Like many WJ staffers, I had the privilege of attending PLA last week. Here are two (of the countless!) important things I learned:

1. Always leave yourself plenty of time to make it to your presentation. You never know when you might get stuck in an elevator…

2. One of the biggest mistakes librarians can make when doing outreach to the Spanish-speaking community (or to anyone for that matter) is to ask leaders in the community “what can the library do for you?”

Yolanda Cuesta made this point during our session (yes, I escaped from the elevator in time!) on Empowering Library Staff to Meet the Technology needs of Spanish Speakers. When librarians talk to community leaders it is tempting to jump to asking what services, collections, or programs libraries should offer.

Instead libraries should focus first on working with community leaders to learn about the issues that are most important to the community, to find out about the needs of the community, and to build a relationship and partnership with the leader. Community Leaders are experts on the needs of their community – not library services!

With a more complete picture of the community’s needs, it will be much easier for the library (the experts on library services) to determine how library services can be created, modified, or marketed more effectively to the Spanish-speaking community.

To find out more about learning from your community leaders, check out the Spanish Language Outreach Program’s Community Leader Interview Guide.