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Original URL: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ahwatukee/articles/1120tempelibrary20Z14.html Tempe Library to invest in
non-English material Jessica Wanke
In response to a growing demand from
non-English-speaking immigrants, the Tempe Public Library has decided to spend
100 percent of its 2003-04 state grant on foreign language materials.
More requests have been made in the past year from immigrants looking to learn English and seeking reading material in their native language, library administrator Teri Metros said. "Our population is so much more diverse than it used to be," Metros said. The library will spend the $8,669 grant on books, videos, audio cassettes and CDs in 15 languages. The majority of the materials will be circulation items that can be checked out. This is the second straight year the Tempe library administration has dedicated the library's state grant to building the world languages collection. Last year, about two-thirds of the grant was used in that manner. The library will be building on its resources in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and Tagalog (a Filipino dialect). New collections to be added are in Hindi, Farsi (an Iranian language) and Arabic |