Thanks so much to everyone who responded! You were tremendously helpful. Though
there were differences of opinion, the general consensus seems to be to shelve the
bi-lingual books in with everything else and perhaps add a sticker to identify the
bi-lingual items. The individual responses I received are listed below.
Original post:
I have a request from a teacher-librarian in my area and I'm hoping someone out
there can help me. Her question is as follows:
Where could I find research or information on shelving bi-lingual materials? We
have a quite a few that are English/Spanish and they are shelved in with the
English books. I have been asked to separate them into a "Spanish section" which
would be easier for the Spanish students. My thought is that they would not be
used much in such an arrangement because we have a larger percentage of English
versus Spanish. I also don't believe that the English speaking students would want
to go to the Spanish section. Our Spanish students also need to use the catalog
and other resources written in English. We do have a few books entirely in Spanish
which I could see separating into a Spanish section. I need some articles or
information regarding this question.l
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I do keep the bilingual books in a Spanish section. IF the title is
something I would want in both places I order two copies and place one in
the Spanish area and on in the English section. Money and time dictate
putting the first copy that arrives in the Spanish section. There is a class
at each grade level in the school that is for Spanish dominant (or solo)
speaking students. I have 9 shelves of books in Spanish compared to the
rest of the library in English. As out students gain proficiency in English
they may choose go to the English shelves whenever they want.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK--this has just been my experience so if you see
some "official" information out there to dispute it than
please let me know.
If a book is in both Spanish/English
(Korean/English, whatever) I put them in with the rest of
the English books. If a book is only in Spanish or some
other language, then I put it in a separate shelf.
My reasoning for doing this is quite simple.
Especially here, the books that I have in English and
Korean are folktales and such and I think that it is
important for the rest of our students to read something
about Korean culture in order to better understand their
friends. Therefore, when I have the "Peach Boy", I want
all of our students to know this story rather than just
the Korean's. If I put it on a separate shelf with the
other Korean books, none of our English speakers would
find it.
When I had books in Spanish/English in South
America, I did have them a bit separated, but still on the
same shelves but that was mainly because I had so many
parents that didn't read English and yet they wanted their
children to read English so they liked taking out things
like the Berenstain Bears in both languages so that they
could read it to their children in Spanish, but their kids
could read it in English. Understand?
Anyway--this is just to sum up that the only books
I keep totally separated are those that are in totally one
language.
If you have parents or students who want to have
bilingual books, perhaps you can come up with some kind of
"key phrase" on opac so that when they are searching for a
book they can type in something like Bilingual and the
books will pop up so that they can then go to the shelves
and find them faster.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have a separate Spanish section, and we have also labeled the spines with a
"Bilingual" sticker (available from DEMCO). Our students attend Spanish class, and
are required by their teacher to take Spanish AR tests.
If your students don't test on Spanish books, I recommend leaving them where they
are and adding a Spanish sticker to the spine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a collection of both just under 500 Spanish and bi-lingual books. I have
all housed in one area and they are all cataloged in Spanish. It made no sense to
have Spanish language books cataloged in English when the students looking for them
would be Spanish readers. I have them all cataloged as 468 (not really correct
Dewey, but as I learned years ago in cataloging class you catalog for your patron
first) and have a separate bookcase for fiction. The Spanish fiction books all
have a colored star that I bought at Office Max to delineate them from Spanish
non-fiction. Both areas are shelved alphabetically by the authors' last names as
would any other book be in my library. My Spanish-speaking students are always
shown where they can find Spanish books. My Spanish collection has as many reading
levels as my English collection. I learned long ago that just because a student
spoke Spanish fluently didn't mean that he read Spanish fluently. I have picture
books, early readers as well as Spanish-language versions of Harry Potter and other
middle school titles. The non-fiction books are used to support reports done in
their science and social studies classes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't have any studies to quote, just my personal experience. For some years,
our SPanish/English, and all Spanish books were kept in a special section. They
just didn't seem to circulate very well, so several years ago, I interfiled them -
poetry with poetry, Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the 860s, non-fiction with the other
books on that subject, Rodriquez in the 921s, etc. Every book has bright red and
yellow "En Espanol" label, so they are easy to spot. I also make sure that all
these materials have a subject heading of "Spanish Language materials," which
allows a search for just those books. Case in point: I have all the Twilight
novels in Spanish as well as English. Within days of beginning school, all of them
were out - the English too. I do not believe the bi-lingual readers would have
found them so quickly if they were separated from the main Twilight section.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I shelve mine in the 468 section of the library for the few students
that I have each year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About 1/5 of our collection is in Spanish or is bilingual, and we shelve everything
together. All books that are in Spanish or are bilingual have an orange sticker on
them. We have a very high population of kids who speak Spanish at home and this
lets them know it's a good book for mom or dad to read to them. All our kids are
taught about the sticker.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I use Spanish genre stickers. That calls less attention to them and allows anyone
to be exposed to Spanish/English books. I think your intuition about a "Spanish
section" is right. I mean, would we have an "African American" section?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe they should be intershelved with English. We don't want to
segregate kids or their materials into "special" sections.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We don't have a large number of Spanish materials, but the ones we do have are
shelved in with the English materials. The one thing we do to distinguish these
from the regular collection is to put a sticker on the spine (purchased from DEMCO)
that says Espaņol. That way, students can tell if the book is in Spanish by
looking at it on the shelf, but they still have to use the regular catalog to find
it.
Jane Frizzell
Media Specialist/Consultant
Area Education Agency 267
9184 265th Street, Suite B
Clear Lake, IA 50428
Ph. 1-800-392-6640 or 641-357-6125
Fax: 641-357-3201
www.aea267.k12.ia.us
jfrizzell@aea267.k12.ia.us
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