Mono County Free Libraries Receives Save the Children Grant to Expand Bilingual and Spanish-Language Collections for Youth

Mono County Free Libraries Receives Save the Children Grant to Expand Bilingual and Spanish-Language Collections for Youth

Mono County Free Libraries announces it has received a grant from Save the Children US to support a major initiative aimed at making its youth and children’s collections more inclusive, accurate, and representative of the communities it serves. The award is equivalent to a 50% increase in the library system’s annual book budget, underscoring the scale of the investment in equitable access to literature.

“Every young person in Mono County deserves to see themselves reflected on our shelves and to find books that speak to who they are,” said Josef Bopp, Director and Chief Librarian for Mono County Free Libraries. “This grant lets us do more than update our titles — it lets us build a collection that truly welcomes every reader who walks through our doors, in the language that feels like home to them. We’re deeply grateful to Save the Children for investing in that vision.”

For the year-long grant, library staff will undertake a comprehensive review and modernization of the youth nonfiction collection, along with the Spanish-language and bilingual fiction collections for emerging and youth readers. The project will remove outdated and insensitive titles while significantly expanding the availability of Spanish and bilingual books, ensuring patrons have access to current, relevant, and culturally responsive materials.

The initiative responds directly to a gap identified by library staff: according to the 2020 U.S. Census, Hispanic or Latino residents make up 26.58% of Mono County’s population, yet Spanish and bilingual titles currently represent a small fraction of the library’s youth and children’s holdings. The library anticipates that the modernized collection will benefit a wide range of patrons, including children and youth developing their reading skills, students working on school projects, and Spanish-speaking and bilingual residents and visitors throughout the county.

To ensure the newly added titles reflect the interests and needs of local readers, Mono County Free Libraries will distribute a community survey inviting patrons to help shape the direction and focus of the collection. Input gathered through the survey will directly inform title selections throughout the project.

News Staff