Simple and Easy Idea

Wish I could take credit for this idea but it goes to Padma. At the parapros conference I attended earlier this year one of the workshops I attended was on Diversity. Padma's idea was to make sure when you put up book displays to make sure the faces are cover a broad spectrum. Most of my displays are in the children's area so remembering to make sure to put books representing different cultures, ages and abilities has added a lot to the appeal of my displays.

Prisons, death row inmates and religion

In her new book, Change of Heart, Jodi Picoult gives you a book you can't put down because she raises questions that keep you thinking well into the night. Death row inmate, Shay Bourne wants to give his heart to the sister of the girl he was accused of killing. This involves the ACLU who needs to plead for him to die by hanging instead of lethal injection in order to preserve the organs. Outside the prison are all the people who believe and don't believe in the death penalty. It discusses the ins and outs of organ transplants, the ideas of salvation and forgivness, and it tests the religous beliefs of many.

Inside the prison the reader is given an amazing depiction of prison life by inmate Lucius. I found this part to be facinating. It talked about how the inmates are treated and what they think of each other, how they hide their treasures and how they spend the long hours in their cells. It discussed the things they missed the most while incarcerated and the ongoing balance between each other and their jailers.

When I attended the Para Pro conference earlier this month I did attend a breakout session talking about correctional libraries and the offenders in the system. This is a special population that many of us know little about.

Diversity Summit: Keynote Speaker Yolanda Cuesta

Yolanda Cuesta was the first keynote speaker at the Diversity Summit in Glenwood Springs this July. Her presentation was entitled It’s all about relationships and trust: Principles for long term success in serving diverse communities.
Ms. Cuesta described three major principles that are integral to serving diverse communities. The principles are below with a very brief summary for each:
1. Know your community: Learn about their work and leisure time, learn the demographics, learn who is important in the community. With immigrant communities it is important to find out what state/region (in addition to their country of origin) to better understand this group.
Conduct community interviews with prominent members of the community you serve. This will often require moving beyond library patrons. It is up to us to start the conversation with these leaders to better understand the community’s needs. This will also assist in positive word of mouth in the community.
2. Figure out how to connect with patrons’ lives: We often assume that people understand libraries and we may miss barriers of past experiences for those in the community. One way to overcome barriers could be through promoting programming that will interest the community (i.e., build on the international popularity of soccer, especially during the World Cup).
3. Respect & Value Cultures: We should understand our own culture when attempting to understand the culture of others. Through understanding our own culture, we will better see how our cultural outlook may shade or influence our understanding of others.
Again, this is a very brief overview of the speech (feel free to comment with augmentations or questions!).
To learn more about Yolanda Cuesta’s insights and strategies, check out her chapter Developing Outreach Skills in Library Staff in the ALA Editions book "From Outreach to Equity".

a special library

Recently I went on my own little field trip to a library I have been wanting to see: the Blair-Caldwell African-American Research Library, part of the Denver system. It is a beautiful new library with a special collection of materials relating to the African-American community in Denver. I enjoyed the historical exhibits on the second and third floors very much. There were great photographs showing Denver's diverse history. The library is right on the light rail line too! This is a fascinating local resource for us and our patrons too. You can see more about it via this link http://aarl.denverlibrary.org/

Senior Source

If you go into the 9 News website and look under the As Seen on dropdown menu you will find Senior Source. It's a Resource for Aging and Living Well. I contains links to all kinds of services for seniors. You can learn about volunteer opportunities, Social Security, retirement, economic stimulus package, financial planning, assisted living and nursing homes, nutrition and much more. There is a section on veterans benefits. It is brought to you by Colorado Department of Human Services and Denver Regional Council of Governments. I found it to be very informative.

A Trip To REECA Heritage Camp

July 24-27 I have visited REECA (Russian,Eastern European, Central Asian) Heritage Camp. It was a very interesting experience that has touched me personally on various levels. Colorado Heritage Camps (REECA is just one of them) are organized for the families who adopted children from various countries of Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. My job in the camp was to tell both kids and their parents about the Russian collection at ALD, issue library cards and instruct the out-of-state campers on how to use ILL to borrow Russian language materials from our library as well as from other American libraries which have Russian language materials. I have also provided workshops on popular Russian children's games and most popular Russian kids' authors and books to the parents and volunteers of the Camp. And, of course, I told Russian stories to the kids! 12 hours of stories (6 hours per day!) to 140 kids. It was quite challenging (I even lost my voice by Sunday), but extremely rewarding, because those kids were REALLY excited about this service! I am really looking forward to go to the REECA Camp again next year and I think that Heritage Camps in general is a very good opportunity to outreach to diverse populations.

Passport to Russia

Hi all,

In Sept. the Smoky Hill Library is presenting a program called Passport to Russia for kids aged 5-11. If anyone has a suggestion for a game that can be played inside that would be great. I would also like to pull some good fiction books (picture or chapter) that have a Russian characters I'll share the list when it's done but again I am open to suggestions.

Thanks,
Erin