Regardless
of my position or employer, providing excellent customer service is always my
first goal. As a result, I found the report by Flores and Pachon (2008), Latinos and Public Library Perceptions,
to be interesting and the recommendations helpful. I appreciate concrete,
practical suggestions like those found on page 15, which read as follows:
1. Get to know your Latino community.
2.
Advertise the library as a place to learn English.
3.
Advertise public access to computers and availability of
general information.
4.
Inform the community that the library does not share library
user information.
Not
controversial at all in my mind, but we do live in Arizona, after all. In order
to implement these suggestions effectively, at a minimum, announcements would
need to be published in English and Spanish, and I wasn’t sure if
Proposition 103 and/or 300, passed overwhelmingly by Arizona voters in 2006,
precluded this.
And
I have many more questions: Can a public library hire bilingual staff? Can
advertisements for services be placed in Spanish-language media? Can
Spanish-language posters and signage be hung in the public library? GED classes
are offered; can English as a Second Language (ESL) classes by offered as
well?
There
are so many interpretations – and misinterpretations – about what is allowed
that I decided I should just read the propositions themselves. I found a
website to help me do just that.
Ballotpedia’s
mission is to “cultivate thriving citizenship
through the free and open sharing of information” (Our Mission, 2012). Based on Wikipedia’s model, information,
corrections, additions, etc. can be added by anyone that registers, though
there is a small staff to handle fact checking, and write entries and updates
as needed. The focus is on candidates and ballot measure that don’t receive a
lot of attention. Here is a summary of
what I learned.
Arizona
English as the Official Language, Proposition 103 was approved November 7, 2006
by 74% of the voters. It states that all official actions of Arizona state and
local government have to be conducted in English (Introductory paragraph;
Election results, 2012). Six exceptions are allowed:
1.
When required by federal law or when necessary to preserve
the right to petition the government.
2. In teaching languages other than English, or
in using or preserving Native American languages.
3. In actions to protect the public health and
safety, including law enforcement and emergency services, or to protect the
rights of crime victims and criminal defendants.
4. Providing assistance to hearing impaired or
illiterate persons.
5. In informal or nonbinding communications or
translations among or between government officials and the public.
6. For actions necessary for tourism, commerce
or international trade.
(Text of measure, 2012)
It
goes on to say “Proposition 103 would prohibit discrimination against a person
because the person uses English in any public or private communication” though
I can’t imagine that this has been a problem.
Arizona
Public Program Eligibility, Proposition 300, calling for the verification of
the immigration status of persons who are applying for state-funded services,
was approved by 71.4% of the voters (Introductory paragraph; Election results,
2012). There are 6 provisions:
1. Provides that only United States citizens, legal
residents or persons otherwise lawfully present in this country are eligible to
participate in adult education classes offered by the Arizona Department of
Education.
2. Provides that in accordance with the federal
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, a person
who is not a United States citizen or legal resident and who does not otherwise
possess lawful immigration status in this country may not be classified as an
in-state student or county resident for community college or state university
tuition purposes.
3. Provides that a state university or community
college student who is not a United States citizen and who does not otherwise
possess lawful immigration status in this country is not entitled to waivers,
grants or any other financial assistance paid in whole or part with state
funds.
4. Restricts eligibility for childcare assistance
from the Arizona Department of Economic Security to parents, guardians and
caretakers who are United States citizens, legal residents or persons otherwise
lawfully present in this country.
5. Requires that the family literacy program, the
adult education class requirements, the state university and community college
financial assistance requirements and the child care assistance program be
enforced without regard to race, religion, gender, ethnicity or national
origin.
6. Requires that the state agencies administering the
provisions of Proposition 300 report statistics regarding the number of persons
denied participation in the above described programs due to citizenship or
immigration status.
(Text of measure, 2012)
The argument in support of passage, authored by State Treasurer Dean Martin (Support, 2012), was based on his belief that illegal immigrants are a financial drain on Arizona. Even if this were true, libraries, though supported primarily by government sources, offer their services free to everyone. There is no citizenship test or fee and, if these requirements were implemented, I predict that the outcry would be deafening.
Based
on the approved wording in both propositions, there should be no difficulty
putting into place the recommendations by Flores and Pachon within an Arizona
public library.
These
propositions are the outgrowth of the English-only movement that has been
around for several centuries and unfortunately isn’t going away any time
soon. There is, however, more and more
research available about the advantages to being bilingual. For example, Ellen
Bialystok, a cognitive neuroscientist, has found that being bilingual helps
with multi-tasking and forestalls the symptoms of Alzheimer’s (Dreifus, 2011).
In
a story aired on NPR, reporter Gretchen Cuda-Kroen (2011) states that not only
is being bilingual good for your brain, in an interconnected world, the ability
to speak more than one language is an advantage. Ms. Cuda-Kroen continues “Approximately
one-fifth of Americans speak a non-English language at home and globally, as
many as 2/3rds of children are brought up bilingual.”
As
the Pima County Public Libraries continue to fulfill their mission of
“enriching lives and building community through opportunities to learn, know,
interact, and grow” (About Us, 2012) in their quiet, effective way and the
Latino population in the state continues to grow, the English-only movement may
start to fade for the benefit of us all.
References
Ballotpedia.
(2012). Arizona English as the official language, proposition 103 (2006).
Retrieved from http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Arizona_English_as_the_Official_Language,_Proposition_103_(2006)
Ballotpedia.
(2012). Arizona public program eligibility, proposition 300 (2006). Retrieved
from http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Arizona_Public_Program_Eligibility,_Proposition_300_(2006)
Cuda-Kroden,
G. (2011, April 4). Being bilingual may boost your brain power. NPR Morning Edition. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/04/04/135043787/being-bilingual-may-boost-your-brain-power
Dreifus, C.
(2011, May 30). The bilingual advantage. The
New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/science/31conversation.html
Flores, E. and
Pachon, H. (2008). Latinos and Public Library Perceptions. Tomás Rivera Policy
Institute in partnership with OCLC, Dublin, OH.
Pima County
Public Library. (2012). About us: Mission, vision & values. Retrieved from http://www.library.pima.gov/about/mission/
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