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la casita “I’m very pleased to see how the library is becoming what it intended to be: a bilingual community library for the youth of our community,” Paniagua said. Encarnación, the youth program coordinator and community liaison for La Casita, said many of the children have reading problems before they start Reading Circles. The children who stumble with their words are improving, Encarnación said. She added that children who struggle with grammar are writing more and the children who had no interest in reading enjoy it now with the assistance of Reading Circles. “The kids look forward to coming to La Casita, and it’s an amazing program. I hope we can expand it to other groups,” Encarnación said. Many students from SU volunteer to work with the kids every week, she added. Paniagua hopes to add a reading program for adults next year. Several local poets who would be interested in teaching adult poetry classes have approached the library as well, Encarnación said. Encarnación said the bilingual library has collected close to a thousand books and the library hopes to double its collection every year. The books in the bilingual library are familiar to people who have grown up in Latin American countries, she said, “and that’s very unique.” As the collection grows, Paniagua said the library would like to continue focusing on the youth. “Next year, we want to make it a priority to build the collection, but particularly put an emphasis on the collection for children’s
La Casita Cultural Center opened its bilingual library last April. The library will lend books to the public beginning in the fall, once staff finishes organizing recently catalogued books. joshuah romero asst. photo editor
books,” Paniagua said. Encarnación attributed the success of the bilingual library to SU and student volunteers. She added the library will only see more
improvements once the books are available for public lending. “The success of the library has been the collaboration with SU, the work of the stu-
dents, the work of the faculty and the staff from La Casita,” Encarnación said. “I believe it’s only going to improve moving forward.” almerod@syr.edu