Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Spring Fling Workshops on Service to Spanish Speakers

California Library Association 2009 Spring Fling Workshops to feature "Breaking into Services to Latinos" and a Spanish Cataloging workshop, both on June 5th! Register at http://cla-net.org/included/docs/SpringFling_Registration.pdf

3 comments:

  1. I'm a MLIS student at San Jose State and I'm doing a genre/sub-genre project on Latino YA literature. I was wondering if Latino teens read in Spanish and if they do, what are they reading? The small Spanish language YA collection at the library I work at ( as a page) doesn't seem to circulate much. Gracias in advance.

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  2. I invite others to comment on this, since I make no claims as an expert, but rather just gather the resources provided by experts. That said, my experience working in libraries and as a teacher with latino youth, and everything I have read, show me that it really depends on the specific population you are working with. Latino youth who have immigrated to the United States in the last few years, and who have completed a significant amount of their education in a Spanish speaking country, will most likely read in Spanish. Equally likely are youth who have grown up in communities in the United States where Spanish is widely spoken and/or come from families who place a high value on literacy in their native language.
    On the other hand, I have witnessed a trend among many second generation latino youth, and even among first generation immigrants who immigrated earlier in life, for either the youth themselves to choose to read only in English for a variety of reasons, or even for their parents to forbid them from reading in Spanish (or speaking Spanish outside of the home), in order to hasten their acculturation to and acceptance by the English speaking community.
    Anyone else have any comments, or wisdom on what Spanish-speaking youth are reading when they do read in Spanish?

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  3. Thanks so much for your comment. The books I've been reading have many Spanish words and phrases, some even have glossaries. I wonder if teens are learning Spanish as they read, since many can speak/understand but may have never seen these words in print. I can relate since English is my first language and I still struggle sometimes with Spanish.

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