About the library > News Releases > 2008 > Library awarded two major outreach grants from the Oregon State Library
Library awarded two major outreach grants from the Oregon State Library
Both projects reach out to non-English speakers
May 7, 2008
Contact:
- Penny Hummel, Public Relations Manager, 503.988.5498
PORTLAND, OR – Multnomah County Library has recently been awarded two grants totalling over $200,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Oregon State Library. Both grants support projects that reach out to Multnomah County's growing immigrant community, targeting speakers of the library's four target languages: Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
The Spanish/English program Families Reading Together/Familias Leyendo Juntas has several goals, which include building parenting, critical thinking and literacy skills; improving family communication; and promoting reading and story sharing in the home. To be implemented by a bilingual Spanish-speaking library staff member, this project will target bilingual families with children ages 2–11. The award for this project is $87,570.
This is How I Use My Library will create an educational DVD series in each of the library's three other target languages (Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian) providing an overview of library services and how to access them. Organized in brief video chapters (such as "How to get a library card"), these instructional sessions will be available on the library's website as well as in DVD format for checkout or use by community groups. In addition, a copy of each DVD will be provided to every library in Oregon for use in their own outreach efforts. The award for this project is $113,341.