For the Windsor-Severance Library District

Spanish Spotlight Project

Grant Proposal

For the Windsor-Severance Library District

2010-2012

Presented by

Tiffany Keagy-Klier

To

The Colorado State Library LSTA grant program

Contents

I. Executive Summary…………………. 2

II. Windsor-Severance library district … 3

III. Statement of need……..…….………. 6

IV. Proposed initiatives………….………. 7

V. Evaluation & Methodology………….. 9

VI. Proposed Budget……………..……...11

VII. Conclusion………………………..…..11

VIII. References …………………………… 13

I. Executive Summary

This report provides information regarding the Windsor-Severance library district and the need for the library to develop an original Spanish Spotlight Project. The library has been in operation since 1986 and at that time decided to remain separate from the Weld Library district. As a result, the primarily Spanish speaking population has become underserved due to lack of programs and materials that the larger district tends to provide. The independence of the library makes it necessary to provide unique opportunities for the public it serves, especially bilingual studies and resources. To this day WSLD operates as an associate library to the Weld county system by sharing their resources with other county libraries. Enriching the library by providing a Spanish Spotlight Project allows other associated libraries to benefit, as well as WSLD.

It is the hope of this library to improve suitable avenues of information for all the members. To accomplish this goal, WSLD is seeking funding for a three year initiative. $42,000 will cover program costs for the fiscal years 2010 through 2012; approximately $14,000 per grant year. The funding will go towards enriching the physical and digital Spanish collection as well as providing workshops and events tailored to promote dual-language education. Proposed programs include evening dual-language workshops, ESL tutoring and weekly Spanish story hours for families. Funding would also need to allocate for staff to be trained in functioning within the guidelines of the program. With the Spanish Spotlight program in place, and the collection enriched, all of the patrons will find the library a more rewarding and educational experience.

II. The Windsor-Severance Library

Population climate

Much of Colorado has seen a steady increase of people moving from California, Texas and other larger states that have felt the impact of the economic downturn. Windsor’s town website estimates the Hispanic population to be less than eleven percent of the total. The general population has been estimated to have expanded dramatically from 9,896 to over 19,000 by 2010 (http://www.ci.windsor.co.us). The Hispanic population, deductively, has grown from 1000 to 3000 people in just nine years. Severance has a smaller, more rural, population totaling 3200 (http://www.townofseverance.org/). The estimated percentage of Hispanics is 11.4%, but this is also based on 2000 census data. There is clearly a significant population in both towns that would be better served by the library having a bilingual program available like the one proposed.

Furthermore, the library does not serve solely these two towns. Though the name of the library is Windsor-Severance, the library board of directors is currently considering a new name that better represents the community the library serves. This community includes many rural and unincorporated areas, especially in the North East section of the county. At this time, it is difficult to determine the exact boundaries of service and with online access the community could reach beyond simply Weld County.

Weld County, representing the current physical community the library serves, has over 180,000 residents; 27% are Hispanic (http://www.upstatecolorado.org/weldcountydata/weldcountydata.htm). The largest cities in the county, Longmont and Greeley, use the library services to supplement their own on a regular basis. Providing a rich and extensive Spanish resource collection will address the needs of all constituent populations.

Colorado state demographics and Muni-Net (http://www.muninetguide.com) show a significant rise in Hispanic members. In addition to this fact, Colorado shows a marked unemployment rate, which this grant hopes to also battle. More approximate totals can be determined by the 2010 census, whereby this proposal will be updated and supplemented with the derivative information.

Library Facilities

WSLD is located in the heart of the town of Windsor. The library hosts many programs designed to enrich and support creativity of our patrons as well as engage the curiosity of the community and its visitors. World renowned authors and storytellers often provide excellent programs for the patrons. During the summer months there is a well-attended reading program for children as well as one for adults. The summer reading programs provide weekly events related to the year’s topic for the program; this year it was to explore imagination. The library also participates in many community events and has many outreach programs already in place, but none of the programs have focus surrounding Spanish language education.

The library site completed expansion construction in 2009. Regardless of a natural disaster (tornado), the library had anticipated remodeling and closed the doors for the latter part of 2008. After the expansion work was completed, the library re-opened in April 2009 and gained 5,000 square feet in workspace. Many innovative services were able to develop due to the increase in square footage. Materials circulation increased due to the addition of a drive thru pick-up window and book drop. An after-hours lock box system was also installed in the drive thru area so patrons could pick up their requests at any hour, as long as they called in advance. An expanded children’s section provided more seating space in the story hour room for a large audience to be entertained through many of the weekly offerings. Members of the community, who feel passionately about library services, volunteered to paint and decorate this area in a wood land theme, beyond the original remodeling. In the main reading area, there now is comfortable seating with a central fireplace. The physical collection of library materials consists of over 92,000 volumes in reference, general fiction and non-fiction. Digital collections are also large and include “play away” MP3 audio books, as well as CD and tape versions. There are over thirty consistent periodical subscriptions, such as newspapers and magazines. The children’s area contains over 130,000 picture books, multimedia and general young adult reading material. Usually, what is not available on the shelf can be requested through the online catalog or library website. Another growing part of the collection can only be found online through downloadable audio books and online periodical databases. That being said, there is still not enough Spanish language offerings for the general public throughout the new and improved library space. The space for the Spanish collection has already been designated, but it is severely lacking in resources. Currently less than 100 books, audio books, and materials adorn this area.

Clientele

Windsor and Severance are part of Weld County and, in the case of Windsor, partially Larimer County. Patrons are not limited to the general townships of Windsor and Severance. Being that each town has grown exponentially within the past few years the largest percentage of the population tends to be middle aged families with very young children. However, the patronage of the library also includes all surrounding unincorporated areas, as well as most of Weld County, which is sparsely populated.

Staff overview

Staff is comprised of a director, an assistant director, a technical services librarian and a youth services librarian. Eight full-time paraprofessionals assist the librarians by staffing the circulation desk, materials processing, answering phones and general book repair. In addition to full-time staff, there are numerous student assistants from the community that work part-time assisting with the basic maintenance of the collection. With this grant, a staff member would need to be fluent in both English and Spanish languages. To compensate for the increased workload, part of this grant would increase the pay of an existing bilingual staff member to lead this project by 1.5% (roughly .27 per hour). This amount would come from the programming budgets outlined in sections B – D. At no time will the materials budget be used to compensate staff. If a qualified member of the staff is not available, or becomes unavailable, this part of the grant will need to be used to either educate staff or hire a member of the public who is fluent in both languages. WSLD recognizes staffing issues may draw funds from the grant detrimentally and would be willing to cover the compensation for a new staff member through other fiscal means if the need occurs.

III. Statement of Need

With the changing economic times the Windsor-Severance library has become a refuge for the unemployed and homeless. A growing number of these individuals only speak Spanish and find difficulties in dealing with English only staff and resources. This language barrier prevents the Hispanic patron from contributing to their community or seeking gainful employment. The Windsor-Severance community needs the library’s attention directed towards developing better information and research tools to assist this growing population. This grant would provide the staff an excellent opportunity to pursue this goal.

In 2003, Ohio state libraries received approximately $44,000 in LSTA grant funding to develop Hispanic resource collections and services. For Ohio libraries, due to the economic climate, this option didn’t exist before the LSTA grant money was awarded. Similarly, in May of 2000, Houston public library received $500,000 in a grant from the Carnegie foundation to expand services and materials to the Houston Hispanic community (Albanese, 2003). Each of these examples supports the argument that even though, as a nation, we are experiencing tough financial times Spanish materials and programming are definite resources communities need , especially in areas like WSLD where the population has become underserved.

In addition to developing a better and more comprehensive collection through this proposed project, the library wants to provide low-cost or free educational opportunities for all Spanish speaking patrons. For children, by providing weekly Spanish story times will encourage a love for reading that will not be subject to the barrier of language. Furthermore, for the adult population, providing evening literacy workshops will address the desire for all patrons to become bilingual. But, primarily Spanish speaking employed population will be targeted and encouraged to attend workshops in order to improve English communication skills. Lastly, part-time English as a Second Language (ESL) classes can be funded and taught with the funding from this grant.
Currently, Windsor-Severance library has no Spanish language oriented programs and holdings are very limited physically and digitally. This grant would provide an answer to a part of the library that needs attention. Language barriers are intimidating, and the public library can be an excellent avenue for answering the educational needs by removing this barrier. A public library’s purpose is to create a safe haven for people wishing to pursue information, regardless of ethnicity. Reasonably providing the tools to the Spanish speaking public is the best way to assist in raising the intelligence of a community, as well as that of the nation.

IV. Proposed Initiatives and Cost

The objective of the Spanish Spotlight Project is to raise the quality of information and service provided by the library to the Spanish speaking population. The proposed initiatives listed below create directions the library plans to take to meet this objective.

A. Collection development of Spanish only resources: This part of the project includes, but is not limited to, children’s books, digital material, reference materials and periodicals. The current goal of this section is to expand the Spanish collection to hold at least 500 new resources per year for the project. Publishing companies, such as Follett, Brodart and Baker & Taylor, provide special collections resources specifically for selecting Spanish materials. Publishers like these supply books and materials at a lower than retail price and can include “ready to shelve” processing. For this part of the project, an estimated $8,000 per year ($24,000 total) will be used to purchase these products, based on an $18 per book average. Staff time for selection would be needed and included in the duties of the SSP lead. SSP lead would liaison with the library’s assistant director by submitting monthly selections of materials to the assistant director for review.
B. Weekly story times: These story hours would need to be developed, scheduled, and staffed regularly with time off for holidays. The member of staff selected to lead this project would perform these duties. This person would need to coordinate with the youth services librarian, so that they can equitably provide story hours bilingually (not just Spanish specific) and also not interfere with the existing children’s schedule. Minimally two hours a week will be scheduled. Each week there would also be a craft project or event related to the topic of the story hours, as well as promoting bilingualism. Since bilingual picture books would be used for story time, the materials budget for this section primarily rests in staff time and craft supplies. Craft projects and staff time to perform these events would be set at no more than $2,000 annually ($6000 total). Bi-Monthly meetings between the library director (or assistant director), SSP lead, and youth services librarians would need to be held to assess the use of funds for this part of the project.
C. Twice monthly evening literacy/bilingual education workshops: These will need to be scheduled, developed and staffed. Most events can call for instructor volunteers from the community. These workshops will be held in the large library meeting room eliminate the cost of renting a space off site. Seating can accommodate a large audience and staff or volunteers can provide refreshments. The SSP lead will decide and evaluate this section in 2011, based on workshop attendance and feedback. Current operational costs are not to exceed $2000 annually ($6000 total). This section may also include, but is not limited to, bilingual movie nights, teen writing workshops, or resume writing instruction.
D. Weekly English as a Second Language (ESL) Project hours will need to be scheduled, developed, and staffed. Outlines for implementing effective ESL programs are available through national resources. Generally, volunteers will use established ESL tools for instructing on an individual basis. A specific calendar will need to be kept by volunteers, participants and the project lead, so that all needs are met in this area. The remainder of the grant funding would cover this section; approximately $2000 annually ($6000 total).