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Promising Practices in Colorado Library Diversity
Category: All Categories
Reading Tips for Parents/Leyendo con su Hijo
| Library: |
Colorado State Library |
| Date: |
3/19/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
A brief pamphlet in English and Spanish for parents and caregivers of children birth to eight, to encourage early literacy skills. Available in bulk free from CSL. |
Long-Range Plan for Special Populations
| Library: |
Colorado State Library |
| Date: |
3/19/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
Using such tools as research, benchmarking, marketing and training plans, and offering incentives, the Special Populations committee has created a master plan for Colorado's libraries to improve their services to diverse populations. The committee proposed a number of goals and activities for accomplishment. in This plan is implemented as resources are available. |
Booklet: Colorado Spanish Language Library Resources
| Library: |
Colorado State Library |
| Date: |
3/19/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
A booklet in English and Spanish spotlighting the services and resources of public libraries for Spanish-speakers. Statewide. Prepared with the assistance of Colorado REFORMA. |
Delight in Diversity
| Library: |
Colorado State Library |
| Date: |
10/11/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
An irregular enews containing tidbits of information on all aspects of diversity, including references to articles. |
Read to the Children
| Library: |
Institutional Library Services |
| Date: |
10/29/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
The Read to the Children program provides materials and an opportunity for an incarcerated parent to select and read a book aloud onto a cassette tape. The book and recording are then mailed to his or her children. |
Hispanic Section
| Library: |
Las Animas Bent County Library |
| Date: |
10/31/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
The Hispanic Selection was added to provide service to the underserved non English speaking population, allowing them access to information for student achievement, lifelong learning and entertainment. |
Grand Opening of Nuestra Biblioteca
| Library: |
Pueblo City County Library District |
| Date: |
10/31/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
On September 16, 2007 we launched our new Hispanic Resource Center, Nuestra Biblioteca. The event attracted over 1,000 people, many of them Hispanics who had not come to the library before. Although we offered a week of special programs (folkloric dancers, storytelling, lectures on pioneer Hispanic Women and the Penitentes, and a Latino film series), it was our car show that brought in the crowds. We had 80 entries displayed at our grand opening. |
diversity committee
| Library: |
Pueblo City County Library District |
| Date: |
10/31/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
Unlike some diversity committees, our was composed mostly of community leaders or those providing services to our target population. We recruited these folks and met with them monthly. |
Sharing Seasonal Customs and Practices
| Library: |
Auraria Library |
| Date: |
11/19/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
Each season, several library staff and faculty present a special program featuring the customs and practices from their cultures and traditions which are associated with that particular time of year. For example, for Spring, staff and faculty discussed various traditions and customs related to Passover, Easter, Beltrane, Norooz (the Iranian New Year), and the Medicine Wheel. For summer: Lughnasa, the Dragon Boat Festival, Women's Equality Day, and Shavuot. For fall: Samhain, Rosh ha-Shanah, El Dia de los Muertos, and Veteran’s Day.
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Begin with Books at the Arapahoe County Detention Center
| Library: |
Araphaoe Library District |
| Date: |
11/20/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
The Arapahoe Library District Early Literacy Begin with Books program at the Arapahoe County Detention Center provides the opportunity for parent inmates to have themselves videotaped reading a story to their child. A DVD of this videotape, along with the book and a personal note from the parent inmate, is mailed to each child. |
Language Services: Russian
| Library: |
Arapahoe Library District |
| Date: |
11/20/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
The Arapahoe Library District supports a Russian language collection at the Glendale Library, 999 S. Clermont St, Glendale, CO 80246.
The Russian language collection of over 13,400 items includes books, periodicals, newspapers, and media.
The Russian Language collection is supported by 7.75 FTE Russian language speaking staff, a variety of programs and services. |
Elderhour for Older Seniors
| Library: |
Arapahoe Library District |
| Date: |
11/20/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
Elderhour: Each month, Outreach Services, in conjunction with Koelbel Library, hosts an entertaining program for seniors called Elderhour. Elderhour is held January - November, 3-4 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month at the library, 5955 S. Holly St., corner of Holly and Orchard.
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Accessible Labels for Shelving in the School Library
| Library: |
Cotton Creek Elementary School |
| Date: |
11/20/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
I place a color-coded letter sticker on the front of each of our picture books. That way, our students with Down syndrome can help shelve the books. This is a great career-training activity, our students feel important and valued, and they are a big help in our library. |
Accessible Avenues: Paving the Way for Customers with Special Needs
| Library: |
Pueblo City-County Library District |
| Date: |
11/23/2007 |
| Brief Description: |
A Pueblo City-County Library District (PCCLD) assistive technology committee and an advisory board were established in June, 2007. The Library's commitee and board have developed a project and obtained funding to implement assistive technology at the Rawlings Public Library in 2008. |
Award Winning Literature for Children and Teens
| Library: |
Arapahoe Library District |
| Date: |
1/23/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
A list of links to youth literature awards celebrating a wide variety of audiences, themes, topics, genres, and formats. It resides on our website, arapahoelibraries.org. |
El Dia De Los Ninos/ El Dia De Los Libros Celebration
| Library: |
Estes Park Public Library |
| Date: |
2/8/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
This multicultural program will prepare students to live, learn, interact and work cooperatively in our community by fostering mutual appreciation and respect. We will salute the rich history of Hispanic culture with games, books, activities, food, storytellers, musicians and dancers. The entire elementary school staff will plan activities for the classrooms. The Library partners throughout the year with local schools to present a variety of services and programs. |
Car Show II
| Library: |
High Plains Library District |
| Date: |
3/6/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
Pueblo's idea of hosting a car show is fabulous. However, if you don't have the space or means to host one, do consider attending one in your community. Every year the Weld Library District participates in the Greeley community's Gran Fiesta de Cinco de Mayo--usually in the children's area. In 2007, however, we set up our booth at the car show, alongside a staff member's impressive Bronco, and handed out information on our car repair databases. We also set up laptops so that the car show visitors could try their hand at using the databases. Bilingual(English/Spanish) staff members explained how to use the resources and handed out information about our summer reading program plans to children who came to the booth with their parents. |
Bilingual Every Child Ready to Read
| Library: |
High Plains Library District |
| Date: |
3/6/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
Every Child Ready to Read is a wonderful curriculum, but many Spanish-speaking parents in our community don't have time to attend the long trainings involved. As a consequence, an early childhood educator from a local community college and the outreach librarian teamed up to develop an "essential points" version of the curriculum to share bilingually at Head Start parent nights. The program includes hands on and take-home projects to engage parents and help them see how easy it is to do literacy-related activities in the home. The presentations also provide an opportunity to promote usage of the libraries and their resources for Spanish-speakers, parenting, and early childhood literacy. |
Senior-to-Sophomore Information Literacy Project
| Library: |
Colorado State University-Pueblo |
| Date: |
3/26/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
The Senior-to-Sophomore Information Literacy Project involves creating a pedagogical forum, based upon the Southern Colorado Writing Project course prototype, for Senior-to-Sophomore English instructors and the University Library in a combined effort to standardize information literacy instruction. |
Library Programming with Special Needs Children
| Library: |
Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library |
| Date: |
3/27/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
A couple of years ago, a seven year old boy began attending our library programs. It was evident that he had some special needs as he seemed to know a lot of information, but had a hard time taking turns and curtailing his exuberance in the programs. After a number of programs where the other kids & presenters were getting somewhat exasperated with him and had tried all the usual solutions to disruptive behavior, we got close enough to his mother for her to tell us that he had behaviors on the autism spectrum. One was that he is highly gifted and the other is that he does not understand how to interact socially and doesn't pick up on social clues. We asked the mother what we could do that works for him. She said that we could call his school and talk with his teacher. This turned out to be a wonderful suggestion. We are now using the same strategies with him that they use with him in his school and being able to transfer those supportive strategies has made a huge difference in the interactions in our programs. When this comes up with another child, we won't hesitate to ask the family if we can talk with the school so that we are all using the same methods to best serve our library children! |
Serving Multicultural Customers
| Library: |
Arapahoe Library District |
| Date: |
3/31/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
A staff development workshop on Serving the Multicultural Customer in your library. The three Arapahoe Library District Language Librarians explain the rationale for ALD's focus on serving multicultural and diverse customers and
list the benefits of serving our Multicultural and diverse customers.
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Creation of a Language Area
| Library: |
Westminster Public Library |
| Date: |
4/1/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
We are in the process of creating a language area in the library that will cater to the needs of patrons learning new languages, and to customers whose first language is Spanish.
Over the course of the past two years we have pulled together all of our language materials. These materials include Spanish language materials in multiple formats and for all ages, and language instruction materials in multiple formats. These materials include instruction in English, American Sign Language, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese, among others.
We have put all these in one area, and having done so, have increased circulation of these materials considerably. Now we are in the process getting new shelving and furniture in order to make the space more inviting.
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Loveland Lights Celebration of Winter Holiday Traditions
| Library: |
Loveland Public Library |
| Date: |
4/2/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
A two-day celebration in early December of diverse winter holiday traditions. Planned and sponsored by a committee of the Friends of the Library and library staff. Event includes displays, craft activities, music, demonstrations and a baked goods and holiday book sale. |
CultureFest
| Library: |
Arapahoe Library District |
| Date: |
5/14/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
For several years we have dedicated one month per year to providing programs at each of our libraries to celebrate different cultures. |
Library Outreach to Cargill Employees
| Library: |
Ft. Morgan Public Library |
| Date: |
7/31/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
Library Day at Cargill brought library staff to the beef plant to talk about our resources to their non-English-speaking employees. A Spanish translator was available, and the plant's Workplace Education teachers gave their students credit for attending these sessions, and picking up a library application. Students were encouraged to visit the library, get a card, and fill out a short report form for class. |
Ask a Lawer and ask a Tax Professional
| Library: |
Conejos County Library |
| Date: |
8/11/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
In January 2009,we are going to have a Lawer and an IRS person come to the library and answer some questions our patrons might have. |
Dia de los Muertos
| Library: |
Pueblo Community College |
| Date: |
8/12/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
Creative, hands on activity that celebrates and introduces a Hispanic cultural event - Dia de los Muertos. |
GAP: Grandparents as Parents Support Group
| Library: |
Pueblo City-County Library District |
| Date: |
8/14/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
Our library plans to host a monthly support and information group for area grandparents raising grandchildren. Guest speakers will come to discuss issues such as internet safety, teen pregnancy, and recognizing gang activity. Participants will be able to discuss issues of concern and learn about community and library resources that could help them. |
Listos Para Leer, Listos Para Viajar!
| Library: |
Fort Collins Regional Library |
| Date: |
8/15/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
Early Literacy and Diversity are promoted to underserved populations in the Fort Collins district through interactive and multicultural storytimes and an informal lending library. |
Silver Surfing the Sunset Years: electronic literacy classes for seniors
| Library: |
Fort Collins Regional Library District |
| Date: |
9/3/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
Fort Collins Regional Library District currently serves a population of over 136, 000. Technology training, or electronic literacy, programs are offered to both staff and the community. Community classes are instructor-led and classroom-based. In 2007 we offered over 100 classes to over 800 patrons.
In this article I will talk about the metamorphosis of the Silver Surfers classes that we developed especially for seniors, and discuss in detail the Silver Surfers Internet class, what we learned from it, and what we have planned for the future.
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Language Learning Resource Center
| Library: |
College Hill Library |
| Date: |
9/4/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
Front Range CC's Westminster Campus Library is partnering with Westminster Public Library - the two libraries share one facility, College Hill Library - to provide enhanced services to language learners of all types. |
ˇBienvenidos a sus biblioteca!
| Library: |
Fort Lyon Correctional Facility General Library |
| Date: |
9/15/2008 |
| Brief Description: |
In order to attract more Spanish-speaking prisoners to the facility library, we have worked in conjunction with the ESL teacher, who is bringing her new classes on "field trips" to the library. |
Peace Banner
| Library: |
Clear Lake Middle School |
| Date: |
6/5/2009 |
| Brief Description: |
Clear Lake Middle School hosted its 2nd Annual International Night on April 30th from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Performances showcased many of our choir and band students, and students who perform with the Colorado Asian Cultural Heritage Center and the Lion Dancer Troupe.
Each visitor to the school received a passport to encourage their travels around the world. Every continent was represented, so all visitors could sample native foods from each region, experience a native craft or game, and often participate in other activities. In the library, a Peace Banner was being created by all guests, young and old. Each participant was given a cardboard colored square on which he/she could create any representation or message about peace or celebrating diversity. Our final count was only around 125 Banner squares, because so many of the students could not bear to part with their creation and ended up taking it home with them. Even so, we certainly considered that to be a successful endeavor!
We did find that parents sat with their kids to watch them create but only a few actually felt like contributing to the Peace Banner. Instead, they spent time browsing the 31 newly purchased cookbooks that represented our diverse population. |
Language Line
| Library: |
High Plains Library District |
| Date: |
6/12/2009 |
| Brief Description: |
Refugees from Burma who speak Burmese and Karen have moved to Greeley. The Library has offered Language Line (www.languageline.com) which provides translators to the Property Manager of the apartment complex at which many of the families live. |
Return to the Promising Practices Category page.
For additional information, contact: Jean Heilig, 303-866-6731
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