Congratulations to the Springfield Public Library in Oregon and the Santa Ana Public Library in California! These two library systems have been selected as the recipients of the 2011 Estela and Raíºl Mora Award for exemplary efforts in promoting El día de los niños/El día de los libros.
A press release offers more information:
Springfield Public Library planned its Día celebration with the help of volunteers. Public school classrooms were invited to create milagros (artistic expressions of wishes and desires) which were displayed at the library. Bilingual author Amy Costales presented songs and stories. Craft activities included bookmarks, piñatas, creating favorite book characters out of clay and bookmaking with the help of a bilingual list of story-starting ideas. Notably, the event was inclusive of parents with lower literacy skills, who were invited to orally share stories during craft activities. Two hundred people attended and 70 Spanish and bilingual books were awarded in a raffle.
The Santa Ana Public Library serves a population that is majority Hispanic and Asian. They hosted 1,000 children and parents at their third Día celebration which included presentations by four authors, book giveaways from the Friends of the Santa Ana Public Library and Consulado Mexicano, a book fair, and an information fair about services provided by community agencies. The Teen Library Club created an Alice in Wonderland Games Extravaganza. Multicultural entertainment featured a youth mariachi group, folkloric dancing, marionettes and a circus performance.
REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, will present the awards during the Midwinter meeting of the American Library Association (ALA) next January in Dallas. Details about the Mora Award application and guidelines for 2012 will be announced and posted by February 2012 at the REFORMA site.