Equity in Translation

As a bilingual Family Literacy Coordinator at Nashville Public Library (NPL), Klem-Marí Cajigas believes it isn’t enough to offer Spanish-language content and programs. She scrutinizes books to make sure that translations are of the same caliber as the English versions. In her work delivering literacy workshops to families in Spanish for a grant-funded project between NPL and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Cajigas reinterpreted the entire curriculum so that it was culturally relevant to Nashville’s Spanish-speaking population; the project reached nearly 600 families over eight years.

Cajigas has introduced underserved groups to the power of the library through hundreds of early literacy workshops across Nashville, a book club for Spanish-speaking moms, and work with incarcerated teens. “I believe that it is imperative that we as library professionals lift up and recommend and share with others books that accurately represent the children in our libraries and classrooms,” she says.

One initiative she’s most proud of is collaborating with her colleague, Lindsey Patrick Wright, to evaluate racist representations in NPL’s children’s literature collection. Working together, they created booklists and blog posts on this topic. She’s presented at the Public Library Association (PLA) conference and in webinars that have reached over 1,174 viewers.

Jamie Claybrooks, school library media specialist for NPL, says Cajigas has transformed the library’s community outreach. “Because of her bilingualism and her passion for working with immigrant and refugee families, NPL has forged relationships with families” who might otherwise have never connected to the library.