When the Kalona Public Library launched a multilingual collection for children in the last year, they made a surprising discovery: the parents of Spanish-speaking children didn’t have anything to read for themselves, and they were interested in borrowing books as well.

“Olivia [Kahler, Director of Youth Services,] started a multilingual collection for the kids.  A [Mid-Prairie] ELL teacher got in touch with her, and they had some programs here.  They were doing Spanish storytime, and so that spurred her on to start a collection,” Library Director Trevor Sherping explains.  

“Then some of the parents came up, and most of them only spoke Spanish.  And we realized that they didn’t have anything they could use at the library because that was their primary language,” he says.

Although Sherping aspires to build a collection of books in several languages depending on what the community desires, the new adult multilingual section will begin primarily with Spanish-language books.  

The Kalona Public Library Foundation has provided $1000 to start the collection, which Sherping estimates should fund the purchase of 50 to 75 books.  

“After that it will be a regular part of the collection, where I’ll be buying two or three Spanish books a month,” he says.  “It will become pretty big.  We’re hoping people use it.”

The challenge for the library, Sherping says, is knowing which books to buy.  They do not have a fluent Spanish-speaker on staff, and they lack knowledge of which titles and formats are most in demand.  

When looking to other libraries for guidance, they’ve found that the needs and behaviors of each community are different.  One Iowa library found their multilingual collection went unused; another found their Spanish-speaking patrons preferred audiobooks.

To get around this hurdle, Sherping is seeking input from the community.  Surveys are available on paper at the library and on the library’s website, kalona.lib.ia.us.  Just four questions long, the survey asks the taker what types of books interest them; specific titles they want to read; whether they would enjoy audiobooks; and if they prefer books originally written in Spanish or translated into Spanish from the original English.  The questions are given in both English and Spanish.

In anticipation of serving a Spanish-speaking population better, Sherping has been requesting government publications in Spanish as well.  Brochures and fliers on topics such as finance, identity theft, and public health are free to take.

This foray into Spanish-language books raises an obvious question: just how many native Spanish-speakers are there in the Kalona area?  That is difficult to discern.  Sherping says he looked at the statistics for the library’s Spanish storytimes, and they had as many as 25 to 30 kids; when you factor in parents and older siblings, the numbers are no doubt higher.  

“The thing that I’m curious about finding out is, is that a sizable section of our population that we don’t know exists because we can’t serve them now?” he asks.

Of course, the new Spanish-language books in the library will be available to all, including Spanish language learners.  Living in a school district that provides Spanish instruction beginning in elementary school, perhaps adults will work to retain the ability to read in Spanish that they acquired in school.

For the library director, reaching out to people who don’t currently use the library is a continual aspiration.

“I don’t want the library to get stagnant.  I don’t want us to feel comfortable serving the population that we have and think that we’re just doing good enough,” he says.  “We’re serving people right now who are already inclined to use the library, which is only a small percentage of it.  I want to make the next step of how do we actually get to the rest of the community who may not even know where we are.”