Although Latinos appear to share many characteristics, in actuality, they do not. Immigrants come from “very diverse socioeconomic backgrounds” (Naficy 2009, 164). Speaking Spanish is a characteristic shared by most, but not all Latinos. Many second and third generation U.S.–born Latinos are fluent in English and do not speak, read, or write Spanish (Brammer 2013,1, 52). Because of the diversity of immigrant ethnic groups, it is crucial to learn about the informational needs of the immigrant residents of the particular area served by the local public library (Burke 2008b, 166). Shoham and Rabinovich (2008, 30) concluded that the socioeconomic status and level of education determined the …show more content…
Limited English proficiency (Frostick 2009, 36), as well as low literacy in Spanish (Koontz and Jue 2008, 4,6,7) are barriers that affect use of libraries. Avila (2008, 87) goes farther, pointing out that not only the language used by the library, but also the Spanish dialect employed by Spanish speaking staff affects the perception of Spanish speakers.
Cultural differences
Malone (2011, 85) mentions fear as one of the barriers that affect library use. Avila (2008, 35) describes Spanish speakers as “polymorphic and fatalistic”, two characteristics that may affect their perception of public libraries. In Sweden, Audunson, Essmat, and Aabø (2011) conducted in-depth interviews with nine female immigrants. They concluded that the public library appears to have a role in building social capital and that it affects the lives of women immigrants differently depending on the women’s stage of experience as an immigrant (2011, 1, 7, 11, 15, 17, 18) [In this case, you appear to be summarizing the entire article.]. Overall (2009, 178, 197) states that cultural issues affect perception of libraries and that a greater understanding of the cultural differences between the typical population and minorities will result in an increase in the use of libraries. Muddiman et al. (2000, 18) discuss the need to research the perceptions of non-users, and point out …show more content…
Examples of traditional and nontraditional ongoing successful programs targeted to non-English speakers include English conversation groups, bilingual story times, exhibitions, multilingual glossaries, multicultural health library programs that help minorities who have language and cultural barriers to find information on chronic diseases, bilingual baby board books. multicultural events, new arrivals packs, and literacy and reading programs. The health programs help minorities with language or cultural barriers find information on chronic diseases. The board books are produced in collaboration with between the library and indigenous communities and . These books include music CDs with songs; Multicultural events that provide the community with an opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity. The new arrivals packs are designed for newly arrived families and include . These library packs have reading and playing materials for refugee and migrant families with the goal of to encouraging literacy. An example of a literacy and reading project is a book fair was organized to encourage clients to learn English. Free books and audiovisual material