Speaking the language: interpolating the Times

The New York Times ran a very inspirational article about the library system in Queens which stocks resources in 59 languages (12% of its collection) to serve a populace where nearly half the the people were born abroad:

Striving to cater to the intensifying globalization of its surrounding streets, the New York neighborhood library speaks your language (my italics) as never before. 

And they work hard at it. They even have a demographer on staff.

The article gets particularly relevant for all of us "in the trade," however, if you substitute "services" or "technology" or "resources" for their efforts with "language".

- So important has acquiring foreign-language books become to the Queens Library’s mission that Radames Suarez, who supervises the Spanish collection, travels every year to the largest Spanish book fair in the world, in Guadalajara, Mexico.

- “Most libraries I’ve worked in have realized that to be a bridge where people learn what the library has to offer, it helps to have books, DVDs and music in the native language,” he said.

- According to Fred J. Gitner, the program’s assistant director, branch managers were asked to note uncommon periodicals on sidewalk newsstands or at new ethnic restaurants. They held foreign movie nights to lure newcomers in order to find out what books they might want.

- Meeting the needs of immigrants has also meant teaching English to adult newcomers — many branches have such classes — and recruiting staff members who speak foreign languages. The Queens system has 10 Korean-speaking librarians. 

The inspiration for me comes from the fearlessness of this systems to get better; the flexibility of their willingness, their openness to their own self-learning, and the fluidity of their services.