Utah libraries among many going multilingual

DENVER — On a rainy Saturday, Miereya Gomez quietly thumbed through a book titled "Los Colores" as her two young sons carried comic books to their father in the children's section of the Central Public Library on the outskirts of downtown Denver.

"They really enjoy it here," Gomez said as her husband read a Spider-Man comic to 3-year-old Israel, who listens intently as he hugs his father's knee. "We come here mostly for the kids, for books and movies — educational and entertainment — in Spanish and English."

Dozens of states, including Utah, have seen soaring growth in Spanish-speaking populations in recent years and hundreds of libraries have tried to keep pace by stocking up on books, magazines and movies that meet their needs.

But the growth has been controversial in some places, with critics saying taxpayer money shouldn't be spent on a population that can include illegal immigrants or on proposals that promote languages other than English.

In Denver, where the foreign-born population tripled between 1990 and 2000 largely because of Mexican immigrants, the public library system is considering reorganizing some of its branches to emphasize bilingual services and material.

In Utah, many libraries are reaching out to an increasingly diverse population through efforts such as bolstering their foreign language collections and celebrating multicultural holidays.

Libraries are also going into schools and sponsoring English as a Second Language classes. Earlier this year, there was a Day of the Child/Day of the Book bilingual family reading festival in West Valley City.

Such efforts are important in getting new immigrants to libraries, said Rosemary McAtee, senior librarian for Spanish services at Salt Lake County Libraries, and a member of the Latino and Spanish library outreach group REFORMA.

"Most (immigrants) are coming from countries where public lending libraries are not common," McAtee said. "When they realize the services are free, it's like opening up a whole new world to them."

McAtee said when she started at the Hunter Library in 1995, the Spanish selection was limited to books on how to speak Spanish. Now, there are some 4,000 to 5,000 items from books to magazines to DVDs.

She said English-only legislation that passed a few years ago caused some complaints, but: "We justify it by saying the library wants as many people as possible to utilize the books."