Library Providing Access to Hundreds of Multilingual Children’s eBooks

The North Liberty Library is partnering with Unite for Literacy, a non-traditional publishing company, to provide a multilingual collection of children’s eBooks. Hundreds of books on a variety of topics, and languages are now available through the library’s website. These books and stories are told by native speakers in celebration of their language and culture.

The collection includes more than 400 children’s books in both print and audio representing more than 40 languages narrated by native speakers.

Unite for Literacy is a social enterprise that partners with libraries, nonprofit organizations, schools, businesses, and philanthropic funders to change the literacy landscape of communities. They do this by engaging families with free digital library and supportive messaging about the importance of developing a self-determined habit of reading. Their platform allows for localized and relevant content creation, multiple language narrations, and scalable distribution.

Early literacy is imperative in a child’s development and success, one of the simplest ways to promote literacy is to have books to read. Our goal is to not only provide access to books but also reach non-English speaking families. Furthermore, the library is seeking individuals in the community to help bridge the gap between immigrant and non-English speaking communities and the library to provide better support and library services to all. Libraries are for everyone. If you are interested please contact Emily O’Sheridan-Tabor, Family Services Librarian, at (319) 626-5701, for more information.

Here is an example of the story Kids Want to Know: What is Covid-19?, developed by Unite for Healthy Families. Narration for this title available in English (English), Español (Spanish), 한국어 (Korean), Deutsch (German), Pусский (Russian), Português (Portuguese), 日本語 (Japanese), فارسی (Farsi), and հայերեն (Armenian).

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, explore titles Unite for Literacy has translated into Spanish. North Liberty librarians suggest Noche de muertos por Coco Martinez y Ale Tadeo or Night of the Dead by Coco Martinez and Ale Tadeo.