Saturday, August 22, 2009

Planning continues for Hispanic Heritage Month

This is what we did this week for our Hispanic Heritage project:
1. Submitted our application for a Humanities Montana Opportunity Grant
2. Sent out our press releases
3. Contacted two radio stations regarding possible interviews
4. Created a brightly colored poster
5. Talked to a sign shop about a vinyl banner
6. Attended a Missoula salsa dance for networking
7. Secured a speaker to present travelogue on Chile
8. Contacted UM advisor to Foreign Students about presentation on Guatemala
9. Updated our NVPL website calendar of events
Busy week! Very exciting to see and hear the enthusiasm from so many, both Latin Americans and others. Next week: create the banner for outside the library, research where to obtain affordable maps and flags of our targeted countries to display, research traditional recipes.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Webinar

Diana Miranda at Austin Public Libraries in Texas did a webinar on selecting Spanish language materials for the collection.

I've not watched it yet, but it sounds interesting. Here is the link to the Texas State Library & Archives Commission blog to get access to the archived webinar (Wimba) and Diana's PowerPoint. Might be worth a look!

http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/librarydevelopments/?p=955

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Planning "Spanish Heritage Month"


Hello, All! We are in the midst of planning for our first month long celebration "Spanish Heritage Month" to be held this September. (We got the idea from the ALA book "Bienvenidos!" by Susannah Mississippi Byrd.) Hispanic Heritage Month traditionally begins Sept. 15th which is the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua; Mexico declared its independence on Sept. 16th, and Chile on Sept. 18th. This is a time dedicated to learning more about Latino history and culture. We are working on a Humanities Montana grant - wish us luck! Our plans currently include a community celebration Sept. 4th (First Fridays in Stevensville are always big nights) complete with dance performances, native dress, guitar music and singing and lots of food! The rest of the month we will have weekly themes: history, literature & art, music and food. Events will include two travelogues (Nicaragua and Costa Rica), a bi-lingual story time, and Latin American recipes, including histories and samples. Our Latino community members are "all jazzed up" to participate. Watch for more updates!