Webjunction’s Spanish Language Outreach Program

This Sunday afternoon program was intended as a follow-up for individuals who had participated in Webjunction’s Spanish Language Outreach workshops. Although I was not one of those lucky few, I decided to attend the session to learn more about it, and I am very glad I did, as the information provided could be useful to any librarian who hopes to work in a diverse community.

Yolanda Cuesta presented the first segment of the program on marketing to Spanish speakers. Yolanda’s advice was practical and very useful:

- Work with community leaders to start the needs assessment for the community; try to create a personal connection so that you will come to be trusted in the community. It is very important in this community to establish personal relationships and rely more on personal contact via phone or in person, since email or mass mailings may not be as relevant in this culture.
- Develop the “library as a brand that is culturally relevant”; a place that provides services that the community needs and wants-a place for getting help, for entertainment and fun, for learning, and for family activities- vs. the traditional promotion of the library as a provider of books and information resources.
- In the first marketing stage, translate the library card application and basic brochures into Spanish. Jump right into marketing, without over thinking it: send press releases to Spanish media outlets and start to participate in community events, where you can hand out information about the library and meet more of the leaders.
- In the second stage, start to realize the differences within the community itself, including age, country of origin, degrees of acculturation, and marital status. These factors all have a great impact on the services you provide and how they should be marketed. Also during this stage, start adapting traditional library services, such as story hours or computer classes, for the Spanish speaking community, and begin to experiment with marketing at local gathering spots such as grocery stores or pharmacies. Additionally, you should never undervalue the importance of word-of-mouth marketing.
- The third marketing stage follows a more holistic approach, where you look at the entire library and the Hispanic community in more depth, deciding which specific segments of the community you would like to target. It is hard to make this decision, since selecting one segment means you will not reach everyone, but these are necessary (hard) choices that will help the services grow well and target the marketing more specifically. During this stage, the library should also try to increase its presence in the community by organizing community events such as Dia de los niños.
- Once you have completed this process, you can start over, targeting a different portion of the community: look and learn who makes up the community, determine their needs and develop a program. It is important to keep the process going and not neglect it after the first try, as continuity is an important factor for establishing trust in the community. As the projects progress, continue to make inroads with community leaders to get a better understanding and form partnerships.

The session continued with a few stories from individuals who had participated in the workshop and the way they applied the training to their libraries. John Tull from Wallens Ridge State Prison in Virginia described the progress he has made at his prison library, including the translation of signs and procedural documents into Spanish and collaboration with the ESOL classes. Previous program participants then broke up into discussion groups to brainstorm about their different outreach projects.

To learn more about the workshops and find materials about the topic, visit Webjunction’s Spanish Outreach page: http://webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=10555