REFORMA OR Table at OLA 2016
On April 20-22, 2016 REFORMA OR participated in the 2016 Oregon Library Association conference in Bend, OR! Chapter members presented a pre-conference workshop titled “¡Bienvenidos a la biblioteca!: Outreach and Engagement with Latino and Spanish Speaking Populations in Your Communities” and staffed a table to raise awareness about the chapter.
The table included chapter information, buttons, membership forms, and a beautiful poster featuring photos of Oregon REFORMISTAS in action, a map of current libraries associated with the chapter, and the mission of REFORMA which is to promote the advancement, growth, improvement, and implementation of library and information services for the Latino and Spanish speaking community in the state of Oregon. We had a number of conference attendees stop by our table who were very excited to learn that our chapter existed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pre-Conference: “¡Bienvenidos a la biblioteca!: Outreach and Engagement with Latino and Spanish Speaking Populations in Your Communities”
Workshop Description: “REFORMA Oregon is a professional organization for librarians and library staff who serve Spanish speaking and Latino communities. In this half day session, you will learn about REFORMA Oregon, what it has to offer and how you can become involved; hear stories of how librarians are building relationships with their Latino and Spanish speaking communities, their successes and lessons learned; and you will gain outreach strategies, program ideas, and information about resources specific to Latino and Spanish speaking populations. We will also include time for you to share your needs to better serve this diverse community, and together, we will develop ideas for an action plan.”
Workshop Agenda – Wednesday April 20th 8:30am-noon
8:30 Introductions and Agenda for the Morning
9:00 REFORMA OR History and Establishment
9:30 Stories of Our Work with the Latino / Spanish Speaking Community
10:30 Break
10:45 Challenges and Limitations as well as Action Items for the Chapter
11:45 Closing Thoughts and Next Steps
Noon Workshop Adjourned
The workshop facilitators and presenters included:
- Martín Blasco, Outreach Librarian for Latino and Youth Services Program, Washington County Coop. Library Services
- Patty Lara, Outreach Specialist, Hood River County Library District
- Natalia Fernández, Curator and Archivist, Oregon Multicultural Archives at the Oregon State University Libraries
REFORMA 0R Pre-Conference Workshop
One of the most important parts of the workshop was the opportunity for the chapter to hear from librarians across Oregon about their needs and how REFORMA OR could assist them. In small groups, the participants brainstormed ideas and then came together as a large group to share their thoughts. In the coming year, the chapter intends to address some of these needs; check out the full list of needs/ideas below:
REFORMA OR Action Items – Library Needs: Based on an activity by the participants of the REFORMA OR Pre-Conference April 20, 2016
Collection Development
- Book lists of Spanish books
- Collection development for academic libraries and public libraries
- Collaborative collection purchasing tricks
- List of grants for giveaway books
- Collection development for all ages
- Multimedia for kids
- Music, DVD’s, audiolibros (audiobooks)
- Create a survey to listserv asking; Survey asking (other) libraries collection development successes
- Vendors used
- Collections with highest circulation
- How do you promote?
- Best practices for Multimedia (DVD, CD’s, ABCD)
- Finding culturally appropriate A/V
- Other
Community Outreach
- Ways to address misconceptions and policies that prevent patrons from coming in
- Talking points to speak to Latino community
- More ways on introducing the concept of libraries for a community
- More ways to incorporate our Spanish community to our academic library
- Templates for introductory emails
- List of local/national (by county) organizations who work w/underserved populations
- Ideas on how to bring Latino population into the library versus getting resources out to the community
- Tips on how to bond with the community
- Success stories of how to recruit Spanish-speaking volunteers
- Ideas for getting students involved in using library resources (online and print) in a university setting
Advocacy
- To publishers – bring them here (the materials)
- Tips on advocacy for changing local government structure
- Tips for advocacy unchanging city/political practices (culture)
- How do you change the current culture in your city?
Programming Ideas
- Cultural specific programming suggestions for adults.
- Story time resources and easy picture books to read aloud
- Books and book lists
- Rhymes
- What works/doesn’t
- Help for those who don’t speak Spanish
- Specific program ideas that libraries are implementing that are awesome
- Resources for parents
- Community resources and information on early literacy
- Tips and tricks on incorporating Spanish into programs in public libraries as an English-speaking (monolingual) librarian
- Program templates – form? Budget, materials, volunteers, what needs are you meeting, location, time, ages served, food/no food, community partners, PR, marketing materials
- Programming Materials IN SPANISH! and in an editable format
- Marketing materials in Spanish
- Library card applications
- Welcome to the library brochures [with illustrations]
Collaboration Among Libraries in OR
- List of organizations working w/undeserved
- Listing of people in Oregon that are attending FIL to help with/network, ask questions
- Survival Spanish tips for library staff
- List of Guadalajara participants/attendees
- Grants: help with writing grants and searching for grants
- Common struggles (lack of participating in programs, attending events, using collection, etc.) and how to address them, improve services
- Spanish programs for librarians i.e. study abroad opportunities
- Share collection development tips and presentation to listserv
- Post on the REFORMA OR Blog!
- Featured “Librarian“ to share your library resources success/failures, etc.
