ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 6 9 6 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2001 C o l l e g e & R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s ew sn A multicultural experience Community college students create a library in a Mexican village by Laurie S. L¡nsley S em inole Community College (SCC) has had a M exican Studies Program for al­ m ost ten years. Students register for cou rses in anth rop olog y, art, b iolog y , nursing, or physical geography. In addition to this course w ork w hile in M exico, students are placed at nonpaid w orksites selected to fit their m a­ jors. Students have w orked in health clinics, national parks, art c o ­ ops, and at archaeologi­ cal sites. Students have also taught English. The library component I had been taking Spanish for a couple o f years and had com e to the realiza­ tion that to increase my language skills, I needed to live among Spanish­ speaking people for a pe­ riod o f time. I discussed my interest in participat­ ing in SCC’s Mexican Stud­ ies Program with Profes­ sor Kenna Noone, coordinator of the program. I w asn ’t sure w hat I could do— I cou ldn ’t s ee m yself w orking in a m edical clinic— but I d ecided that I could m ake som e con tribu­ tion. N oone said: Sure, join our group and you can build a library! My response was: O h yes, that w ould b e a great exp erien ce (gulp). For the first three w eek s o f the summ er sem ester, term IIIA 2000, a n ew con cep t was introduced, the library com p o n en t o f SCC’s M exican Studies Program: create a library in th e a n c i e n t M a y a n pu eblo o f Cobá, in the state o f Q uintana Roo, in the Y u catán p e n in ­ sula o f M exico. I had n o exp erien ce in creating a library or e v en in w ork in g in a p u b lic lib r a ry in th e states, but I thought that with alm ost 30 years as a librarian, I could pull this off. Our group o f 15 stu­ d e n ts r e g is t e r e d fo r c o u rs e s in a n th ro p o l­ ogy, art, and biology. In addition to the plans for creating a library, students signed up for other site w ork in Cobá: testing the drinking water, teach in g English, and w orking in th e m edi­ cal clinic. The new library in Cobá, Mexico, and the SCC students (and tw o faculty) w ho made it happen. A b o u t t h e a u t h o r Laurie S. Linsley is head o f technical services at Seminole Community College in Sanford↓ Florida, e-mail: linsleyl@mail.semmole. cc. fl. us C&RL N ew s ■ Ju ly /A u g u st 2001 / 697 The donations Where would we get the books for this library, con­ sidering our small budget? We could not have created this library without the wonderful donations. With our tiny grant budget, we were able to purchase $250 worth of books and office supplies. During the year, I put out the call in print and on electronic lists for donations of Spanish-lan- guage materials. Our primary contribu­ tors were San Antonio Pub­ lic Library, University of Mi­ ami, and Borders Books & Music. And, of course, we couldn't have created this library without book and office supply donations from librarians and other citizens in Florida. We also were happy to ac­ cept cash donations. During the months preceding the Mexico trip, I regularly checked local used bookstores for Spanish books and purchased them at greatly reduced rates. My happiest find was a manual typewriter that I picked up in Miami for a mere $5. Our most impressive contribution was so­ licited by Kenna Noone: Aeromexico donated 500 pounds of cargo. We put the remainder of the books in our personal checked luggage. It was a very heavy airplane and we joked that if the plane went down, only we would know why. The work I wish I could report that I planned for this trip all year and spent months sorting the donated books and office supplies, ordered just the right amount of library materials with our small bud­ get, and that everything came off without a hitch. But it didn’t happen that way. I had zero time to weed and sort in ad­ vance, so rather like one who moves all the stuff from the old house to the new one, hav­ ing the garage sale after the move, that is what we did. Only a few books were unusable be­ cause of poor condition or unsuitability for a small community library. We were very fortu­ nate indeed. Shelves for the library were built by SCC student Mary Arseneau and the Cobá village carpenter. I underestimated the number of books that were in those unopened, do­ nated boxes. Because so many of the books were slender paperbacks, in­ stead of the fewer than 1,000 books expected, we ended up with more than 1,200 books for our shelves— surprise! When we got close to processing 1,000 books, we realized that we would run out of book pockets, date due slips, glue, and tape. A late night run was made to a small store, which sold glue and tape, and students made copies of the date due slips for current and fu­ ture use. Improvisation is a wonderful thing. Reality We arrived thinking that we would have a building in which to create Cobá’s first library. Reality set in when we heard that the building in which we were to house the books was a temporary location donated by a local group. The main principle that you learn on an ad­ venture like this is: Be Flexible. Near the end of our time in Cobá, we learned that the gov­ ernor of the state of Quintana Roo visited Cobá while we were away for the weekend and was so pleased with our work that he was having funds allocated to build a per­ manent building. Also, the local Villas Cobá villagers painting the library. 698 / C&RL News ■ July/August 2001 Manual de la Operation de la B¡bl¡oteca Pública de Cobá Cobá, Quintana Roo, M éxico 1 Ju n io 2000 Librarian: Gertrudis X o o c May I. P urpose o f th e Biblioteca Pública de Cobá T he Biblioteca Pública de Cobá is a gift from the M exican Studies Program o f Seminole Community College, Sanford, Florida, USA, ( h ttp ://w w w .s e m in o le .c c .fl.u s ) fo r the people o f Cobá, Quintana Roo, México. π. P atro n s/lib rary users A. Library cards 1. Number library cards sequentially. 2. Complete a card for e ach com m u­ nity m em ber w ho requests a card. B. Registration cards 1. Prepare a registration card when each library card is issued. Put the num ber o f the library card on the registration card and file it in the green box. III. Collection A. Reference— books do not circulate. B. Periodicals— periodicals do not cir­ culate. C. General collection (remainder o f the collection). B ook s are arranged by catego­ ries and color cod ed as identified on the master list. Categories are added, deleted, or changed as necessary. IV. Lending books All library materials excep t reference and periodicals can b e checked out. Procedure: A. The library patron presents the library card to the librarian. Arqueológicas hotel, w here w e spent three w eeks, had com mitted to supplying the new building with a much need ed air condition­ ing unit. We didn't exp ect air conditioning, really w e didn’t, but w e w ere stunned by the ex ­ cessive heat and humidity, doubled by the generation o f the heat (and noise) from the amazing m echanical tortilla-maker adjacent to the library. But there is an up side to every­ B. Each b o o k in the circulating collec­ tion has a b o o k card in the pocket in the back o f the book. C. T he patron signs the b ook card. The librarian stamps the b o o k card and the date due slip with the date due stamp. Books may b e check ed out for one week. D. The librarian puts the b o o k card in the green charging tray, with the cards ar­ ranged by date that the b o o k is due. E. If a b ook is overdue, the librarian con­ tacts the patron about returning the book. F. W h en th e patron returns th e b o o k , th e librarian rem ov es the b o o k card from the charg in g tray, m arks o u t th e date due and th e p a tro n ’s nam e, and p la ces the card in th e b o o k p o c k e t in the b a c k o f th e b o o k . V. Processin g books W hen a b o o k is added to the collection: A. Property stamp the b o o k on the title pages and all edges. B. Put b o o k card, b ook pocket, and date due slip in the b ack o f the b ook, if it is for the circulating collection. C. Repair the b o o k as necessary. D. Select the category for the book and affix a spine label. Color code using the master list. VI. The future As the collection expands, decisions may be made to classify the library materials accord­ ing to the Dewey Decimal System and/or to create a card catalog. Guidebooks and manu­ als have b een placed in the Biblioteca Pública de Cobá for possible future use in classifying the materials and instructions are available for preparing cards for a card catalog. thing. It was great having a tortilla break mid­ morning with a six-inch stack of fresh tortillas for library workers— all for the equivalent o f $1. T he initial challen g e was to build the shelves for the library. This was the main charge for my roommate Mary Arseneau, who is a carpenter for Habitat for Humanity, Inc. Mary and the Cobá m inister/carpenter trav­ eled to a nearby village to purchase the wood and the varnish for the shelves. We estimated http://www.seminole.cc.fl.us C&RL N ew s ■ Ju ly /A u g u st 2001 / 699 Cobá children began reading the books as soon as the boxes were opened. five sections of shelving, consisting of five shelves each, able to hold approximately 625 books (another error, as we ended up with 1,200 books). Fortunately, many of the books were small paperbacks and they easily fit on the shelves. Although I thought that the shelves were perfect, Mary was concerned that they were more narrow than shelves in U.S. libraries. But we had to go with the size of wood available at the price we could af­ ford. Another concern was that the books would slip and slide on the shelves without bookends. This turned out not to be a problem due to the natural rough­ ness of the wood. As you can see from the photo, the shelves worked beautifully. We spent the first few days sort­ ing the books, all of which were in Spanish, by broad subjects. This was a monumental task, considering that at various times, depending on who was available to work, our language skills varied from totally fluent to barely able to read Spanish. We quickly learned to rely on one an­ other and on our Spanish-English dic­ tionaries. As we sorted books day after day, it be­ came obvious that in three weeks we would be unable to create the planned-for card cata­ log, nor would it be necessary in this village setting. Instead, we created broad subject categories, such as Historia, Política, and Literatura, and color-coded the subject signs on the shelves to correspond with the label on each book. Purple for Historia, green for Política, red for Literatura, etc. We made the children’s books a color easy to spot, bright yellow, and placed them on a bottom shelf. Each book was labeled with its subject and, as a simple method for arranging the books within the categories, the first letter of the author’s last name, or lacking an author, the first letter of the title. This simple method worked well and the color coding made it easy to keep the books in the proper categories. The people By far the greatest joy in the field work of the Mexican Studies Program was the people of Mexico. We worked side-by-side with the Mexicans, rather like a mini-version of the Peace Corps. The happy result of this method of carrying out our work meant that the people of the village thought of the library as their library from the beginning. Children were in the library reading their books from the moment we unpacked them. Miracu­ lously, they had already been taught to handle books with care and respect. Over and over we were impressed with the quiet strength and intelligence of the Mayans. We laughed together when it was discovered that few in our group were fluent in Spanish and that none of us spoke their native Mayan language. Future Cobá librarian Gertrudis May with author Laurie Linsley in the new library. W eekends Our leader wisely knew from previous ex­ perience with student groups that working 8 to 10 hours daily in the more than 100-de- gree heat takes its toll and that we would need weekends away from Cobá to relax and reju­ venate. We were willing to work hard and play hard. Weekends were spent visiting Mérida, 700 / C&RL N ew s ■ Ju ly /A u g u st 2001 the capital of the state of Yucatán; ruins of Chichén Itzá, Cobá, and Tulúm; seaside re­ sorts; water activities, like floating downstream in a river and swimming in cenotes, the Yucatán version of sinkholes; and university libraries in the Yucatán peninsula. Success There were some materials and supplies that we hauled all the way to Mexico and never used. These included a six-drawer card cata­ log, cards for the catalog, and Dewey Decimal schedules in English and Spanish. At first I felt guilty. In retrospect, I see that this was a good decision, and part of our capability of being flexible and working within the constraints of time and money and the present situation. A first-time village library with a full-blown card catalog and the responsibility of keeping it up when the local librarian added new materials would probably have been overwhelming. But now they have the card catalog and on our next visit, if we are able to expand the library, we may implement some of these library tools. We finished putting together the library a day ahead of schedule. This left time for an­ other swim and a few hours to do last minute clean up and, most importantly, to train the new Cobá librarian, Gertrudis Xooc May, who conveniently lived behind the library. Gertru- dis had worked with us every day to create this new and wonderful community library in Cobá. She had also taken English classes daily from our students who taught the classes. I spent the last few hours in Cobá writing a manual of operation and training Gertrudis for her new role. Our most fluent student, Stephanie Litka, translated the manual into Spanish for Gertrudis to keep in the library. Conclusion My advice to you if you have a similar oppor­ tunity: Grab it, you won’t be sorry. And don’t worry about details. Do your best and depend on those around you. And did I increase my Spanish language skills, which was my original goal? /Si, hablo español mucho mas! ■ ( “Disappearing Reference… ” cont. from page 694) 2. Librarians must work with faculty to dem­ onstrate the need for such a program. Again, the general outreach informs this process; fac­ ulty should be making the connection between the proliferation of resources and the ability of their students to maneuver in such an envi­ ronment. The librarians should be able to dis­ cuss students’ work with faculty in detail. This also means putting the program in the context of faculty and curriculum goals. 3. Librarians must assess the culture of their academic environment. What are student and faculty expectations? Is the campus aware of the library resources and services already pro­ vided? 4. The appointments program needs to be promoted, to both students and faculty; it’s not enough to reach the motivated students. Such a program is critical to the academic success of all students. Conclusion There is a traditional image of Williams Col­ lege that suggests the model for teaching and education on campus; it is called the Log. It’s an image of the teacher on one end of a log in dialogue with a student on the other end. This rustic image handed down from more than a century ago still resonates in this technologi­ cal age. The proliferation of technology and information resources gives even the smallest academic library the power of a large univer­ sity. At the same time, there are unique op­ portunities to develop new ways to reach each student individually. The reference desk may be disappearing, but the need for research support has never been more critical. Notes 1. Douglas Herman, “But does it work? Evaluating the Brandeis reference model,’’ Reference Services Review 22 (winter 1994):17- 28. 2. Anne Lipow, ‘“In your face’ reference service,” Library Journal 124 (August 1999): 50-2; Anne Lipow and Gail Schlachter, “Think­ ing out loud: Who will give reference service in the digital environment?” Refereìice & User Services Quarterly 37 (winter 1997): 125-35. 3. Bonnie A. Nardi, “Keynote address in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress: In­ formation ecologies,” Reference Service in a D igital Age. Available online at http://lcweb. loc.gov/rr/digiref/nardi.html. ■ http://lcweb