Jennifer Koerber - Library Services for Immigrants and New Americans

LIBRARY SERVICES FOR IMMIGRANTS AND NEW AMERICANS

Celebration and Integration

Jennifer Koerber

Copyright 2018 by Jennifer Koerber

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Control Number: 2017061528

ISBN: 978-1-4408-5877-2 (paperback)

978-1-4408-5878-9 (ebook)

22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5

This book is also available as an eBook.

Libraries Unlimited

An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

ABC-CLIO, LLC

130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911

Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911

www.abc-clio.com

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

This book was inspired by articles written for Library Journal , and my research findings for those articles were the foundation for several chapters in this book. Specifically, : Workforce Development draws heavily upon the article Working Toward Change, published in Library Journal on September 1, 2016. Quotes from Celebration and Integrationpublished in Library Journal on June 13, 2016are included throughout the book.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

As I began writing this book, the political environment in the United States was shifting dramatically: President Barack Obamas term was ending and Donald Trumps was beginning. It was obvious from the presidential campaign that candidate Trumps views on immigrants and refugees were radically different from President Obamas, and the first months of Trumps term saw an immediate attack on these populations in the form of a travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries and new calls for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. These efforts have only rallied pro-diversity groups to push back harder and harder each time, but the chaos of this administration has disrupted tens of thousands of lives, ratcheting what was an undercurrent of uncertainty up to constant fears of arrest and deportation.

Possibly foolishly, I expected that by the time I submitted the manuscript, the change would have settled down to a predictable path that libraries could adapt to. Instead, the situation is as jumbled now as it was at the beginning, a different plot twist occurring almost weekly and renewed resistance with each turn. As I submitted the manuscript, the administration was pushing to revoke Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) status for nearly a million people who have only ever known the United States as home, a move that will destabilize hundreds of thousands of lives and the economies of cities and towns across the country.

How can libraries address this ever-changing situation through programs and services? When speaking with Vicki Oatis, director of Youth Library Services at the Norwalk (CT) Public Library, I said, Theres no cookie cutter answer, no everyone should be doing XYZ. Vicki replied, Right. We concentrate on the other things we could be doing, but books like this make us think, keep us on our toes. I hope that this book suggests a palette of ideas, perhaps to develop a running list of what could we do possibilities that would let you quickly respond to a grant application or partnership opportunity.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, thank you to everyone who worked with me during the course of writing this book. Speaking with so many impassioned library staff around the country reminded me again and again why I was doing this: that I wanted to tell the stories you are all too busy being awesome to tell.

Profound thanks to everyone who took the time to reply to my lengthy queries in person, on the phone, and via many emails:

• Boston Public Library: David Leonard
• Boise Public Library: Sarah Kelley-Chase, Joan Vestal, Renee Addington, Kathleen Stalder
• Brooklyn Public Library: Eva Raison
• Buffalo & Erie County Public Library: Dawn Peters, Mary Jean Jakubowski
• Carson City Library: Diane Baker
• Cedar Falls Public Library: Sheryl McGovern, Erin Thompson
• Fresno County Public Library: Michelle Gordon
• Grandview Heights Public Library: Canaan Faulkner
• Hartford Public Library: Homa Naficy
• Houston Public Library: MyTesha Tates
• Los Angeles Public Library: Alicia Moguel, Maddy Ildefonso
• Louisville Public Library: Sophie Maier
• Norwalk Public Library: Vicki Oatis
• Philadelphia Public Library: Niema Nelson
• Providence Public Library/RIFLI: Karisa Tashjian
• Rochester Hills Public Library: Michelle Wisniewski
• San Diego Public Library: Adriana (Ady) Huertes
• San Jos Public Library: Jill Bourne, Cris Johnson
• Schaumburg Township District Library: Helen Stewart
• Somerville Public Library: Glenn Ferdman, Cathy Piantigini
• Skokie Public Library: Amy Koester
• Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library: Marie Pyko

Thanks also to Kate Cunningham (Louisville), Moina Noor and Sharon Baanante (Norwalk), and Dr. Elena Izraeli (Rochester Hills), both for working with me and the amazing work theyre doing at and with their local libraries. My geeky thanks to Jeremy Greybill (Multnomah PL) for his perfectly technical explanation of Drupal translation integration. Heartfelt appreciation and thanks to Mike Journee of the Office of the Mayor in Boise for not only talking about libraries with enthusiasm, but showing a deep knowledge of what it means to be a 21st-century library. Thanks to Annette Mattei and Meg Shope Koppel for their work on the Philadelphia Free Public Librarys Paschalville Project; to Victoria Nielsen for her work leading New Yorks Immigrant Justice Corps; and to Commissioner Gregg Bishop of the New York Department of Small Business Services for all hes done to support immigrant entrepreneurs.

Professionally, so many thank yous to Barbara Ittner, my editor at Libraries Unlimited, for reaching out to me after reading the Library Journal article I wrote that inspired this book; and to Meredith Schwartz, my editor at Library Journal, who has been a stalwart supporter of my library journalism from the start. Also, to Michael Sauers, my occasional co-conspirator, who first convinced me I had the chops to write something like this.

More personally, thank you to my primary support network: Ry; Jess; Wendy; the greater Camberville socialsphere; and my crazy cat family of Foo, Kizzy, and Jinx. Yall have kept me grounded and on course, inspired to do this as my social justice action while you engaged with yours.

Finally, and always, to Matt, for being my first and best critic, my rubber-duck debugging partner, and an all-around mensch who still makes better scrambled eggs than I do. Fifteen and twenty and many more

INTRODUCTION

The goal of this book is to be a practical inspiration for libraries seeking to create or expand services to immigrants, refugees, and new Americans, regardless of their citizenship status. You can read it straight through and follow a natural progression of programs and services or dip in and out to address needs youve already identified in your community.

Throughout, youll find quotes and examples from libraries large and small, from coastal cities to the heart of the plains and deep in the South. Libraries across the country are facing the challenges of serving newcomer populations, and many have found ingenious ways to do so. Each chapter also includes lists of resources and Brainstorm Boxes: ideas that came up during conversations with library staff but that havent necessarily been done anywhere yet.