Stephanie Roberts, collections development supervisor, has worked with a team since the end of 2023 to revamp the World Languages Collection at the Central Library. Many of the previous materials, especially paperbacks, had deteriorated due to age and use.  

“So, we just kind of decided: Let’s start over,” Roberts says. “We focused on purchasing new materials for adult audiences, although some of the things in the collection are also suitable for teens due to their broad appeal.”  

The Library’s language collection represents 17 languages, including Spanish, Somali, Arabic, French, Chinese, and Vietnamese, and is located on the 3rd floor of the Central Library.  

The collection encompasses physical and digital editions of popular favorites, such as Rebecca Yarros’ Iron Flame or Fourth Wing (Alas de hierro or Alas de sangre in Spanish), as well as audiobooks and videos, magazines, CDs, and streaming music. 

One challenge, says Roberts, was finding the right vendors in a rapidly changing market.

Roberts discussed the collection with Julie Robinson, outreach services manager for the Library's Refugee ＆ Immigrant Services & Empowerment (RISE) program, and reached out to libraries in cities like Austin and Indianapolis. She also worked with the Public Library Association’s collections team to identify vendors, assess available materials, and purchase new ones.  

So far, about 70% of checkouts are for Spanish materials, followed by Korean, French, and Chinese.  

Popular topics include Christian living, self-help, and learning English. But, says Roberts, some usage might not be easily tracked. 

“I can foresee a situation where the patrons of the collection don't necessarily check out the materials,” she says. “Maybe, in their country [for example] the libraries charge money.” 

To make the collection more accessible, the Readers’ Services team is curating a pop-up selection of materials tailored to each Library branch. This launched on September 12 at Waldo, Southeast, and Ruiz with 40 to 50 titles of adult fiction and nonfiction. The materials will stay at those locations through December 11.  

“The purpose of this effort is to provide an opportunity for joyful discovery for our non-English speaking patrons when they visit their local branch,” says Readers' Services Librarian Lucy Donnelly.  

“Each pop-up collection is tailored to feature three languages that are predominantly spoken around the Library location,” she says. “This makes each unique and personalized to that community.” 

Donnelly says the next three locations will be installed from March through June and from June through September, with the goal of all Library branches hosting materials from the World Languages Collection in the next year.  

The pop-up collection, says Roberts, will “create these moments where people know it's there, and then it sparks, hopefully, relationships between those people and the staff. I'm excited to see how that will unfold.”  

The collections team plans to continue to curate and expand the World Languages Collection. This includes meeting patron requests, as well as reflecting changing demographics based on ongoing conversations with the Library's RISE team and census data.  

Roberts says that a few languages have eluded her, namely Swahili and Haitian Creole, but she’s working on them. 

She adds, “And I think the main thing is just to understand that it's a living, breathing collection.”