Yesterday, Linda Stiles-Taylor in Oregon floated a question about obtaining Spanish-language periodicals, and I forwarded it to the list.   She was particularly interested in a soccer magazine called Balón, and that in itself is commendable.  I've seen many Spanish-language newspapers that have not only a sports section, but also a soccer section!  In other words, depending on where you are & who's in your community, you might have plenty of eager fútbol-minded readers.  

Marie Kaneko, Marge Fauver, and Pamela Conroy were quick to respond. This brings up a question about list procedure: I forwarded their replies directly to Linda, and hung them on the SOL website along with her original question; additionally, you'll find all that below.   Do you WANT things done this way?  I'm thinking here once again of your e-mail load--would a simple synopsis and a suggestion to visit the site be enough?  And, if this weekend someone suggests additional periodical sources, would you prefer that I simply add that message to the site, or should I also forward it to the list?   Let me know what you think; I want SOL to be a resource, not a burden, for you.

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Following the periodical discussion you'll meet Angela Reynolds of Aloha (that's pronounced LOW-uh), Oregon , a youth services and outreach librarian; Pam Conroy, a Spanish-speaking Chicagoland librarian who does bilingual storytimes; and Lillian Marrero in Philadelphia, who directs a library offering not only ESL classes but also Spanish-language computer courses in a rapidly developing technology lab--all this, she reports, has given the library "great visibility in the Latino community as an informational and educational institution."   Keep up the good work, all of you, and we'll be in touch again on Monday. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

Question:  KNOW ANY GOOD SPANISH-LANGUAGE PERIODICAL SOURCES?  

From: Linda Stiles-Taylor     lindast@wccls.lib.or.us

      A recent area of concern  in our public library has been identifying a magazine distributor within the United States which handles all (or even most) of the Spanish language periodicals we want to subscribe to. We discovered that www.editorialtelevisa.com has an office in Miami and publishes 15 magazines in Spanish. Finding a  general distributor has been more problematic.  The REFORMA web site, although generally valuable, did not address this issue clearly. Our immediate concern is finding a U.S. source for Balón, a popular sports magazine. We sent an e-mail to the publisher in Spain, and even that didn't uncover a U.S. source. Anybody have any great ideas in this area?

Best Wishes,

Linda Stiles Taylor
Forest Grove City Library, Oregon   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REPLIES:

I just checked the EBSCO '99-'00 Librarians' Handbook and sure enough, Balón is listed as being available. We use them to get many of our Spanish language periodicals.   Often times, there are problems with international rights. Hispanic Book Distributors, which recently sold its periodicals service might be a good place to contact.  

Good luck.

Marie Kaneko
Library Services Supervisor
City of Commerce Public Library
Commerce, CA
ai117@lafn.org  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have you tried Ebsco?  They offer hundreds of Spanish Language magazines and so far we can get all we want through them.  

Marge Fauver, Librarian
Eastside Branch, Santa Barbara Public Library
1102 E. Montecito Street 
Santa Barbara, CA 93103
Phone 805-963-3727, Fax 617-344-0433
mfauver@ci.santa-barbara.ca.us  (work) 
mfauver@hotmail.com  (personal)   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

I used to work for a foreign language book distributor.  They have a retail store that carries foreign magazines and they had a few "subscribers" to some of the titles.  So they might be willing to take on subscriptions, but it's not really their main thing.  The name of the store is:  Europa Books, 832 N. State St., Chicago,  IL  60610, telephone (312) 335-9677, (312) 335-9679.  I suggest faxing.  

Pam

Pamela Conroy
Children's Librarian
pconroy@nslsilus.org

Highland Park Public Library
494 Laurel Ave.
Highland Park,  IL  60035
Tel: (847) 432-0216 Fax: (847) 432-9139     

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INTRODUCTIONS:  

 From: Angela Reynolds    angelar@wccls.lib.or.us

Hi. My name is Angela Reynolds. I work for a county library system as a Youth Services librarian. Part of my job is creating and delivering outreach services to Non- English speaking patrons (and in this county, that's largely Spanish).  I don't speak Spanish, so it makes it a bit difficult to go out and speak to groups, though several have invited me and supplied translators.   My focus right now is to encourage Spanish speaking families to read to their children-- but once I begin to build that audience, I am concerned about the lack of bi-lingual staff in the libraries. I work in the same county as Sarah Denny-Garcia-- we are building a good selection of materials, but the staff that speak Spanish is very minimal, countywide. I look forward to the discussions on this list!  

Angela J. Reynolds
Youth Services Librarian
Washington County Cooperative Library Services
P.O. Box 5129 Aloha, OR   97006
503-466-1894   fax: 503-615-6601
angelar@wccls.lib.or.us

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Sender: Pamela Conroy     pconroy@nslsilus.ORG

Dear Bruce and fellow list readers,  

My name is Pam Conroy and I am a children's librarian at the Highland Park Public Library.  Highland Park is a northern suburb of Chicago with a population of 30,000. 

We have a small Spanish speaking population, but we get many more Spanish speakers from a neighboring suburb which has a smaller library.  The two communities are in the same school district, so we see a lot of the kids from the other suburb.   I use my Spanish mostly to help patrons and to do bilingual storytimes.   I'm also responsible for the juvenile Spanish collection, which is mostly picture books.

Pam

Pamela Conroy
Children's Librarian
pconroy@nslsilus.org

Highland Park Public Library
494 Laurel Ave.
Highland Park,  IL  60035
Tel: (847) 432-0216 Fax: (847) 432-9139     
~~~~~~~ Sometimes you feel like a muggle, sometimes you don't! ~~~~~~~ 

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 From: Lillian Marrero   marrerol@library.phila.gov

Hi Bruce:   My name is Lillian Marrero and I work at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Lehigh Avenue Branch. Sixty percent of the population we serve are Latinos and they keep growing.

As a library supervisor, I have the responsibility of developing the Spanish collection as well as to provide educational services in the library that will help the Latino community to improve their job opportunities. At present we are offering ESL classes as well as Basic computer training in Spanish (Windows 95, Word and the Internet). We have a mini computer lab in the meeting room where we provide the training and recently we got a grant from the Gates Foundation to upgrade and extend the lab to 10 computers.

The computer lab and the ESL classes have given the library a great visibility in the Latino community as an informational and educational institution.   I think SOL is a wonderful way of sharing ideas among librarians that want to improve the library services to the Spanish speaking population. Great job!!! Thanks.  

Saludos