I was surprised to learn that I would hear not only about libraries participating in teaching adult immigrants the English language, but also that there are libraries participating in aiding patrons with the naturalization process. The panelists were:

• Homa Naficy, Manager of Multicultural Education and Outreach, The American Place, Hartford Public Library
• Elaine Giardino, Civics for Immigrants Project Manager, Literacy Volunteers of Westchester and Rockland Counties
• Norma V. Menard, Executive Director, Literacy Volunteers of Clinton County

Homa Naficy

Homa Naficy, introduced as someone who was born in Iran, studied in the U.K. and France, and naturalized, explained The American Place (TAP) which she has managed since its creation in 2000 at Hartford Public Library. TAP was created to help immigrants and refugees with adjusting to life in America and gaining citizenship. Some of the services they offer are:

• U.S. citizenship classes
• Visa lottery assistance
• Immigration forums to keep immigrants up to date on various immigration topics
• Help with retrieving immigration application forms and setting up an email account
• English language classes
• Professional development

As Ms. Naficy explained during the program, the U.S. Citizenship process is harder than ever. Immigrants have to read, write, and speak English at a third grade level, fill out countless forms, know U.S. history and government, and “have good moral character” (whatever they mean by that). She also explained that now immigrants cannot simply go to the immigration office; they need to go online to make an appointment. So that means that they also need to be technologically literate… Or know a library nearby that offers that kind of help. (Ms. Naficy also explained that they were lucky in a way at the Hartford Public Library because they are right across the street from the local immigration office. Immigrants were sent to the library to use their computers, and the library wanted to provide them with more services than that.)

Elaine Giardino, standing

Elaine Giardino illustrated the role that her organization plays in aiding immigrant services at the library in Westchester and Rockland Counties. Civics for Immigrants helps train library volunteers and staff on tutoring the English language to immigrants and helping them learn the U.S. history and government information they will be tested on during the naturalization process. The organization provides the trainers and the curriculum on which to base the tutelage, and the trainees take an extensive 2 day course.

Norma V. Menard, standing

Like Ms. Naficy, Norma V. Menard was also born abroad and experienced the naturalization process. Ms. Menard was born in the Philippines, earned a degree in social work, and met her future husband in the Peace Corps. Eventually, they got married and moved to Clinton County, New York, as Ms. Menard described, “3 miles from the Canadian border” (by Montreal). When she was looking into becoming a naturalized citizen, she explained that a librarian in her local library played a large part in easing the process for her. Now she is the Executive Director of Literacy Volunteers of Clinton County, and helps immigrants in the library that helped her.

Ms. Menard’s experience was interesting, especially in contrast to Ms. Naficy’s. Ms. Naficy’s library is located in a highly populated part of Connecticut, whereas Ms. Menard’s is in rural New York. Therefore, the services that they offer in Clinton County are more tutor-based than program-based. The patrons taking advantage of the service Clinton County libraries offer do it on a one-on-one basis.

The presenters in this program were fascinating, despite the fact that the latter two were on such short notice. The original co-speaker (besides Ms. Naficy), Carlos Munoz-Acevedo from the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services, was unable to come because he was called to Washington D.C. by the president. In his stead he left enough Civics and Citizenship Toolkits for everyone who attended. I must admit: I love swag.

I hope more libraries provide more services to aid immigrants in their communities. It’s important to provide services to that part of the population, to ease the process that seems designed for people to fail, and to make the community a better place.

So it is no surprise that the first program I chose to go to at the NYLA Conference in Saratoga Springs was called 21st Century Information Literacy Standards for Digital Learners of New York. The presenter was Fran Roscello, of Roscello Associates Information Literacy Consultants and the co-chair of the NYLA Information Literacy Task Force.

The program was packed at nine o’clock in the morning. Ms. Roscello managed to keep us all awake and engaged. She presented us New York State’s standards, apropos to the title of the program, and where they came from.

Apparently, New York State has a Broadband Council that makes sure all citizens of the state have access to broadband internet. It’s a high level group in the state government, comprised of many powerful individuals. The Digital Literacy and Community Outreach Action Team is a subgroup of the NYS Broadband Council charged with developing digital literacy standards. Michael Borges, the director of NYLA, is appointed chair of this group. This group is also a powerful group of people from all walks of life.

The presenter, Ms. Roscello, was not a member of this group but a presenter to it. She was able to be a witness to the writing of the standards, but not participate in the creation of it.

Luckily for librarians, Mr. Borges was appointed the chair of the group. If he hadn’t, the definition of digital literacy New York State uses could have been drastically different. There are companies that had digital literacy standards, as Ms. Roscello explained, that seemed more like technological literacy standards, knowing how to use the computer. Instead, they chose to define digital literacy in broader terms. Mr. Borges and the rest of the Digital Literacy and Community Outreach Action Team decided to incorporate ideas from the national standards of AASL, ACRL, ISTI, and other state’s standards to make it easier on themselves (not “reinventing the wheel”) and so that librarians can use the state standards in tandem with the ones they are already using.

According to Ms. Roscello, the first information literacy standards in New York were in 1918, and they are still applicable to today. The common elements in the aforementioned standards (AASL, ACRL, ISTI, and other state’s) are:

• Inquiry, information seeking
• Technology
• Access
• Communication and collaboration
• Ethics
• Importance in a democracy (preparing students to be citizens, helping adult citizens get the information they need to make the right choices)
• Critical thinking: making meaning from information

So the Digital Literacy and Community Outreach Action Team used the AASL standards as the base, added elements of ISTI and ACRL, reworked standards to reflect what is important to New Yorkers, and added statements to reflect the Information Literacy Task Force’s needs. Digital learners will:

1. Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.
2. Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.
3. Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively.
4. Develop an application for ideas and information in pursuit of personal growth.

In order to make sure that we understood each part of the Information Literacy Standards, Ms. Roscello had us, the audience, talk with our rows about one of the four standards to explain it in our own words. I worked with two other women, and we first discussed the third standard. “Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively” is a standard that might be a librarian’s most challenging task; he or she must lead by example. Sharing knowledge and how to obtain that knowledge with a patron will hopefully set a good example for that patron and they, in turn, will share with the people they know. Efficiently giving credit where credit is do, with copyright, allows the sharing of knowledge to be ethical and productive.

I really liked this program and everything about it. I liked the speaker (knowledgeable and enthusiastic), the topic (NYS information literacy standards are new to me), the size of the room (relatively small to ALA’s standards), the PowerPoint presentation (an example of a nearly perfect presentation), the handout (appropriate and useful), and the audience (insightful and talkative, but respectful). It was pretty early in the morning and a great start to the day.