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Creating Library Connections A Toolkit for Positive Partnerships between the Public Library and Early Childhood Education Agencies Developed as an outcome of two Library Services and Technology
Act (LSTA) Project Summary
This toolkit is offered to the library and early childhood communities as a possible template, and a source (we hope) of ideas and inspiration for your agencies to create your own outreach programs. By giving you a report on our successes, we hope to pave the road for the success of your projects. I. PROJECT SUMMARY: WHAT WE DID
II. BACKGROUND: WHY WE DID THIS PROJECT
Parents in poverty often don’t read to their children for a number of reasons: low literacy, lack of access to or knowledge of books in their home language, and time constraints (single parents or parent working long hours). Yet reading, telling stories, singing songs and chanting rhymes are all demonstrated methods for developing young brains through language acquisition and sound awareness. Providing parents with an opportunity to see their children enjoying books, to find free materials for themselves to read and share, and to demonstrate to them through verbal and written communication the value of these activities was at the heart of our project. Communities Count 2000 reports the inequities young children from low-income and ELL families experience in their opportunities to be read to. For example it is reported that 70% of English-as-a-first-language parents read aloud to the children, but only 37% of ELL parents read aloud daily to their children. The report suggests that one possible explanation for this is the unavailability of reading materials in the family language. Significantly, in lower income south King County, only 58% of children are read to every day in any household. And children who live with just one parent are nearly 30% less likely to be read to than children living with partnered adults. Research shows that young children who are supported in maintaining
their native language while mastering English benefit from the opportunity to
participate in culturally and linguistically diverse inter-group relationships.
For children to develop cognition in a second language, as well as to develop
emotionally and socially, they must continue to develop their first language.
(Lourdes Diaz Soto in "Understanding Bilingual/Bicultural Young Children,"
Young Children, January 1991) Children learn the fundamentals of early
literacy in their home environment, and must be encouraged to play and talk
in the home language as well as in English. Children's self-concept is rooted
in their language. If families deny the home language, or speak an English that
is obviously not as "good" as the teacher's, the children may lose
respect for their parents, for their heritage, and ultimately for themselves.
(Merylie Wase Houseton in Multiculturalism/Multiculturalsime, Vol. XIV,
Nos. 2/3, 1992) III. ESSENTIALS FOR SUCCESS: THE WAY WE DID IT
A. Communication: Getting and Keeping Staff Involvement Whether you are a library approaching early childhood/child care centers or a center wanting to connect with the library, there are many things to think about. Above all else, effective communication between the partnering agencies is a must. Our project team, which included a staff member from each participating agency (Library, Head Start and ECEAP) met regularly to plan activities, create products, and develop training. Communication between members of the team is, however, only a beginning place. It is essential to bring staff at the early childhood education centers and the community libraries into the project. Effectively communicating our goals and helping all staff to understand all the details of the project took a concerted effort on the part of all the Project Team members, and required a variety of communication techniques. As with most aspects of the grant, we saw improvements as time went on and we learned more about what worked. While phone calls, email and written communication all had their uses, we found that occasional in-person meetings were essential. 1.Communication with Center Staff Appoint a “Point Person” The center contact person, whether from the small center or the large, would be responsible for communicating information to fellow site staff and gathering necessary data (such as languages spoken, numbers of families needing interpretation, best choice of dates for events, etc.) This contact would also distribute materials, such as brochures, books and tapes, and survey forms. She would collect final surveys and coordinate hiring of necessary interpreters. Having such a “point person” reduces confusion and increases efficiency of communication. Sometimes we would send an email or letter to all staff involved in the grant – for example, instructions on how and when to do the final parent survey. Nonetheless hard copies of forms were directed to the point person. Preliminary planning
When goals and activities are agreed upon, a letter of agreement (Appendix B-1) should be exchanged which outlines what the expectations are on each side. If one organization is responsible for the budget, it can be useful to create a reimbursement form (Appendix B-2) that the other organization can use for invoicing allowable expenses (e.g., food, transportation, staff time). Planning story time dates and event agendas Several weeks prior to each event, the event planners will need to map out an event agenda. (See Center Story Time Outline Appendix D-1 and Library Story Time and Tour Outline, Appendix D-2) that will fit with the interests and schedules of their families. It’s a good idea to email or mail a copy to all center and library staff that will be involved. Who will greet the families? If more than one language is to be interpreted, will the story time be offered to each language group separately or simultaneously? Will the story time be presented first, followed by a related craft activity? When will refreshments be offered? (For more information, see Section V: Story Time.)
Evaluation and follow-up with families and staff 2. Communication with Library Staff The libraries that were selected to participate in the grant included the libraries in closest proximity to the selected centers, and also “auxiliary” libraries – those that were nearby and likely to also have some of the Head Start and ECEAP families as patrons. Each library participating in the project was invited to participate first with a phone call, followed by a participation memo (Appendix B-4), with the library manager and children’s librarian involved in the decision to join. As with the Head Start or ECEAP center staff, each library selected one person as the main contact for the project. Library staff was involved in selecting dates and times for events, were key contacts for distributing brochures and audiocassettes, and were also involved in two different training events (outlined in Section IV: Training). In addition to regular communication with library staff, it is important for the library staff members that actually prepare and present the story times to develop a positive relationship with the staff at those centers. At the beginning of the project, library staff visited the staff at the centers along with the Project Team members from the PSESD, explaining how the library portion of this project worked, and what they could expect from the libraries. Library staff was in regular telephone contact with the centers to schedule events, affirm that interpreters would be present, and discuss the format for the event. Library staff also emailed an outline of each story time and/or tour (Appendix D-1 and D-2) to the center staff about one week before the event that told which stories would be told, which craft would be used, and how the different activities would flow. It is essential that all the participants are working cooperatively and understand how the program will work, so that it will flow smoothly, and the families participating will have the best possible experience. Library Staff Communication Essentials:
Planning Successful Events
Evaluation
In summary, the key thing we would emphasize is that there is no such thing as TOO MUCH communication! A project of this scope requires that information be provided to participating staff in a regular, intentional and detailed manner. Checklists, multiple communications, and in-person conversations were essential. B. Recruitment and Development of Interpreters You will quickly find that the interpreters that you work with are so much more than just interpreters! They become your partners, in the truest sense of the word, spreading the knowledge and experience of library services to their cultural and language groups. Interpreters truly make this endeavor successful! We recruited our interpreters from the body of interpreters on contract with the Puget Sound Educational Service District. We advertised our initial training, including an overview of the grant as a whole, and asked interpreters to RSVP. We made sure to let the interpreters know the benefits they would gain from working on the grant. We found more success in attracting a loyal, enthusiastic “cadre” of interpreters in the second year when we asked the Head Start Interpreter Coordinator to allow us to describe our grant and recruit at the general interpreter trainings she held at the beginning of the Head Start program year. We had an enthusiastic show of interest, and we sent flyers inviting potential interpreters from this list to attend three grant-specific interpreter trainings. We were able to pay one of our past interpreters to make reminder phone calls a few days before each training. As an incentive, we paid interpreters to attend the training, and also reimbursed
them for their mileage to/from trainings, which we typically held in the evening
or on a Saturday. As we began to schedule events at our various centers, we
were able to hire certain interpreters over and over again. Many interpreters
recognized that by attending free trainings and building up paid story time
experience, they were making valuable work connections that could yield future
references and work contracts. Likewise, as grant coordinators worked repeatedly
with the same interpreters, we came to rely on them for useful cultural insights
and tips on where and how to attract families (as well as pitfalls to avoid!
For example, at an event with Somali families in which we shared a story about
Spot [a dog] and distributed stuffed animal finger puppets, we learned that
our puppy puppets were spurned because touching dogs is considered unclean in
the Muslim religion.) We came to appreciate our interpreters as key to fostering
good will and credibility with our diverse communities. We offered three training opportunities to interpreters. The first was a story time training: Story Time Fun: Developing Multicultural/Multilingual Story Times for Head Start & ECEAP. The second was Library Catalog and Internet Training, which increased interpreters’ proficiency with the library catalog and web page, and trained them specifically to use these to find materials and resources in other languages. The final training was Creating Library Connections. This training taught interpreters how to conduct final evaluations with Head Start and ECEAP families, and was also our opportunity to gain important, practical feedback from the interpreters. Please see the Section IV: Training of this manual for full explanations of these training sessions. Outlines for the trainings are located in Appendix C. 4. Interpreters as Community Advocates Keep in mind that your interpreter is more than a translator of language. If your trainings have gone well, your interpreters will be invested in your project and excited about library services that they didn’t even know existed! They can take this information to their communities and spread the word. This can happen informally, by word-of-mouth for example, or more formally, with interpreters taking library materials such as informational brochures (hopefully in the appropriate languages!) to community meetings, temples, churches, and other community meeting places where their language and cultural groups meet. Take advantage of this opportunity: if the people won’t come to the library, the library will come to them!
We provided two different story times to center families. First, we had story time at each Head Start and ECEAP center participating in the grant. Second, we had story time at each community library that served one of the participating centers. Because story time was one of the main thrusts of this project, we felt it was absolutely necessary to make sure interpreters were invested in the importance of story time, as many of them had never done a story time before. We had four goals for the interpreters. By the end of our training session, the interpreters were able to:
As you can see, we impressed upon the interpreters the philosophical reasons for doing story time, demonstrated and explained the logistics of story time, and gave them time to actually practice. Given the fun that staff, interpreters and families had at the library and center story times, this training was very successful! (Outline of training in Appendix C-1.) 2. Library Catalog and Internet As part of our story times at the community libraries, we offered parents a tour of the library and assistance with signing up for library cards. Interpreters accompanied parents on this tour, and, therefore, we felt it was essential that they be proficient users of the library catalog and web site. With this training, we had three goals for the interpreters. By the end of our training session, interpreters were able to:
Not only did we want the interpreters to be familiar with the catalog and web page, we also wanted them to be prepared to interpret. To that end, we came prepared with a list of library and computer terms that we thought may not be used often in daily speech, and, therefore, not on the tip of each interpreter’s tongue to translate. In addition, interpreters added to the list throughout the training, and then shared their additions at the end. In this way, we ensured to the best of our ability that interpreters would be prepared with the necessary vocabulary to interpret during the library tour. In preparation for this training, we make two recommendations. First, try to have each interpreter sign up for a library card prior to training. In this way, they can have a more immediate and applicable use for the training, and they can practice afterward. But do have a dummy account set up that you can use to demonstrate. Second, have this training in a computer lab, or, at the least, in a setting where there are no more than two interpreters to a computer. If you have the technology to display the instructor’s computer screen, use it! Please see Appendix C-2 for the full outline of this training. Keep in mind, however, that this outline is very specific to the King County Library System catalog and web site. 3. Creating Library Connections Since this was a grant-funded project, it was essential that we plan for evaluations. We created a survey for the center families, and used center teachers and interpreters to administer the surveys one-on-one over the phone or in person. One purpose of this training was to make interpreters familiar with the survey, give them a chance to work together to translate any difficult phrases or words, and practice administering the survey. Another purpose of this training was to gain feedback from the interpreters about their involvement in the grant. The interpreters had wonderful suggestions that have been added throughout this manual. In addition, it was very clear that the interpreters were invested in this project and had enjoyed gaining skills and knowledge from the experience! Please see Appendix C-3 for a list of the questions we asked the interpreters to gain their feedback. Please see Appendix K1, K2, K3 for the center family surveys. 1. Working With Culturally Diverse Populations/Refugee & Immigrant Populations Our goal for this two-hour session was to offer library staff
information about different culture groups that live in King County, and provide
a forum for asking questions and finding solutions to possible problems with
serving individuals from these cultures. We called on an expert from the Puget
Sound ESD to present the session twice. Library staff were already aware of
these groups in their communities! Our hope was that, by intentionally sharing
the needs and concerns of diverse populations, our library staff would be encouraged
to be more proactive in offering assistance to these new community members,
and provide additional support and guidance to them in using the library. 2. Story Time with Interpreters We had such an amazing experience providing story times with interpreters to families who speak a home language other than English that we wanted to share the fun! We created a workshop for any interested children’s librarians in our library system to learn to prepare and present story times with interpreters. While our library system feels strongly about providing story times in languages other than English in communities where there is a need, it can be difficult to find bilingual people to provide these story times. Therefore, by training librarians to provide story time with an interpreter, we are bypassing that problem and enabling librarians to provide story times in other languages themselves. We had three goals for the children’s librarians attending this training. By the end of the training, they were able to:
We hired interpreters from our trained Interpreter Corps to assist us with this training. The results were excellent: approximately half of the children’s librarians present saw a direct need for interpreted story times and were interested in starting one at their libraries. Please see Appendix C-5 for a full outline of this training. We provided story times at Head Start and ECEAP centers, and this was a wonderful way to bring knowledge of library services and the importance of reading to families who may not visit the library. By providing story time in a setting that is familiar and comfortable to families, we were able to turn some of them into library users, and storytellers and readers at home! There are many factors to take into consideration when planning a story time event at a center, and these will vary center by center. 1. Setting 2. Timing
3. Size of Group Although it is almost impossible to know exactly how many people will attend your event, try to get an estimate so that you can plan the logistics accordingly, and so that you have enough materials. 4. Promotion 5. Interpreters Most interpreters prefer to have the outline of your story time a week or two before the event, so that they can be familiar with the material and not have to interpret “on the fly”. Fax, mail, or e-mail the fingerplays/action rhymes/songs to the interpreters. Regarding stories, either type out the text of the books for the interpreters to translate ahead of time, or help them to obtain a copy of the book. Certainly, if your library system has any of the stories you’ll be using in appropriate languages other than English, secure those books for your interpreter! The best-case scenario is for your interpreter to have the book in his or her own language to read and show during story time. Be sure to schedule your interpreters well in advance, and call or e-mail as a reminder soon before the actual event. You don’t want to arrive without an interpreter! 6. Food 7. Partnering with other agencies After providing story times at centers to introduce families to library services, we provided story times and library tours at the branch libraries that serve the various centers. Story times at the branch libraries involve both library and center staff and included a story time, craft, and library tour for the parents. In some libraries, we began with a snack as a way of welcoming the families, then followed with the story time. At others, the snack was offered at the end of the tour. After the story time, the center staff worked with the children on a craft while library staff took parents on a tour of the library and to sign up for library cards. While much of the organization of story time at the library is the same as at the center, there are some different and additional factors to take into account. 1. Setting 2. Timing As an extra tip, it is good to try to avoid scheduling your event to end when the library is about to close. The parents and kids often have lots of questions after the tour, and hope to sign up for library cards and check out materials. Schedule time for them to do that. You don’t want to be kicking them out on their first visit, or make library staff have to stay after closing to accommodate these families. 3. Staffing
4. Size of Group If your group is large, you may want to consider providing more than one tour if you have the staffing for it. In this way, the tour can be more intimate and the parents/caregivers may feel more comfortable asking questions. You may want to consider breaking up the tours by language as well. If you have one large language group, you may want to have a tour with an interpreter just for that group. Then the other languages and/or English-speakers can be on the other tour. In this second group, the interpreters can interpret on a more personal level, rather than for the group. 5. Tour Understand your audience, and be sure to highlight things of particular interest and/or importance to these families’ lives. Such things may include:
At the end of the tour, give the parents plenty of time to sign up for library cards. Many of the families may need one-on-one help from the interpreters to fill out the library card form and to communicate with circulation staff. This may take quite a while! Please see Appendix C-2 for a list of terms you may want to provide interpreters ahead of time to prepare them to interpret on the tour. 6.Transportation 8. Interpreters 9. Food See Appendix D for Sample Story Times, Tours, Story Time Resource List, Flyers and Photos!
Finding books in other languages can be a real challenge. Below, we list some tips, techniques, troubleshooting, and vendors to help make the process easier for you! See Appendix E-1 for a list of our book purchases.
For those languages for which there are very few books published, the temptation is to buy every title in that language. This is a difficult choice to make. Will you buy every book in a hard-to-find language regardless of quality, or will you choose to limit an already limited collection to quality literature? Keep in mind that each year new titles will come out, but nothing like the mass of new English titles that appear each year. If you are starting a World Language collection, you will find many titles to start you off. After that, however, there may be only a few new titles each year to add to your collection. B. Format & Content 1. Bilingual Books versus Single-Language Books However, some books are not available in bilingual editions, but are wonderful children’s literature. These should certainly be added to the collection. In addition, some languages are, for one reason or another, not often offered in bilingual format. We found this to be true for languages such as Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian. It can be very, very difficult to choose books that are not bilingual if you do not speak the other language. Even brief synopses in English may not be enough help. Ask for help from bilingual library staff, interpreters, or bilingual community members or bookstore owners. These people will not only be able to tell you the content of the story, but can advise you on the quality of writing, and provide information about cultural norms for publishing children’s books. For example, Russian materials for children are often printed to look like poetry, but are, in fact, stories. Keep in mind that the books you choose will need to be catalogued! Cataloguing bilingual books is a snap, since all of the information is offered to the cataloguer in English. If you are interested in purchasing books in another language only, be sure you have the staff, resources, and funds to catalogue your books before you move forward. Our cataloging department is able to outsource world language books to OCLC for cataloging, but the books may not be ready for your collection for six to twelve months, and the cost is very high – up to $40 per title! 2. Story Collections versus Single-Story Books 3. Hardcover versus Paperback Please check your orders of books that needed to be bound very carefully. It was not unusual for us to find book texts to be bound in the wrong covers. There is nothing quite so strange as Russian text in an Arabic cover! 4. Western Translations versus Original Cultural
Folktales However (as you may have guessed!), this is not always an easy balance to make, since many languages are not offered in both ways. While most languages offer a few titles that are original tales, they lean heavily on Western translations. Just do the best you can, and keep in mind that there are several levels to which you can choose the most appropriate books. For example, when choosing books in Somali, once we had exhausted the titles of original tales, we purchased Western stories that featured African-American characters, such as The Snowy Day and Amazing Grace. If the stories weren’t Somali, or even African, at least the readers could identify with the outward appearance of the characters. There are a few languages that go the opposite way: they feature almost all original tales and it is difficult to find Western translations. We found Russian and Ukrainian to be that way. Once again, if you have a native speaker to help you choose these stories and books it will be a huge help. C. Book Availability There are many ways to get your hands on books in other languages. Below some options are described. 1. Bookstores If you are able to go to a foreign language bookstore, you will need help unless you read that language. Most special language bookstores are more than happy (in fact, some insist) to make an appointment. In such a case, a store employee (often an assistant manager, manager, or owner) will be available exclusively to help you. They can help you find books to your specification (hardback, paperback, fiction, non-fiction, etc.), explain plots, give cultural input, and place orders for additional copies. However, keep in mind that these employees have the store’s interests at heart! As much as possible, use your own judgment as well so that you aren’t talked into books that you really don’t want. Another option is to take someone with you who reads that language. They will be a more objective source of cultural input once you’ve explained your goals. One of our cataloguers agreed to a joint book-buying expedition to an Asian bookstore to help choose children’s books in Chinese. As mentioned above, it is difficult to find bilingual Chinese books. Without this cataloguer’s help, we would never have ended up with the quality collection of picture books that we did. Although foreign language bookstores are wonderful, chances are that you will rely most heavily on vendors. There are many different kinds of vendors, and all have their specialties and challenges! Following are a few tips, and then a list of vendors that we used. 2. Vendors Again, find out it they have a binding service, how long that service takes, and what the fee is. Remember to check your received orders carefully to make sure they are accurate. Do not assume that what is listed in a catalogue is immediately available! If you need materials by a certain date, check your order list with vendor staff to see if you can get your order in time. Please see Appendix E-2 for a Vendor List. As mentioned above, we gave a paperback picture book to every child who attended the second set of story times at the community libraries. They were purchased with grant monies, but another good source for this sort of funding is your library’s Foundation, your Friends’ group, or a community business that supports literacy. We strove to provide picture book choices in every home language that we expected to attend, and used statistics from the PSESD to estimate language distribution. When ordering books for giveaway purposes, keep in mind that, generally, fewer families and children come to library story times than center story times. There are also some book vendors that will give you a significant discount if they know you are purchasing books for giving to low-income children as part of a literacy project. Please see Appendix E-2 for this list of vendors. We created a bookplate for the grant and put one inside each of the giveaway books. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to design the bookplates and get them printed. Printing can take extra time if there is a backlog, or if your bookplate is elaborate. Please see Appendix E-3 to view our bookplate. VII. TRANSLATED INFORMATION
We wrote three informational flyers to respond to these needs. The first two
were edited from existing library brochures, and the third was developed with
the assistance of the head of reference services. B. Audiocassettes In working with the studio, it is most helpful to make sure the reader has the translation well in advance of the reading, so they can read it through and be comfortable with the flow of the words. Studio time is the most costly part of the recording, as professional sound technicians and equipment are paid at an hourly rate. “J-cards” (the printed cover for the audiocassettes) were produced using Microsoft Publisher software. However, since many of these languages do not use the Roman alphabet, we had to have the language service re-format the titles (at a cost) to fit on our mock-ups, and sometimes we resorted to the old-fashioned “cut and tape” method for making the j-card masters. See Appendix I for a j-card sample. The library system cataloged the audiocassettes and they were distributed to libraries according to the languages in their communities. The PSESD distributed copies to the participating centers first and then expanded that distribution to all their Head Start and ECEAP centers, again choosing the appropriate languages for each center according to the population served. C. Additional Suggestions The KCLS Graphics department created the original format for the PDFs, including the photographs, borders, etc. and those templates were given to the translation service. The service merged the translated text with the templates, and created the PDFs. Our Graphics department did the printing. Copies of all the printed pieces are included in this toolkit -- in all languages! Because they were created with an LSTA grant, you are welcome to use them. You can access the PDF files in Appendices F, G and H. If you use the text as a starting place in creating your own brochure, please acknowledge the translations with the following: “Translations provided by the King County Library System and the Puget Sound Educational Service District through a Library Services and Technology Act Early Learning Grant.” D. Proofreading We recommend beginning by taking an English version of each document and highlighting each element that you can realistically proofread. Then use this highlighted document to compare to each translated piece. This will ensure that you don’t forget any elements. Do not be afraid to question anything on the document! Many times translators may slightly change the format in order to make the document more readable for their language group (for example: incorporating something you have in parentheses into the actual sentence), but sometimes there is a mistake! Translators won’t take offense if you are simply asking for explanations. Some items in your translated document will still be in English! These items may include:
Be sure to highlight each of these things to make sure they are present in your document. Some items in your translated document will be numerical (phone numbers, monetary units, open hours, ages, etc.). Be sure to check these numbers very carefully! As translators revise and edit these documents, a digit may inadvertently be changed. Check all URLs very carefully. URLs contain so much minutiae that a particular dot or number can easily be changed, lost, or switched. The translated documents should, of course, have the same format as the original.
Check for: o Words in English o Titles o Identifiers o Translation Date Have fun! Although the translation of library documents can be time-consuming, it’s all worth it when a non-English-speaking patron’s face lights up when you hand them library information in their home language! Nothing makes a patron feel more welcomed than knowing that you took the time to provide information that they can understand. VIII. PUBLIC INFORMATION RELEASES/INFORMATION SHARING
We asked our community relations department to develop a public information release for local press sources about the brochures. Be sure to include not just the main newspaper in your city, but the smaller, local presses that reach small towns and special language groups. You will also want to use these translated brochures in a number of other outreach venues, such as community information fairs, childcare training events, and PSESD parent days. See Appendix J for sample publicity release. IX. EVALUATION A. Participants’ survey Because we had such a large project, with eleven early childhood centers and over 500 children, we chose to simplify our survey tool for the second year. This survey included retrospective and post- story time questions (see Single Survey Appendix K3). We asked parents to think back and compare their usage of the library before and after the story time events, to assess whether participating in these events spurred greater library patronage. Remember to keep your survey simple – just a few key questions to specifically target the information you need to measure. Questions that can be answered with a yes/no are easiest to tabulate. Telephone or in-person surveys are essential. We used interpreters from the Interpreter Corps and primary site interpreters to conduct all the surveys. Families are more willing to answer questions in person, and to someone they have met before. Most effective in the second year was conducting the surveys during the end-of-year home visits by center staff with interpreters. We also felt that our survey tool was an informational tool as well. Not all center families participated in either of the story time programs, but were called and surveyed. Simply by asking the questions we were providing another venue for giving out information about library services, and about brochures and audiocassettes available at their child’s center. B. Surveys of Library and Center staff C. Input from Interpreters D. Measuring library use X. SAYING THANKS
To celebrate the success of the Multilingual Story Time Grant, we'd like to present you with: Candy Gold Coins - because you are worth your weight in gold |
Interpreted
family story times were held at selected Head Start and ECEAP centers, with
subsequent multilingual story times offered in local community libraries for
center families. Information about library services and early literacy in both
printed and audio format were produced in selected languages. Multilingual children’s
books were purchased to enhance the existing community library collections.
Public
libraries offer a multitude of services of value to all community members; services
that are particularly valuable to low-income and immigrant populations who need
access to free reading materials in many languages, literacy materials, computers
for research, resume writing and communication, and public programs such as
picture book story times. However, libraries often have difficulty making connections
with families for whom English is not their first language, and with those living
in poverty, mainly because of different cultural awareness or knowledge of public
library services. The federally funded Head Start programs, along with the Washington
State-funded ECEAP programs, specifically target these low-income populations
to be participants in preschool education for their children, and supportive
parent education programs. Head Start and ECEAP also assist families in finding
connections to public services that will help them improve their quality of
life. By partnering with community agencies that directly serve low-income and
ELL families, libraries can better access these potential patrons, introducing
them to the resources available at their libraries, and connecting them with
the early literacy opportunities that story times and other preschool-focused
library programs can offer.
Our
project was large, involving eleven early childhood centers and thirteen libraries.
However, we hope that you can use our model as a starting place for developing
your own community outreach partnership that is appropriate to your staff availability
and community need. If you are an early childhood program, try contacting your
local public library – usually the children’s librarian or manager
are your best contacts. If you are a library – look in your area to identify
Head Start, state-funded preschool programs or other childcare centers that
might benefit from this kind of partnership. The goal is to make a difference
in the lives of children – from one to a thousand!
We
offered five trainings in conjunction with this project. Early in the project
we provided training for library staff to increase awareness of different culture
groups in our communities. Three of the five trainings were for our Interpreter
Corps. The interpreters were one of the most crucial parts of this project.
Because they were highly visible and interacted with the center families in
a way that library and PSESD staff could not, it was very important that they
be trained in all aspects of the project in which they would be participating.
The three trainings for interpreters were: Story Time Fun, Library Catalog
and Internet Training, and Creating Library Connections. Finally,
working with interpreters to offer story times to families with a home language
other than English was so rewarding that we created a training for all of the
children’s librarians in our library system. The purpose of this training
was to instruct the librarians in preparing and delivering story times with
interpreters. In this way, we hope that this part of the project will continue
throughout the county wherever there is need.
Our
goal was to purchase children’s picture books in eleven different languages
for two purposes. First, we wanted to supplement the Children’s World
Languages collections in the branch libraries serving the Head Start and ECEAP
centers targeted in this project. After the center and library story times and
the library tour, we hoped that families who spoke and read a home language
other than English would begin to access this collection. Second, as part of
our project we gave each child who attended a library story time a paperback
picture book to take home and keep.
From
the beginning of the development of this project, all Project Team members agreed
that having printed materials in the languages of the culture groups we would
be serving was essential to the success of our outreach. The three areas we
wanted to provide information for were: 
You
will invest a lot of time and energy into creating translated brochures –
be sure to take the time to inform the wider community of their existence! Of
course you will distribute the flyers in your libraries, and in the early childhood
centers you work with, but that is just a beginning.
The
Puget Sound ESD conducts an end-of-project celebration every May for volunteers
and workers with special projects, such as Peer Literacy and Peer Health Volunteers
and the volunteers working with Men Count. In year two of our Project we joined
this celebration and invited our interpreters and center and library staff to
join us. We presented information about our project to those in attendance,
and gave certificates and small thank-you packets to the many people who made
our project successful.Last Updated: July 29, 2007