WJ

This announcement was just posted by WebJunction.

Spanish Language Outreach Course Revamped and Relaunched
WebJunction's Spanish Language Outreach course has returned to the WebJunction catalog after an extensive makeover. This self-paced course contains a wealth of information, techniques and tools you can use to jump start your library's outreach efforts to your local Spanish-speaking community. In celebration of the relaunch, we are offering both of our WebJunction courses for half price through the end of April. And for those of you who do volume purchases for your staff—the discount applies to your staff, too.

Earthquake in Chile on our minds

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Earthquake in Chile on our minds

Shortly after our last blog, Chile experienced the most devastating earthquakes ("terremoto") in its history. Two of our North Valley Public Library (NVPL) SLO group, Erika and Alfonso Schumann, are Chilean natives. The family of Alfonso (his nephew or "sobrino") was affected in so many horrible ways, that their lives will never be the same. As they fled their home during the first tremors, the walls crumbled around them, crushing the nephew, his wife and 10 year old son. The nephew somehow managed to carry his wife outside; we don't know how the son escaped. The young wife was killed by the collapse of the house. The nephew and his son had broken bones, including compound fractures, and were impaled by debris. The nephew had to leave his wife while he desperately sought emergency transportation for his son to go to a hospital. Imagine the trauma to this boy who watched his mother crushed by the falling house, screaming in pain, then dying. By some herculean effort, the nephew managed to secure a ride in the back of a crowded truck bed, carrying his son, having several broken bones in his feet himself. When they finally arrived at the location of the hospital, they found the building had also collapsed. Imagine the pain and anxiety of having broken bones, a huge piece of wood sticking out of your son from his back through his shoulder exiting his chest AND the boy having a compound fracture of his leg, broken bone exposed, through open wound. Alfonso and Erika and their two daughters wired money from Montana to Chile to pay for an ambulance for transportation to the closest working hospital. The nephew was relentless in his pursuit of a coffin for his wife and was successful in bringing her to a final resting place on family land. I am writing this very early in the morning, waking up with these images on my mind, after hearing the details last night at our SLO conversation group. The horror of this situation for this family and so many others haunts me. I just can't stop thinking of the emotional and physical trauma to that young boy and his father. Our discussion last night led to brainstorming of ideas to help these people. Our hearts are heavy with sadness but we are determined to express our care to somehow help in some way.

It suddenly occurs to me that I don't even know their names, but, then... does it really matter?

I will report further details as I learn more. Amy

North Valley group "Reunion en Espanol" updates

Catalina Gerner displays new food from Mexico. Susie Brown enjoys Spanish language word game she created.

Reunion de Espanol Discovers New Hispanic Foods

Last week Catalina Gerner brought "Bolsitas de Pulpa de Tamarindo" for group members to taste. They were small bags of pulp of the tamarind fruit from Mexico. The taste and consistency reminds you of a fig but with a hint of chile pepper. These are eaten as a sweet or "dulce." Very interesting! Also, we played a game similar to Bingo to learn more vocabulary. The group welcomed back, Arlette, a teenager from Mexico, who returned to live in our area.

This week Wa Correia brought a Enchilada Casserole also of Mexican origin. It was delicious, made with elk meat, cheese and tortillas. Luisa Richardson brought Juego de Jamaica, a red fruit juice, also from Mexico. We discussed the ingredients of the food and how members first tasted the food.

Here is a photo of the container of Pulpa de Tamarindo plus one of Suzi Brown, one of our regular members, playing a game she invented similar to Concentration.

Enjoy while learning is our group motto!

Hasta pronto!

Amy

DVDs for kids

I receive email announcements of materials available in foreign languages from a company called Multicultural Books and Videos. Has anyone ordered from them before?

The latest message was about DVDs in Spanish for kids (including Sesame Street). Here's the link:

http://multiculturalbooksandvideos.com/mcbv/home/option1

WJ online SLO newsletter

If you aren't already signed up, WebJunction has a free bi-monthly electronic publication called "Spanish Language Outreach Program Update". You can find current and past issues at webjunction.org/slo-update and read WebJunction's newsletter at webjunction.org/Crossroads. To subscribe, go to webjunction.org/slo-update and enter your email address in the subscription box.

Below is some information from the latest issue of SLO Program Update. Also, WJ is very interesting in hearing about what you're doing in your community during these tough economic times (see the last paragraph):

America Reads Spanish is a campaign developed by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade and the Spanish Association of Publishers Guilds to increase the use and comprehension of the Spanish language through the thousands of U.S. libraries, schools and bookstores. Their website includes monthly newsletters; a database of books in Spanish and ARS television; a collection of videos related to Spanish authors, titles and publishers.

Visit the newly created WebJunction group focused on Non-English Materials and Resources to network with other librarians who wish to "discuss issues and share ideas about cataloging and collecting non-English materials."

Your Spanish Language Outreach in Tough Times
As WebJunction enters a fifth year of focus on Spanish Language Outreach, and with libraries playing a key role in their community's economic recovery efforts, we'd like to hear about your current outreach efforts to Spanish-speakers. Are you providing more computer or job skills classes in Spanish? Have you developed new partnerships with other agencies in the community? How are you putting to use the skills learned in your SLO workshop? What new tactics have you developed in these tough times to tackle the needs of your library community? Please take a moment to share a few thoughts by email SpanishOutreach@webjunction.org.

Amy -- have you shared with WJ all that's going on in Stevensville??

Peru presentation at Reunion en Espanol, NVPL

Last week Reunion en Espanol member, Betsy Ballard, (see photo) gave a brief presentation of her recent trip to Peru. She passed around a book of photos taken by her brother, John, while on the same trip. The photos are outstanding images of the indigenous people of Peru specializing in the traditional art of weaving. Betsy will be preparing a more formal presentation, to be given hopefully this fall in celebration of Spanish Heritage Month, September. This week plans are underway for Susie Brown to host a game she created similar to "Concentration." What a fun way to improve our Spanish language skills. Our Spanish Language Outreach continues as last week we added two new members, Kim & Ron.