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Volume 4, Number 2 - Spring 2006
Las Cruces, N.M.
Librarians Extend Programs' Reach
by Lenora
Kandiner
Las Cruces sits in Doña Ana County, one of the poorest in the state. The city’s Spanish-speaking population is made up predominantly of families who have lived in the area for generations. Many teens don’t graduate from high school. The county’s teen pregnancy rate (80 out of every 1,000 births) is the fifth-highest in the state. Thomas Branigan Memorial Library sent three staff members to a People & Stories training workshop in Princeton as part of the NEH grant; together, Mark Pendleton, Sarah Buck Kachaluba and Sandra Cowan have started seven series since June 2005.
What kinds of groups are you serving?
Our evening People & Stories group in English includes people from age 14 through senior citizen, from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. Our bilingual group includes both native English speakers learning Spanish and native Spanish speakers learning English. Sandra conducted one group at a transitional housing facility, Hacienda del Sol. Mark is doing an English group at a local assisted-living facility.
What have been the most interesting aspects of coordinating People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos?
We’ve gotten to know some really interesting people. Sandra would never have spent time with the people at Hacienda del Sol if she hadn’t done People & Stories. The library patrons who attend are sometimes familiar faces, but now we have personalities to go with them.
What have been the most challenging aspects of conducting these programs?
The residents at Hacienda del Sol were required to participate; that made the initial dynamic different from a group where participation was optional. On days when some of the more creative participants were absent, it was harder to get the discussion going.
Mark said it was a challenge to sit back and let participants direct the flow; he sometimes wanted to move the discussion in a different direction. The evening English group, especially, was convinced that there should be a “right” answer to each question; they argued a lot about what it might be.
What were the most rewarding moments?
The fact that people really love the programs. At the end of the sessions, they ask us when, not whether, they are going to continue. A 14-year-old who came with her mother to the first series has started to enjoy reading. The Hacienda program was rewarding because we saw the greatest change in the participants over the course of eight weeks. There were some who didn’t say anything the first few weeks, but spoke openly by the end of the series.
What would you like to see happen?
We’d like to get more native Spanish speakers to participate. We’d like to train more of our staff, especially our Hispanic staff, in the People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos method. We’d like to organize a program at one or more of the bookmobile stops. The bookmobile goes through the whole county, visiting each stop every two weeks. We’d also like to start a program at the prison. Of course, we need to continue the two established series at the library because we have a devoted group of participants.