Service to special populations today

Serving New Immigrant Communities in the Library by Sondra Cuban and Kathleen De La Pea McCook examines the role of the library in today’s world in regard to immigration. Specifically for Latino populations this has great significance both for the library and for the immigrant community. Of the top ten countries sending immigrants to the US, five are Spanish speaking. There are currently 35 million adults in the US whose first language is not English, and this number is expected to keep growing.

The Latino population also grows more rapidly than other segments and accounts for half of the population growth in the country. Some areas like the Southwest and West are accustomed to this, but other areas like Greensboro, NC, Atlanta, GA and Las Vegas, NV, that are not traditionally thought of as hosts to large Latino populations have experienced ethnic shifts.

An ALA study showed that 58% of Latinos used the library. Libraries are usually inclusive, adaptable and flexible and, more often than not, have a true desire to help. Libraries are open places where at no charge immigrants can read, improve their language skills, have access to computers, form a bond with others in the community and experience and share the enjoyment books and films with their children.

Because 62% of low wage workers are considered to have limited English proficiency (LEP), these library opportunities become more important. No where else fulfills this role either because they charge money, are open fewer hours, require registration or proof of citizenship or immigration status and/or require higher literacy skills. The library is a safe place to go for information and it is part of the historic role/mission of library to provide the services that immigrants need to adapt to our society. When there are fewer educational opportunities in traditional society, there is a greater demand on libraries, and society really expects libraries to fulfill this role.

The Center for Immigration Studies finds that assimilation is not as quick as before because an atmosphere of patriotism mixed suspicion or skepticism in the general public sometimes borders on hostility toward those perceived as foreign. Another problem not often considered is that sometimes there is tension between legal and illegal immigrants in a community. And finally, modern technology makes it easier for immigrant populations to maintain contact with their countries of origin. All of this can have a profound psychological impact on the populations and should be taken into consideration when creating library programming

The authors are strong proponents of community assessment, outreach, and committed conditions to ensure that policies and services can be provided, and being proactive is the key. This book contains many examples and anecdotes from their research that can be adapted in practical and positive ways by libraries everywhere.

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Serving New Immigrant Communities in the Library
By Sondra Cuban, Kathleen De La Pea McCook. Libraries Unlimited, 2007

La Purísima

This is the chapter of San Miguel’s history that I have found the most enchanting and intriguing. Let me tell you just the beginning to see if I can entice you into reading Rebellious Nuns: The Troubled History of a Mexican Convent by Margaret Chowning. The cast of characters is fascinating. Let’s begin with Manuel Tomas de la Canal who came to San Miguel from Mexico City in about 1730. He was the son of a wealthy Spanish merchant and became an even wealthier sheep rancher and wool merchant. Manuel de la Canal and his wife Maria Josepha Hervas’ first child was born in 1736 and they named her Maria Josepha Lina de la Canal y Hervas for her mother, as is traditional. Over the next dozen years they had nine children. Manuel spent lavishly on both private and civic buildings, including the family’s summer palace which is the Instituto Allende today.

Within days of each other Manuel de la Canal and Maria Josepha Hervas both died. The eldest of their nine orphans was Maria Josepha Lina who was twelve. She immediately let it be known that she intended to found a convent. This was no sudden whim or romantic notion. She had been preparing all her life. She was well educated and independent. In her parent’s house she had insisted upon living apart as in a cell. She tried to work like the servants and when she could, pretended to drop something on the floor so she could surreptitiously kiss their feet. By the time she was fifteen, with the help of her confessor, her plans were well under way.

Enter another colorful character: Father Luis Phelipe Neri de Alfaro, Maria Josepha Lina’s confessor. He was a trusted friend of the family, a mystic who devoted 25 years to building Atotonilco at the behest of Christ himself. He wore severe hair shirts on Fridays and slept in a coffin to keep his mortality in mind, although he wore out three coffins over his lifetime. Alfaro had experience in founding religious establishments, and had direct or indirect connections to seven religious institutions in or near San Miguel.

A convent in the city would be a crowning glory. A convent was an appealing alternative to marriage for upper class young ladies. It also brought advantages to the city by spurring growth, creating a lending institution for the moderate from the endowment built by dowries, and adding a certain air of culture or refinement to its reputation.

Maria Josepha Lina had quite definite ideas about how her convent should be run; and there’s where all the problems begin. She wanted to institute the rule of vida común or shared life. Her hand is obvious in the “constitution” that stipulated the exact structure and practices of the convent: the number and status of each nun, the amount of their dowries, what racial background they must have, and that there were to be no servants. This would prove to be the undoing of the convent over and over.

Most convents that required a dowry followed the rule of the vida particular or private life. The result was often a kind of private city where nuns had personal servants, habits made of fine cloth, jewels, pets, and singing, dancing and theatrics were all part of life behind the grille of the cloister. Every indication was that La Purísima should be the same.

When Maria Josepha Lina was twenty, in 1756, the convent was inaugurated. There were eight days of masses, fireworks, theatrical comedies, bullfights, and parades. And then all hell broke loose. Three times. I won’t give away any more of the story but I recommend it heartily.

The convent today houses the art institute, Bella Artes, where foreigners come to paint.
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Rebellious Nuns: The Troubled History of a Mexican Convent, 1752-1863. By Margaret Chowning. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.)

Understanding race

Gary Howard’s book begins with his own story: he managed to all but finish high school in Seattle in 1964 without having come across someone of a different race. Then he went to Yale and began participating in an outreach program at the YMCA, which led to a lifelong dedication to helping others understand the complexities of culture, and most of all race.

The title is borrowed from the words of Malcolm X, ‘We can't teach what we don't know, and we can't lead where we can't go.’ Howard posits that we need to understand all races and how the European white race became dominant. He makes the case that we need to understand our own cultural identity, which is a surprisingly uncomfortable one, and acknowledge our responsibility for the oppression of others.

This may sound overly morose, but the book actually supports finding meaningful ways to communicate effectively and sincerely with people from other cultural groups. The implications for libraries are obvious. Howard, who has dedicated his life to this, also runs the REACH Center in Seattle, a nonprofit, internationally renowned institution, which provides workshops, training and consultation.

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Howard, G.R. (2006). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers and multiracial schools. New York: Teachers College Press/Columbia University.

Do you have ten minutes?

El corazon de Mexico - The heart of Mexico - is the name of a great video made by the Departamento de Turismo de San Miguel de Allende that I just found with the sights of SMA set to music. I think we may be disappointed with the real thing after the wondrous sights so beautifully portrayed here. I must warn you that it lasts about ten minutes, mas o menos, so make sure you've got time to see it because you probably won't want to tear yourselves away. In fact, maybe you should pour a glass of wine and enjoy...

http://www.terrazassanmiguel.com/heart_of_mexico.html

Silver Slaves

I thought it was interesting to learn that African slaves were brought to be used in the sliver mines near San Miguel de Allende. According to a report on March 2, 1768, an inspection that had been ordered to investigate charges of mistreatment of slaves was conducted in the area and fourteen slave families were investigated. There is also mention of six other male slaves without families in that specific report. Proctor states that while it is impossible to determine what percentage of the labor force was made up of slaves at that time, he concludes that it would have been significant. The slaves imported from Africa, like the indigenous slaves, formed part of the encomiendo system that bound them and their descendants to a particular plantation or hacienda and they were not usually subsequently bought and sold. Interestingly enough, although the Constitution of 1824 freed the slaves, some slavery was still practiced as late as 1829.
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Afro-Mexican Slave Labor in the Obrajes de Paños of New Spain, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Author(s): Frank T. Proctor III Source: The Americas, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jul., 2003), pp. 33-58 Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3654753

Library Services to Youth of Hispanic Heritage

This is a book that I will keep in my reference collection. It is packed with trial and error reports, good advice, and valuable resources. It is actually a series of essays gathered by the Trejo Foster Foundation for Hispanic Library Education. The essays are aranged by topics: Programs, Collections, Planning and Evaluating, Bibliographical Resources, and For the Future. Many ideas can be gleaned from this and there is also an excellent annotated bibliography. I especially enjoyed the thoughtful ideas about how to contact people in the community and what to offer them to bring them to the library. There were great sources on how to build a collection including titles, authors and publishers.

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Immroth , B. F. (2000). Library services to youth of hispanic heritage . Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company.

Mummies

There are three interesting aspects to consider about the mummies: how they came about, Ray Bradbury’s short story and why they’re still there.

Evidently, the combination of local conditions of high heat, low humidity and special soil composition quickly turned the bodies in the crypts into mummies. These, 119 in number, are the well preserved bodies of the dead of Guanjuato, whose loved ones probably couldn’t afford the upkeep fees at the local cemetery. When a family failed to pay three years in a row, between 1896 and 1958, the bodies were exhumed and deposited in the local museum. People believe that some were accidentally buried alive during a cholera outbreak in 1833.

Ray Bradbury visited Guanajuato in 1947[?] and then wrote “The Next in Line” which is a gothic, psychological thriller about a woman’s descent into madness after visiting the museum. It’s no bedtime story. The protagonist is haunted by what she calls the silent screaming of the mummies. “Marie’s eyes slammed the furthest wall…swinging from horror to horror…starring with hypnotic fascination at paralyzed, loveless, fleshless loins, at men made into women by evaporation, at women made into dugged swine. The fearful ricochet of vision…ended finally...when vision crashed against the corridor ending with one last scream.”

Bradbury said “I made the mistake of going to the city of Guanajuato … witnessing the mummies wound up and wired to the walls, a long line of them, about a hundred mummies….which terrified me. I wanted to get the hell out of Guanajuato as soon as possible. …I had to write the nightmare down.”

The pictures of the mummies, which you can see by clicking here, are gruesome and shocking. Yet this is a very popular tourist attraction, and a selection of the mummies has even gone on the road as a traveling exhibit. Some have questioned whether it is ethical to keep to them on display, but the town has come to depend quite heavily on the money that comes from the museum. I know I’m not going anywhere near them. In fact I may not be able to sleep tonight just from reading the story and seeing the pictures. But if you’re a fan of the genre, it may be just your thing.

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Bradbury, R. (1955). The October country. New York, NY: Balantine. The next in line, p.18

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/40550

http://redwood.stormloader.com/bradbury/stories.htm

http://www.reflectionsedge.com/archives/mar2007/fsrb_mm.html

Plata y Presidios

San Miguel (later 'de Allende') was founded because of the Chichimecas and the silver. Chichimeca was the name that the Spanish gave to the indigenous peoples from the north. While the southern tribes, like the Aztecs, were sedentary; the northerners had guerilla tactics that made their subjugation more difficult. When the Spanish attempted to haul their new-found treasure to their ships, the Chichimecas were so skilled with bows and arrows that they were able to practically nullify the horses, swords and guns of the Spanish. They were fearless and elusive in the terrain they knew so well. They liked to capture and cruelly torture, enslaving native women and children, martyring Spanish friars, and leaving ghost towns in their wake. They had a very large territory and little hierarchical social structure. The Spanish sent at least two special detachments to impose order. They were not successful. They attempted to transport their spoils in large wagon trains, but the Chichimecas were still irrepressible.
So the Spanish solution was to found a series of presidios (prisons) and defensive towns. San Miguel was the first founded. It had been a native settlement with a small group of Spaniards that had, in fact, been abandoned about four years earlier following a Chichimeca raid. It was a superb site strategically, and on December 15th, 1555 Viceroy Velasco (pictured here) issued orders that made it the first in a chain of settlements meant to keep the barbarian Chichimeca at bay. About 50 Spaniards were given lands and commissioned with establishing houses, orchards, farms and ranches. The nearby natives were not to be disturbed by the new settlement, but would contribute to it by adding to its size.

In the end there were more than 30 presidios and frontier towns that made a safe network for getting the silver from the mines to the ports.

The Forty-Niners of Sixteenth-Century Mexico Author(s): Philip Wayne Powell Source: The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Aug., 1950), pp. 235-249 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3635589

Presidios and Towns on the Silver Frontier of New Spain, 1550-1580 Author(s): Philip Wayne Powell Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 24, No. 2 (May, 1944), pp. 179-200 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2507832

Authority control and tagging

Authority control, as explained in Katherine Wells’ informative article, definitely appeals to the aspiring perfectionist in me. As our world becomes more complicated, and published works proliferate with technological advances spurring on their rapid growth, having a reliable method of being able to locate information will continue to escalate in importance.
Wells makes a good case for how authority control creates a structure that helps enable better searching through four functions: authority, finding, information and maintenance. Key word searching is less exact and cannot provide the ‘see from’, ‘see also’, ‘broader terms’ or ‘narrower terms’ that can quickly enhance a mediocre or uninspired search. It also makes it much easier to update huge systems when changes are necessary.
Tagging, that flavor-of-the-month, new-kid-on-the-block, hip, cool form of creating one’s own terms is even less satisfactory than keywords. Many (most?) people use very general tags like “read” or “library_sci”. What I tagged “MH” may have been clear 2 semesters ago, but now it’s just one big question mark. What Julie meant when she created the tag “Lib-web” is something I can only guess . These are the most popular tags on Delicious.com today: design, blog, video, software, tools, music, programming, webdesign, reference, tutorial, art. web, howto, javascript, free, linux, web2.0, development, google, inspiration, photography, news, food, flash. css, blogs, education, and business. How many do you think would be useful for finding exact information?
One of my pet peeves about tagging is that it is not hierarchical. At least mine is far from hierarchical. My del.icio.us account is less organized than a 12-year-old’s desk. Organizing it is somewhere on the proverbial ‘to-do’ list, but not really a high priority. It would surely benefit from some behind the scenes control.
Alas, I have strayed from Wells’ authority control, so let me just say that I agree with her premises . I am partial to authority. I approve of control. To me, its win-win.

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Wells, K.L. (2006). Got authorities? Why authority control is good for your library. Tennessee Libraries (Online), 56(2), 1-12.

Subject access and accessible cataloging

Elaine Yontz says: “If service to Hispanic patrons is not yet a major concern of your library, it will be soon.” We know that the Spanish speaking population is rapidly increasing in many areas across the country and every indication is that this segment of our population will continue to grow. Given this, it seems logical to conclude, as she does, that: “To lobby for a certain amount of consistency in the cataloging produced for national use is reasonable. Likewise, we should encourage utilities and vendors to catalog with more sensitivity to special populations.” She enumerates three current systems, LCSH, AC program, and Bilindex, and proceeds to analyze their effectiveness using the works of Mora. She finds them all extremely inadequate. 

She does advocate using MARC fields on a local level to make sure a library’s materials are at least accessible to it’s own immediate users, pointing out that “needed materials which cannot be found by patrons or by the librarians who help them represent a waste of valuable resources and do not, for practical purposes, even exist.” At least by identifying materials through MARC fields like 520, 650 and/or 690 will enable the local library and it’s patrons to have “a consistent access point" so that items can be located efficiently and certainly. When Yontz says that "this kind of editing can be done by anyone who can read, think, and type,” I thought: Aha! Our mission in SMA is defined!

Her point that “individual librarians must accept ultimate responsibility for the quality and effectiveness of their catalogs”also made me think that we must ensure that the soon to be released RDA has this covered better that the current systems.

 

Immroth, B. & McCook, K. de la P. (2000).  Library services to youth of Hispanic heritage.  Jefferson, NC: McFarland.  Subject access to fiction: A case study based on the works of Pat Mora, pp. 131-135. 

 

Don't waste your time

In my opinion this book is almost a total waste of time. From the start the author misrepresents SMA (“a smattering of ex-pats”? Every other source I've seen says that it is known for having a large and significant ex-pat community). I find his style smarmy and disgusting (The hotel manager’s daughter and later one of his own renters are described in lecherous and demeaning terms, as if they're ‘asking for it’.)

Most abysmally his knowledge of Spanish is so substandard that he continuously misunderstands and misrepresents what transpires. (Rematar is not "to kill twice"; rematar is to “finish off or to put out of one's misery”.) His self-serving, all knowing, superiority about Mexican language and culture, and indeed all language and culture, make me shudder to think that someone might read this and believe that it represents mainstream truth.

It’s hard to believe that something so sloppy could be published, yet the author’s back page bio seems credible. It would be interesting to see if this is representative of his normal quality or just a knock off for a special audience.

Reaching Latino community

I started on Chapter 6, because I'm most interested in outreach. The first points were to get to know the community and the leaders of that community. The authors suggest doing PR by partnering with Latino organizations. This certainly gives a great entree into the community, and provides a ready made organizational structure to take advantage of.

In the marketing section they list the following steps: plan well, use promotional fliers and the Internet, Use bilingual PR, emphasize that services are all free, Write effective press releases, utilize public service announcements, give effective presentations, and develop a distribution list with the necessary information included. Of these, I would like to highlight the following:

Use bilingual PR. This is a good idea even if the service or program is only being offered in English. Parents might like to bring their children to a story hour but either not understand enough about how it works from an English only announcement, or feel that they would not be welcome if they do not speak English. Often children know more English than their parents. In fact I think it would be great to develop a slogan to print as a footer on every library publication saying that all are welcome and all services and programs are free.

Emphasize that all programs are free. 'It's free' and 'You're welcome' are the two most important messages to get across. Many Latinos may come from areas that did not have libraries or the libraries were not able to offer many services. We want them to know what we offer and we want them to come. This is a vital part of outreach.

Develop a distribution list. This is a step that will pay off over and over again. When meeting people through their community organizations it is important to keep track of who they are, what group they represent, what their interests are, contact information and dates that are important to their community or group. (Holidays and celebrations vary from country to country.) If the library keeps good records of these things they will be able to provide greater services and attract more patrons. In short the library will be more successful.

Alire, C. & Ayala, J. (2007). Serving Latino communities. 2nd ed. NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Para abrir boca....

San Miguel de Allende

This website tells us that San Miguel de Allende is one of the most beautiful in the province of Guanajuato, full of history and tradition. It was founded out of a necessity to protect travelers between Zacatecas and the capital of what was then the kingdom of New Spain and the route to transport minerals, mostly silver. In about 1542 from a humble chapel and villa called Itzcuinapan, or “the place of the dogs”, a friar named Juan de San Miguel started a place for the local population and dedicated it to the archangel St. Michael. There were severe problems with water supply and that hardship coupled with an attack in 1551 caused the village to be abandoned after 15 inhabitants were killed.
Subsequently a Franciscan Friar named Bernardo Cossin and a local indigenous leader, Fernando de Tapia, rebuilt the location as a mission half way up the hills between the local springs. This is the modern location of the church of the Santa Escuela, which was established in the 18th century.
Later developments included the military prison built on the road to Zacatecas, and it was this privileged location that caused its rapid growth of beautiful houses and palaces as well as religious buildings, many of which can still be visited in what became San Miguel el Viejo, and then the neighborhood of the Santa Cruz Vieja. Throughout this evolution there was an effort made to respect the chessboard layout which helped the area grow in a measured and harmonious style and conserved the original style.
These include the Palacio Municipal (now regional museum) from 1736; the Casa del Mayorazgo de la Canal, late 18th C; the Casa del Inquisidor, 1780, headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition in New Spain; and many more which you can read about (in Spanish) at the following website.

San Miguel de Allende

Our Syllabus

Spanish spoken here

The most crucial line of reasoning about having collections in languages other than English is that public libraries serve their populations. We should only attempt to judge what they might like to read, not what they should read. Not supplying books in another language when there are users who wish to read in that language is as sensible as not supplying books about non-Christian religions because we decide our country would be better if everyone were Christian. Or not supplying books on vegetarianism because it is 'healthier' to follow a ‘balanced’ diet.
We supply access to information. Along the way we sometimes have opportunities to help our users develop skills that aid them in being able to acquire the same, but that is not our primary mission.
An important point that was not touched upon in this article is that most people prefer to read in their mother tongue. I consider myself fluent in Spanish, and I am a translator by profession, but I prefer to read mostly in English. I find reading Spanish novels much more work to really comprehend all the nuance; in English I rarely even have to think consciously about this.
I can and do read non-fiction in the original language, and certainly prefer original language to translation when I have the choice, but for recreational reading, for relaxation, I want to read in English.
A personal case in point, if you will indulge me, are my unsuccessful attempts to read Don Quijote. This quest has involved searching for a palatable translation as well as various original versions. Actually, I have read but not grasped it well enough to understand its significance. I attribute this to my lack of comprehension of Cerventes, Spanish and male bonding; in that order.
I also thought the comment by Denver Mayor Hickenlooper was thought provoking: "Libraries tend to be independent from direct government control so that the personal preferences, tastes, or political needs of politicians do not dictate the contents they contain," Do library acquisitions stay under the political radar of their communities? This would be an intriguing topic to investigate more fully
Finally, I think it’s kind of strange that we’re given ½ an article to read here. I remember reading this when it was published in AL and thinking that the poor person who had to write the English spoken here portion certainly had the short end of the stick, and she was lampooned in subsequent letters to the magazine.

Quesada, T. (2007, November). Spanish spoken here. American Libraries, 30(10), 40-44.

Religious Architecture

The religious architecture of San Miguel de Allende is also of utmost importance. The Convent of St Vincent, 1737, and the Convent of the Loyal Conception are two examples.
The chapel of the Holy Cross of the Spring and the Temple of the Third Order, two of the oldest, are both from the beginning of the 17th C. The beautiful buildings that compose the church and prayer site of St. Phillip Neri, from the beginning of the 18th C. has a exuberant Baroque portal that displays a strong indigenous influence. It houses the splendid chapel of the Holy House of St. Loreto, the antechamber of the holy mother, and the temple of Our Lady of Health.
The church of St. Francis, also 18th C., is really a symbol of the city itself. It was actually built over an earlier 17th C. temple keeping the original interior and dimensions.

Nearby is the Sanctuary of Atotonilco, which actually dates from the 16thC, and contains valuable paintings from that era.It is known as the Sistine Chapel of the Americas and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site this July



San Miguel de Allende