Beardstown Houston Memorial Library Beardstown, Illinois http://www.beardstown.lib.il.us Population Served: 5,776 Language other than English: 45% Project Contact: Cate Parish Project Title: Supporting the American Dream for Hispanics and West Africans in Beardstown Project Description: Our library’s American Dream project is providing basic computer classes, in English, French and Spanish, to people who have never used or have had very limited computer usage.  We taught our students how to communicate using email, send pictures by email and how to explore the Internet.

Notable accomplishment, promising practices, or human interest stories: During one class, a senior citizen student learned how to communicate with her children, who live in another state, by email.  She was amazed how quickly her emails were sent and received and how simple email was to use.  In another class, ESL high school students, whose native language is French, learned how to use their existing email accounts in English.

Key lessons learned: People of all ethnic groups and backgrounds have varying levels of computer experience.  Some people pick up on computer terms and usage much more quickly than others.  It is hard to tell who will easily learn how to use a computer, and who will have more difficulty.  Once a person gets over their initial fear of computers, they will feel more comfortable using our library.

Advice for other libraries serving adult English language learners: Do not assume a person lacks knowledge or lacks education just because the person does not speak or write English well.  Many people who are learning English have varying levels of education and have many outstanding goals.  The more comfortable English language learners feel with you and your library, the easier it will be for them to ask for help and obtain the tools they need to be successful in their new lives in your community.