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1. Spanish-language Web news
of the recent events
Those looking for news in Spanish concerning the
incidents of September 11 and their aftermath will find frequently
updated special reports at www.terra.com and CNN's site http://cnnenespanol.com/; Yupi, too, serves
up a section dedicated to these events: http://www.yupimsn.com/noticias/politica/ataquesusa/.
In addition, Spanish-language newspapers throughout the Americas
are accessible via Tu Bibliotecario Electrónico at http://skipper.gseis.ucla.edu/students/bjensen/html/sol/bibliotecario2.htm
2. Questions about CD-ROMS in Spanish
From: Linda Stiles-Taylor <lindast@wccls.lib.or.us
Subject: U.S. Distributor for Zeta Multimedia
Greetings Flaco-
Any chance that any of the SOListas have a clue as
to how to purchase CD-ROMS in Spanish from Zeta Multimedia within
the United States? Also any recommendations for other CD-Roms
in Spanish?
Thanks-
Linda Stiles Taylor
Forest Grove City Library
Oregon
3. El viejo Antonio goes
digital
When the children's book penned by Subcomandante
Marcos and illustrated by Domitila Domínguez, La historia
de los colores [The Story of Colors] was
to be published in a bilingual edition by Cinco Puntos Press, the
National Endowment for the Arts in 1999 suddenly decided to deny
the company a promised grant.
The happy ending was that the fine folks at the
Lannan Foundation kicked in the long green to rescue this worthy
project, and the gorgeous book was an instant hit. But when you
think about all the trouble that went into getting the volume published
in the US, it seems all the more wondrous that it's now freely accessible
on the World Wide Web.
Guadalajara's Colectivo Callejero is the copyright
holder, and Domínguez is one of that collective's leaders. They've
done a spectacular job of mounting La historia de los colores
in living color at http://ixtlahuac.com/sites/viejoantonio/index.html
4. Health info on the Web: Special concerns
for Spanish-speakers
From: Peter Sezzi psezzi@ucla.edu
From the Executive Summary of a recent RAND California HealthCare
Foundation study on evaluating the quality and accessibility of
health information on the Internet. Find the complete report at
http://www.rand.org/publications/documents/interneteval
Key Findings:
Search engines are not efficient
tools for locating health information on a particular health topic.
Few searches lead to relevant health
information. Consumers using search engines to find information
in English have only a 1 in 5 chance of finding something relevant
to their search.
Search engine results are even
poorer for Spanish-language content, where consumers have only a
1 in 8 chance of finding relevant information.
Search engines take users to different places.
No engine is clearly better than another, but where users start
does matter. Indeed, different search engines rarely take users
to the same site. If the lists of 10 Web sites identified by each
of two different search engines were compared, only one of the sites
would be on both lists.
Information on the Internet is commercialized. A
substantial proportion of the information that Internet users are
likely to find on Web sites is promotional--i.e., it sells products
or services but is not clearly labeled as an advertisement. About
half of the information located by English-language search engines
is of this nature. For Spanish-language
search engines, about one-fifth of the information is promotional.
Consumers often find incomplete answers to important questions;
however, the information that is provided is generally accurate.
The average English-language Web site lacked information about one
in four of the topics that medical experts and consumer advocates
thought were important to consumers.More than minimal coverage was
available for only half of the topics.
Health information on Spanish-language
sites was sparse and less consistently accurate. On these sites,
half of the four health topics had no coverage at all, and more
than minimal coverage was found for only one.
Nearly two-thirds of the English materials list an author and date.About
half of the dated materials were updated within the past year. However,
only one-sixth of the Spanish materials have dates and authors,
and nearly half the materials have neither.
It is not uncommon for a Web site to contain
conflicting information on a clinical topic. Coverage varied
by topic. For example, breast cancer topics, especially breast cancer
screening, were covered significantly more often than all other
conditions on English Web sites. In contrast, topic areas related
to childhood asthma and obesity were covered significantly less
often than the other two conditions on English Web sites. Topics
covered least often included symptoms suggestive of poorly controlled
asthma and the safety and effectiveness of dietary supplements for
treatment
of obesity.
Coverage also varied across Web sites. For example, among the English-language
breast-cancer sites, Oncolink.com provided more than minimal,
and completely accurate, coverage significantly more often than
the average. Five English-language sites (oncolink.com, cancernet.nih.gov,
cancer.org, onhealth.com, and webmd.com) provided at least minimal
coverage for 70% of the breast cancer related topics for which we
searched. Among the depression sites, nimh.gov performed significantly
above average, and six English-language sites (nimh.nih.gov, intelihealth.com,
webmd.com, cbshealthwatch.com, onhealth.com and depression.com)
provided at least minimal coverage of 50% of the depression-related
topics. No Web site performed statistically better than the average
for either childhood asthma or obesity.
Most Web-based health information will be difficult for
the average consumer to understand. According to recent
health literacy studies, the majority of many health consumer populations
cannot understand material written at a 9th grade reading level.
This means that most health Web sites require reading skills beyond
the abilities of many consumers, especially those underserved populations
who are most in need of this information.
Half of the English-language materials are written at the college
level, and all were at least a tenth-grade reading level. Forty percent of the Spanish-language materials are
written at the college level, almost all were written at least a
ninth-grade reading level.
5. Huandacareo.net: If you lived in
this virtual community, you'd be home now
Everyone talks about using the Web to build community,
but JC López has really done something about it: www.huandacareo.net is a
marvelous, multifaceted site of, by, and for natives of a lovely
part of the Mexican state of Michoacán--wherever they may be.
Former farm laborer López lives in Oxnard, CA where
he now works with computers--and magnificent work he does. Huandacareo.net
is a treasury of photos and videos, cultural data (there you'll
learn that more US immigrants come from Michoacán than any other
Mexican state), chat rooms, and even live online advice when Cruz
is at the machine.
This popular site is a labor of love that presents
a model for how technology can indeed build solidarity in the diaspora.
Certainly michoacanos can soothe their homesickness here,
but Spanish speakers of many backgrounds will likely find something
of interest on López's site.
6. SOLista's library featured on NBC's Today
Show
From: Arlene Sahraie <sahraie@yahoo.com
Hi Bruce
Just wanted to let you know that The Fairview Public Library, Fairview,
NJ (Bergen County) was featured on The Today Show, Saturday,
September 1 on their "Visiones" segment. They came
to our library to highlight our Spanish language collection which
we call "LIBROS @ Your Library" as well as outreach programs
like our ESL Class and Bilingual Story Hour.
The segment was a good five minutes and we were thrilled to get
this fabulous national recognition.
Thought you'd be happy to know.
Best Regards,
Arlene Sahraie, Director
Bruce Jensen <flaco@sol-plus.net
wrote back:
>Wow! That's wonderful, Arlene! Good for you guys!
Can you tell more about this show? This is NBC's "Weekend
Today Show," right? Is the segment available somehow for
viewing (I've been leafing through the MSNBC website but confess
I'm being one clumsy searcher...) or d'ya have any tips on
getting + handling media attention?
Keep up your great work,
b.
...and Arlene replied:
>>Hi Bruce...The person who contacted me is a producer for
Today, Manny Santos. He's great. [Mr. Santos' email address
available on request to flaco@sol-plus.net]
"Visiones" is a short segment they run on Saturdays
here in the east between 9:30 and 10a.m. and he says the segment
airs in many markets nationally and internationally (Canada, Central
and South America) but I don't know when... I don't always catch
it although now it is my favorite segment.
If I can get a copy of our segment made, I'll mail it to you...
Just remember these people are always looking for news...try and
sell/pitch an idea that they can envision on the air...gotta run...thanks
for the kind words...later...Arlene
=====
"If you didn't want them to think,
you shouldn't have given them library cards."
Line spoken by Elliott Gould as Harry Bailey in
"Getting Straight", written by Robert Kaufman, directed
by Richard Rush
7. Website counsels Spanish-speaking travelers
The name says it all: "Me quiero ir"
[loosely translated, I wanna get outta here!] A commercial
site from Venezuela offers practical advice for aspiring émigrés
hoping to work or study in countries such as Canada, Australia,
Spain, Great Britain, and the US. Details on visa requirements,
tips for getting scholarships, and an "am-I-really-ready-to-go?"
test are among the features of this Spanish-language resource at
www.mequieroir.com/
8. Multicultural storytelling: An online
seminar
From: James Kelly [mailto:jrkelly@library.umass.edu]
Subject: Online event: Multicultural Storytelling, Oct 3-17
"Celebration or Cultural Larceny? An Online Discussion of Multicultural
Storytelling," will be moderated by Dr. Gale Eaton, in conjunction
with the University of Rhode Island's Annual Diversity Week. A web
page to support discussion will be available at http://www.uri.edu/artsci/lsc/cpd/01multi/index.htm
after October 3, and discussion will run on the LSCCPD list from
Oct 3 to 17, 2001. The GSLIS Continuing Professional Development
Program will present
Children's librarians, teachers, and others tell folk tales from
around the world to help children know and appreciate diverse cultures
(or just enjoy some marvelous stories). It's a celebration of multiculturalism
-- isn't it? Well, yes -- but. our online discussion will
raise some of the sensitive issues (such as worries about the "multicultural
tourism" approach or the misappropriation of cultural capital
by outsider storytellers); offer suggestions for storytellers who
do cross cultural boundaries; and highlight links to relevant
resources.
To join the discussion, register with Joan Mouradjian (lmouradjian@cs.com) before or during the
program (October 3-17). You will be added to LSCCPD@pete.uri.edu for the duration of
this program only.
Gale Eaton, Associate Professor
University of Rhode Island
Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
Kingston, RI 02881
(401) 874-4651
geaton@uriacc.uri.edu
9. Wine lingo in Spanish? You could look
it up...
Although it doesn't quite measure up to the Anaya-Vox
online dictionary at www.diccionarios.com,
another fine pile of words from Spain is certain to delight tipplers
who like to wash down their lexicography with a bit of sangría.
This offering from the Madrid daily El Mundo includes synonyms,
antonyms, French/Spanish, English/Spanish, medical terms, and--no
kidding--Spanish vintners' vocabulary. Find the good word at http://www.elmundo.es/diccionarios/
10. KC inaugurates "Biblioteca de las
Américas"
The Kansas City Star of September
10, 2001, ran a story called "Library with focus on Spanish
opens today" by James Hart. It was a long time coming, but
the Irene H. Ruiz Biblioteca de las Américas is now doing a brisk
business. Spanish-language items comprise nearly one-third the collection
of this million-dollar library.
Much as we'd like to furnish a URL that'd take you
to the article, the KC Star doesn't want its information
to be free. Fair enough; use your librarianly wiles to find this
one if you'd like to read the piece.
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As the sun sets on this strange
summer of '01, it's time to
open