Posted:
10/17/2012
L-R:
Sue Taylor, head librarian of the Mark Twain Branch and Glenda
Williams, the director of the Long Beach Public Library, will be
traveling to Cambodia to purchase between 1,000 and 2,000 books that
they will add to the Long Beach Library collection of Khmer-language
offerings. (Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer)
Enter the Mark Twain Library and you may see Sue Taylor, the head
librarian, peppering Randy Pa, a Cambodian security guard, with
questions about his home country and proper pronunciation of certain
phrases.
On a recent day, she was making sure she had the correct
pronunciation of Sihanouk, the former king of Cambodia, who died Oct. 15
and whose body will be lying in state in Cambodia.
The tidbits Taylor picks up could come in handy next week as
she trolls the markets of Phnom Penh looking for deals. On Saturday,
Taylor and Glenda Williams, Long Beach director of library services,
will travel to Cambodia for a whirlwind shopping spree.
They won't be looking for T-shirts, jewelry or cut-rate fashions - well, not much, at least.
Instead, they will be looking to significantly bolster the
Long Beach library system's Khmer-language collection. Long Beach has
the largest Cambodian population, whose native language is Khmer, in the
United States.
Thanks to a grant from the Miller Foundation, the two will
have more than $10,000 to spend on buying and shipping Khmer-language
volumes, which could allow them to nearly double the current collection.
"It's going to be just great," Williams said of adding to the collection.
"You know (the library) purchases volumes every year. This
collection hasn't been added to in nearly five years. Imagine going to a
library and not having new books."
Unfortunately, the Khmer
collection has stagnated
because, Taylor said, while the Khmer publishing industry is quickly
growing, the ability to order items online is virtually nonexistent.
In recent years, the need and thirst for Khmer-language material at the Twain branch has been evident.
According to Taylor, Cambodian-
language books practically fly off the shelves.
"We check out more Khmer (material) than adult general fiction," she said. "In fact, more than any genre."
That's saying something when one considers that system-wide, Long Beach only has about 2,200 volumes in Khmer, compared to nearly 1 million overall, or 2.2 per thousand.
It was half that before January 2008. That's when Taylor made her first shopping trip to Cambodia and came back with 1,105 volumes for the library's Khmer-language collection.
On that trip, she had $20,000.
The uptick in use of the library by the Cambodian community has been a gradual process, which has accelerated since Taylor's first trip. Many refugees were hesitant to check out Khmer material, preferring instead to just peruse the books in the library.
It took patience and coaxing to get them to eventually take the volumes home, she said.
Since then, interest the Cambodian community's interest in the library has swelled.
In addition to the volumes, the library also offers weekly Khmer-language lessons, taught by resident Bryant Ben, which have helped Cambodians young and old improve their literacy.
In recent weeks, Taylor has been asking Cambodian library users about their preferences and compiling a list. She said requests have ranged from books on Khmer grammar, to magazines, to romance novels to medical books. She also plans to devote a good amount of money to children's books, history, culture and customs and poetry.
"We've gotta get the chlldren's books to teach them literacy," Williams said.
Like any good librarian, Taylor has a thick binder with her wish list categorized and cross-referenced three different ways. She intends to shop not only at publishing houses, but also in markets and at the country's documentation center, which has been a repository for information on the ongoing Khmer Rouge war tribunals prosecuting suspected Communist leaders responsible for the genocide that wiped out upwards of 2 million Cambodians in the mid-1970s.
This trip, Taylor expects to get more bang for her bucks because she and Williams will have cash, rather than the credit card she had to use last time. She expects the cash will open up some purchasing opportunities unavailable her last time over.
Also, having already been to the country once, Taylor said she better knows what to expect.
Williams, on the other hand, said this is her first trip outside the United States. She won't have much time for sightseeing, however.
"We're going to be so focused," Williams said. "We've got four days, so it doesn't leave any time for anything else."
"We'll be in a buying frenzy," Taylor said with a laugh.
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-714-2093, twitter.com/gregmellen
According to Taylor, Cambodian-
language books practically fly off the shelves.
"We check out more Khmer (material) than adult general fiction," she said. "In fact, more than any genre."
That's saying something when one considers that system-wide, Long Beach only has about 2,200 volumes in Khmer, compared to nearly 1 million overall, or 2.2 per thousand.
It was half that before January 2008. That's when Taylor made her first shopping trip to Cambodia and came back with 1,105 volumes for the library's Khmer-language collection.
On that trip, she had $20,000.
The uptick in use of the library by the Cambodian community has been a gradual process, which has accelerated since Taylor's first trip. Many refugees were hesitant to check out Khmer material, preferring instead to just peruse the books in the library.
It took patience and coaxing to get them to eventually take the volumes home, she said.
Since then, interest the Cambodian community's interest in the library has swelled.
In addition to the volumes, the library also offers weekly Khmer-language lessons, taught by resident Bryant Ben, which have helped Cambodians young and old improve their literacy.
In recent weeks, Taylor has been asking Cambodian library users about their preferences and compiling a list. She said requests have ranged from books on Khmer grammar, to magazines, to romance novels to medical books. She also plans to devote a good amount of money to children's books, history, culture and customs and poetry.
"We've gotta get the chlldren's books to teach them literacy," Williams said.
Like any good librarian, Taylor has a thick binder with her wish list categorized and cross-referenced three different ways. She intends to shop not only at publishing houses, but also in markets and at the country's documentation center, which has been a repository for information on the ongoing Khmer Rouge war tribunals prosecuting suspected Communist leaders responsible for the genocide that wiped out upwards of 2 million Cambodians in the mid-1970s.
This trip, Taylor expects to get more bang for her bucks because she and Williams will have cash, rather than the credit card she had to use last time. She expects the cash will open up some purchasing opportunities unavailable her last time over.
Also, having already been to the country once, Taylor said she better knows what to expect.
Williams, on the other hand, said this is her first trip outside the United States. She won't have much time for sightseeing, however.
"We're going to be so focused," Williams said. "We've got four days, so it doesn't leave any time for anything else."
"We'll be in a buying frenzy," Taylor said with a laugh.
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-714-2093, twitter.com/gregmellen
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