Witty Latina grandmas, silly skeletons, and birthday cakes: A library program focused on bilingual literacy

Abstract

In this article, we present a series of recommendations to increase the patronage of Latino/a families in Indiana libraries. We briefly describe a collaborative effort to develop a bilingual program at a public library in the Greater Lafayette area in Indiana, which was funded by a small service-learning grant from Purdue University. We focus on five lessons learned in this initiative and its implications for improving library services for culturally and linguistically diverse families. In particular, we encourage libraries to establish partnerships with local institutions that may help in recruiting patrons and securing funds for library programs.