreed that this year’s conference reflected REFORMA’s commitment to the nation’s changing demographics. According to Cuesta, this time around there was a stronger focus on leadership issues and recruitment, as well as several sessions targeted to YA readers.

The next REFORMA conference is scheduled to take place in 2010.