Ana Villalpando
Literacy Coordinator, Long Beach Public Library
What is your primary library service role?
As the Literacy Coordinator for the Long Beach Public Library, I develop programs, training and services for adults interested in improving their reading and writing skills. My role also includes creating programs for English learners, as well as building a path for Spanish speakers to engage with the library and feel comfortable navigating our spaces and resources.
How does your work align with service to Latinos and Spanish-speaking communities?
One of my goals in this role is to extend the notion of literacy, including building the knowledge required to navigate systems that community members may not be familiar with. In practice, this translates to meet our patrons where they are and not impose our beliefs on what our communities need. A fundamental part of it is also making sure we emphasize how their expertise and knowledge is valued and we provide a space for collaborations and partnerships to be built according to their insight.
What is your favorite aspect about your work?
As an educator, I believe you can’t really teach anything to anyone, but–instead–you can provide tools, resources and serve as a companion to folks while they massage an idea until it clicks; then it becomes relevant to their context and their lives. My favorite part is to connect people with these resources and share the excitement of knowledge being attained, feeling ownership of knowledge and applying it to improve or change their lives.
What advice do you have for other librarians and present/future MLIS students?
Learn to recognize and celebrate existing community assets. Think of all community members as partners, collaborators and consultants for all your program development.
What programs have you been in charge of or involved with?
The most recent one was an interdepartmental collaboration between teen services, the family learning center and our maker space, the studio, to develop our first project-based group learning ESL program, Los Bookies. During four sessions, our wonderful staff, Antonette Franceschi-Chavez, Elena Vieiro, Fiorella Casella, Jessica Araiza and Ted Farias, engaged with our patrons with a variety of activities that included reading and translating stories, poetry and culminated with a letterpress workshop, where our learners printed collective poems that explored their identities. Part of the success of this program is due to the atmosphere we were able to build with participants, where our goal is to diminish our learners’ cautiousness and encourage them to make mistakes.
What personal interests or hobbies do you have that you would like to share?
I’m a big fan of the new wave of latinamerican authors, in particular female authors, who have been writing the most layered stories in the last 20 years. It’s incredibly powerful to narrate la cotidianidad, the everyday life noting its complexity, how mutually devastating and beautiful it is, and navigating how to celebrate and mourn simultaneously.