Population Served:
89,700 Project Contact: Carol Morris Project Title: Learning Opportunities Project Description: The Learning Opportunities project focuses on providing non-or limited English-speaking residents opportunities to improve their English speaking skills through the use of Inglés sin Barreras. This wonderful multimedia, interactive program offers individuals opportunities to check out separate sets and work on learning English at home or in conjunction with what they may be studying in an English as a Second Language class. |
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Notable accomplishment, promising practices, or human interest stories: A family literacy class for ESL students was visiting the library along with their children and instructor. The preschoolers and infants were on their way to the children’s department with the childcare workers. One of the childcare workers saw Inglés sin Barreras and excitedly exclaimed to the parents, “I love this. It helped me make my English better.”
Key lessons learned: Two important lessons, Inglés sin Barreras requires a large storage space due to the twelve different learning sets. Secondly, the sets may not be returned or may get damaged therefore necessitating the purchasing or replacing of the missing parts.
Advice for other libraries serving adult English language learners: As many immigrants may not have had a “free” library in their country, it is important to make sure that the patron understands “checking out and returning” the materials is significant. Providing opportunities for the new patron to tour the library, visit the children’s department, take English or computer classes offered by the library are very easy ways to secure a new customer. Families with school-aged children are often the easiest to recruit as the children frequently have assignments that involve using the library. The library must be welcoming and inviting. It often helps if library staffs can wear a simple button indicating that s/he is fluent in another language. This invites the new patron chances to engage with a library employee who can converse with the individual in a language that may be comfortable for both of them.