Newport Beach library to buy Spanish books

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Customers of the Newport Beach Central Library will

soon be able to read “Cien Anos de Soledad” instead of “One Hundred Years

of Solitude” because library officials have set aside about $25,000 to

build a Spanish book collection.

Library leaders said they decided to buy books in Spanish after

repeated requests from patrons.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Patrick Bartolic, who chairs the

library’s board of trustees. “We’ve talked about it throughout the

duration of our board and finally felt in a position to do something

about it.”

With an overall budget for library materials of $581,264, Bartolic

noted that the allocation for Spanish books wasn’t very large.

“We’re not trying to compete with a university collection” of foreign

language books, he said. “We’re serving people at a community level.”

Newport Beach itself has a relatively small Latino population -- about

4.7%, according to the 2000 census. But Bartolic said the library also

serves many residents in other cities in Orange County, which has a much

larger Latino population.

Library officials also expect that nonnative speakers of the language

will check out Spanish books as well.

For now, Spanish will be the only foreign language that’s represented

in the book collection, Bartolic said. But if it proves successful,

others, such as German, French and Farsi, might be added in the future,

he added.

The Spanish books should arrive by the beginning of next year, but

library officials are still deciding which titles to get. About $20,300

will be used to buy books for adults, while library officials will use

$4,500 to acquire children’s books.

The Spanish book collection will be at the central library, 1000

Avocado Ave.