Russian Fire-Bird Festival at the Chuchr of All Saints

September 13 I have participated in the Russian festival “Fire-Bird” organized by the Russian Orthodox Church of All Saints. It was the very first such festival and it attracted many Russians as well as many English speakers. I brought books (both for kids and adults) on Russian history, culture and Russian Orthodox Church. And I was able to check out quite a few of them – especially children’s books. I also issued library cards to people from Colorado Springs who did not know they could have ALD cards and check out books from GL. They were very happy to learn that we have a large collection of Russian books which included a good portion of kids’ books, audio-books and DVDs. I also explained to some people who came to the festival from Nebraska (!) how to get Russian books through interlibrary loan. I was surprised at how few people realized they could get our books no matter where they lived! Besides book I brought to the festival ALD handout materials (Deweys, information on the computer classes, Construction Party fliers, etc). And it was really handy, because many people came and ask for this information. In general I am glad I came to this festival: I got acquainted with Father Boris (the priest) and with many other people from the parish (both Russian- and English-speaking) who were either unaware of the Russian collection at ALD at all or were not aware of its size and versatility. I saw many familiar faces of adoptive parents and kids from the REECA camp and I was asked many times whether when we move to the new library we are going to have Russian classes or study groups. Concerning study groups: this question was mainly asked by English speakers who converted into Russian Orthodox faith and who would like to learn Russian and/or practice their language skills.

Time change for the Special Pops meeting

The Special Populations Special Interest Group meeting time has been changed from 8:30 to 8:00 am. Date and location will remain the same:

October 15
8:00 to 9:30 am
Public Meeting Room, Admin Building

Immigrant Integration Grant

Hello,

I wanted to share an exciting program. Spring Institute of Intercultural Learning, SI, our partner for English as a Second Language, ESL, classes, wrote a $5,000 grant to Western Union for an Immigrant Integration Grant for incorporating Library Literacy into the ESL curriculum.

This pilot program will begin with the 8 ESL classes at Glendale and the Glendale Library staff.

SI has hired a reference librarian from DPL, who has also taught ESL classes for them for nearly 16 years, to write up the library literacy curriculum to add to the ESL curriculum with ALD input.

This pilot program began September 1, 2008 and runs through August 31, 2009.

Some parts include: Library Literacy training and library tours for ESL instructors
Pre/post surveys for students on library use and knowledge
Pre/post surveys for GL staff on comfort working with diverse patrons
ALD Lang Lib developing level appropriate library tours and library literacy
instruction
and more.

I will post updates and progress throughout the year on this wonderful partnership.

Cindy McFadden

Next Special Populations Interest Group Meeting is October 15

The 2nd Special Populations Interest Group Meeting will be held on:

October 15
Public Meeting Room, Admin.
8:30 am to 10:00 am

The Colorado Talking Book Library

Have you heard about the Colorado Talking Book Library? The CTBL, located on Sheridan Blvd., is a service of the Colorado Department of Education. It provides free recorded books, also Braille and large print, via mail. Adults or children can be served by this library. Interested patrons will need to fill out the application and have it signed by a professional (usually medical).
Why would a patron use this service rather than the audio books at the public library? For one thing, the tapes and other materials arrive at the home via regular mail, so no transportation to the library is needed. Also, there are a wide variety of recorded magazines available too, as well as local Colorado material.
The CTBL cassettes are played on special machines, which the patron keeps at home as long as the service is being used.
Find out more about how you can help patrons use this resource at http://www.cde.state.co.us/ctbl/index.htm

Senior Resource Day

This event is on Friday, October 10, 2008 at the Buck Community Recreation Center from 9:30-2:00. It is designed to give people of all ages access to information that will help them as they journey along their own individual path to health & wholeness. This is free and open to the public. There will be food, and speakers on spirituality, yoga, and exercise. Also provided is a free shredding of personal documents to protect identity. This is sponsored by the Arapahoe County Council on Aging. I have flyers if you need any to distribute.

Passport to Russia part 2

The program was a success. Katya sent me some fun Russian children's books from GL. The kids had a great time trying to figure out what the books were about by looking at the pictures. They were able to figure out the Bible and they thought one might a poetry book.

I played a CD of a child reciting the Russian alphabet which they thought sounded a lot harder to learn then the English one but that it sounded a lot cooler!

We also made nesting dolls which we had also learned about during the program. They also enjoyed cookies from a Russian grocery store but were surprised that they were not very sweet like American cookies.

Middle of Everywhere

Monica Owens wanted the group to know about a book called The middle of everywhere : the world's refugees come to our town (2002), edited by Mary Bray Pipher. According to Monica, the book "is a collection of stories about new immigrants’ experiences. It is not at all specific to libraries but I think libraries can learn from these stories".

Thanks for the tip, Monica!

Here is the catalog link:
http://aspen.ald.lib.co.us/search~S0?/Xmiddle+of+everywhere&SORT=D/Xmiddle+of+everywhere&SORT=D&SUBKEY=middle%20of%20everywhere/1%2C7%2C7%2CB/frameset&FF=Xmiddle+of+everywhere&SORT=D&1%2C1%2C

Denver International Program Intern

Hello, all,

ALD is very lucky to have an intern, Shakhzoda Djalalova, from Uzbekistan, (former USSR), joining the Outreach Services dept from Sept to Dec.

Shakhzoda is an English as a Second Language teacher and she will be working with our various ESL, English Conversation Circles, Family Literacy program, and more.

Please welcome her to ALD.

Cindy McFadden
Outreach Services Coordinator
303-792-8944