REFORMA IN THE CENTRAL VALLEY!!

According to statistical studies conducted by both the Cervantes Institute of New York City and the U.S. Census Bureau, there will be 132,000,000 Spanish-speaking inhabitants in the United States by the year 2050. Making the United States, the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world after Mexico. From a population point of view, the United States will be the largest Latin American nation surpassing current birth rates in both Mexico and Peru. In terms of language learning, Spanish language matriculation rates at the secondary, high school and university levels are at their highest.

In terms of library usage, the numbers are growing as Latinos and the Spanish speaking are learning more and more how to use libraries . With this in mind, REFORMA has finally established its' first chapter in the Sacramento area precisely to help the area's libraries in improving library services to the Spanish speaking and Spanish language collections.

The chapter is aptly called the California Gold: The Sacramento Valley Chapter of REFORMA
California Gold: The Sacramento Valley Chapter of REFORMA supports the following goals:

. Development of Spanish- language and Latino- oriented collections and programming

. Recruitment of bilingual, multicultural library personnel

. Promotion of public awareness of libraries and librarianship among Latinos

. Advocacy on behalf of the information needs of the Latino community

.Liaison to other professional communities (CLA, EMIERT, SLALM for example)

.Providing training, education for our members and those interested in serving Latinos
and Spanish Speakers.

The California Gold Chapter will be meeting soon ,so dates and times will be forthcoming. A Facebook and website will also be available so stay tuned!

COMMUNITY OUTREACH :2008 FESTIVAL DE LA FAMILIA

The 17th annual Festival de la Familia took place today at Sacramento's Cal Expo fairgrounds and it was an event to attend!

The day was hot ( 88 degrees Fahrenheit ) and so was the food, culture, dance, music and the company that Sacramento Public Library staff kept as people from all walks and persuasions approach our booth to inquire about e -book and digital collections. Storytime en Español and about the usual times and locations that our customers are always interested in. Library applications were also on the rise as new library cards were issued to new customers. It's not uncommon that many library customers regularly visit any of our 27 library branches, yet they do not possess library cards. It's at these events that many of them approach our booths and finally make the jump to being card-carrying library users. This phenomenon is pretty common with many public libraries and it's what librarians, library para-professionals and administrators attempt to rectify. We want all of Sacramento's citizens to have and use a Sacramento Public Library card.

Many who haven't done an event such as the Festival, think that all we do is pass out bookmarks and bring smiles to kid's faces. Not that that's bad, but there's definitely work that must be done!

The day ended early in the evening and all of us were flushed with pride at the great work that we had done. Kudos to all those who put in their time and to Community Outreach Services.

The Cuban and Puerto Rican communities were out in full force at the Festival de la Familia. Good to see!