The School District of Palm Beach County estimates that its students speak 146 different languages and dialects. With such a linguistically diverse population, the library seeks to tackle the challenges of providing multilingual services at every location, offering materials in many languages and building new collections to meet communities’ needs and offering activities that are culturally and linguistically diverse. With over 400 staff, themselves speakers of many languages, the library can meet these challenges head on.

The library has surveyed its staff for a number of years, seeking those who are willing to use their multilingual skills for the benefit of library patrons. Through the creation of staff lanyard buttons that state, “I speak …” in 17 languages, the establishment of an internal document translation team and the reinforcement of the importance of multilingualism through the library’s strategic plan and hiring practices, the library is prepared to meet the linguistic challenges of an ever-growing and changing community.

In FY18, the library system circulated a total of 100,909 foreign language print and audiovisual materials, and attracted 9,213 individuals to 485 multilingual activities. Additionally, staff interlibrary loaned 328 books in 18 languages over a three-year period to fill gaps in linguistic collections. The library’s revamped Strategic Plan includes a specific objective for evaluating cultural and linguistic community needs in relation to services, activities and new or expanded collections.