Spanish Language Resources

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Metropolitan Cathedral, Mexico City (image from the Library of Congress)

Library Bill of Rights

The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

• Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
• Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

• Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

• Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

• A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

• Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science

1. Books are for use.

2. Books are for all.

3. Every book its reader.

4. Save the time of the reader.

5. A library is a growing organism. 

Ranganathan, S.R. The Five Laws of Library Science. London: Edward Goldston, 1931.

The Birmingham Pledge

• I believe that every person has worth as an individual. 
• I believe that every person is entitled to dignity and respect, regardless of race or color. 
• I believe that every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others. 
• Therefore, from this day forward I will strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from my thoughts and actions. 
• I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity. 
• I will treat all people with dignity and respect; and I will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort.

Source: http://birminghampledgefoundation.org/

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819-March 26, 1892)

The Library of Congress holds the world's largest collection of Walt Whitman manuscripts. The current transcription campaign covers a large subset of his writings, including poetry, personal letters, and other documents.

Whitman worked as a school teacher, printer, newspaper editor, journalist, carpenter, freelance writer, civil servant, and Union Army nurse during the Civil War, but he is best known as one of America's most famous poets.

HAPPY 200th BIRTHDAY!!
To help celebrate the 200th anniversary of Whitman's birth, please consider participating in the transcription project. For more information, please visit: https:crowd.loc.gov/.

Cinco de mayo

Cinco de mayo obelisk, San Antonio

Cinco de mayo, or the fifth of May, commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867). A relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States Cinco de mayo has evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations. Cinco de mayo traditions include parades, mariachi music performances and street festivals in cities and towns across Mexico and the United States. (source: www.history.com)