Impact on the Community: How Successful Were We?

     One hope of this project was to increase the library’s visibility with residents who are not regular library users because of language barriers. We knew that we could only begin the outreach, but we were eager to see if a small amount of money could make a difference. Here’s what our libraries reported:

• "The small kids in attendance came with adults, who were delighted about the bilingual giveaway books, as their own English was limited and the bilingual text would help them learn new vocabulary as well as treat their kids to a story in two languages."
   
• "Five attendees were African-American kids who spoke no Spanish, but they had a good time just the same, which was particularly wonderful considering the racial tensions in our neighborhood between Blacks and Hispanics—what a great way to melt those barriers!"
   
• "Definitely reached some new families and registered people for library cards."
   
• "The programs provided an excellent opportunity to purchase bilingual materials for our library patrons."
   
• "Despite the low and occasionally non-existent attendance the children and parents who attended the program enjoyed it and were very disappointed when it ended."
   
• "Disappointing from Latino community. All participants were Anglos who wanted their children exposed to another language."
   
• "Very positive! The Japanese children’s books circulation has dramatically increased. The presence in general of young Japanese families in the library has increased. It showed the Japanese community that we care about them and they are welcome at our library."
   
• "Most of those attending were patrons. However, this did generate interest in other children’s programs at this branch."
   
• "It showed the community that the library is interested in cultural diversity and is trying to reach out to the many populations in our community."
   
• "Those who came loved the program but we were hoping to draw more people into the library from the Hispanic community."
   
• "It was nice to see children of different races learning Spanish."
   
• "Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this program. It was not only fun to do but also a learning experience for the branch and our Indian community. It has given the library the incentive to do more programs like this in the future."
   
• "Handing out books at each session was appreciated greatly by attendees."
•  
• We would switch from Hindi to Gujarati, because it was too hard to get materials in Hindi and most of our patrons speak other dialects.  Patrons were enthusiastic but we lacked materials.
•  
• A lot of books we bought for this program have circulated!

• For many of our families, it was the first introduction to the library for them.  The parents loved hearing the stories in their own language.

Anecdotes

• "Five-year old Oscar attended every session. He was always happy to see me, but usually wanted to walk around or play after the second story, and it was hard to keep his attention. He would get to a point where he would say, 'I’m bored.' By the last week, he was saying repeatedly, 'I like stories' and 'Read another one.'"
   
• "One week, two of the regular children, while waiting for storytime to start, went into the picture book room and set up the children’s chairs for the storytime including a chair for the storyteller. Then they made pictures for the storyteller telling her the loved her and taped them to her chair. Then one of the children sat in the storyteller’s chair and pretended to be the storyteller and read a book to the children in the room. The child held the book up showing the pictures and read in a loud voice imitating the storyteller."