Abstract:

Reaching out to Hispanic children in the K-12 school means connecting not only to the child, but to the greater Hispanic family as well. The number of Hispanic families in the United States has risen dramatically over the past few decades, which means that an increasing number of Hispanic children are attending K-12 schools. According to the Center for Disease Control the number of Hispanic children in K-12 schools is 23.3%; unfortunately that number drops to 6.8% in colleges and universities. What steps can be taken to ensure that school libraries are supplying effective literacy efforts and fostering learning achievements of the Hispanic population? Frequently, the school librarian sees every child in the elementary school due to a fixed class rotation. Therefore, the school librarian possesses a powerful role in providing literacy outreach to the Hispanic communities of the children who attend K-12 schools. This article explores both challenges and effective strategies for outreach and gains in literacy rates to Hispanic children and their families within the realm of the school library media specialist.

Keywords:

School librarians, Hispanics, Librarians.