Gwinnett County Library Reinstates Spanish-language Budget

By Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 7/15/2006

On June 28, the Gwinnett County Public Library’s Board of Trustees reversed its move to cut $3000 from the 2007 budget designated for Spanish-language adult fiction. The decision was made, according to the Associated Press, after the library received negative reactions from across the country—including critical editorials and emails—when the AP first reported on the funding cut in June.

Library Chairman Lloyd Breck told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the board had also abandoned a proposal to remove an option on the library checkout system that communicates with patrons in Spanish. Breck said he didn’t know how the proposal got on the agenda or which member requested it.

"The board was not trying to send any kind of message," Breck said, denying claims that the budget cut was “anti-Hispanic.” He justified the decision by saying the board did not want to favor one foreign language over another, especially when library officials were already struggling to fill requests for English-language books. But Board member Brett Taylor, who opposed the initial cut, said last month that the decision was reached after receiving patrons’ complaints about using taxpayer dollars to entertain readers who might be illegal immigrants and that two board members concurred. "The argument was we didn't need to cater to illegal aliens,” Taylor said, according to the Los Angeles Times. He added that he was “personally offended” by the decision and that “[librarians] have to look out for everybody.”

With more than 105,000 Hispanic residents (according to the 2004 U.S. Census Bureau) Gwinnet County is home to the largest Hispanic population in Georgia, with one in seven residents speaking Spanish at home. The county’s 13 libraries have almost 800 Spanish-language adult fiction books and CDs dispersed among them, which director JoAnn Pinder, who was recently fired under controversial circumstances, reintroduced to library shelves in February, after an 11-year gap.