The Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) went south to the Rio Grande Valley in early February to visit three area libraries in Hidalgo County to interview and film library directors and staff to document their efforts in digital literacy. TSLAC’s Library Digital Opportunity (LDO) team, Data Coordinator Promise Madu, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator Warren Davis, and Multimedia Specialist Jason Martinez went to libraries in Pharr, Mission, and Edinburg, Texas.

Pharr Memorial Library, Dustin Michael Sekula Library in Edinburg, and Speer Memorial Library in Mission are all part of a consortium of thirteen libraries in Hidalgo County. It became clear while touring the busy libraries and interviewing staff that they are all true community hubs, providing services based on the varying needs of their municipalities.

The consortium, including the three we visited, meet occasionally and correspond regularly to solve problems and share ideas. However, the communities for each of those libraries are vastly different and require an adaptive approach to provide tailored digital literacy solutions.

Digital literacy is one of the pressing issues Texans are dealing with. People need these technology skills to find, evaluate, create, and share information. Becoming digitally literate impacts workforce development, health outcomes, online cybersecurity and so much more. Here’s what we discovered on our trip.

PHARR MEMORIAL LIBRARY

Director Adolfo Garcia runs the Pharr Memorial Library like a business, offering a wide variety of digital opportunity services to his patrons. While there, we met with a coordinator and a trainer from the city IT Department for a new, grant-funded digital literacy program offered by the city. The program will teach computer skills to community residents and give them a free laptop on completion of the course. The training will take place on the second floor of the library. Library staff will be on hand to provide one-on-one support to patrons.

We also spoke with Paola Del Angel, the Reference Supervisor, one of the members of the staff that will be supporting the program. She told us, “When patrons come for help with computers, they all have very different skill levels. One-on-one training is better for us because we can help them with their specific issue.”

Pharr Memorial is also making health a priority for their community by offering blood pressure machines for checkout. The devices will be provided through a partnership with Americorps.

SPEER MEMORIAL LIBRARY (MISSION)

When we stepped through the doors of Speer Memorial Library in Mission, we were immediately struck by the welcomeness of the building. Director Yenni Espinoza and her staff make a concerted effort to create spaces where imagination can run wild and new learning opportunities can flourish.

In the children’s section, staff hand-painted a mural on the semi-circular wall defining the area. The mural depicts various characters from literature, television shows, and films. The mural creates a fun environment where children can read books and engage in learning activities but it is also functional. The characters are drawn in alphabetical order, from Arthur Read, the animated anthropomorphic aardvark, to Jack Skellington’s sidekick, ghost-dog Zero, from Nightmare Before Christmas. The mural can help younger children learn the letters of the alphabet in a fun and engaging way. The library is decorated with paper-mache characters, all created by the staff,  that sit atop the bookshelves. In the teen department, the decorations focus on characters from games, anime, and superhero movies.

It’s evident that a lot of planning and thought went into designing the space to be multi-functional. There are dedicated study rooms, a game room, separate computer stations for teens, children, and adults. The day we visited, a representative from the Boys and Girls Club was there for a video game night where teens could play Mario Kart. They even have plans for a community garden in a courtyard behind the library, where children can grow flowers and vegetables.

Our focus for the video was on Youth Services so we timed our visit to document a computer class taught by Magaly Garcia. The class was on Tinkercad and she taught elementary and middle school students how to create their own original designs.

The overall vibe of Speer Memorial Library just makes you want to get lost in a book, explore new technology, or learn a new computer skill. It’s also the famous burial site of Morton Downey the cat, but we’ll save that story for another time.

DUSTIN MICHAEL SEKULA MEMORIAL LIBRARY (EDINBURG)

We arrived at Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library in Edinburg right when they opened and the place was already buzzing with activity. Director Letty Leija was away on business so Assistant Director, Viviana Caballero, gave us the tour. The library walls are adorned with portraits of military personnel who have given up their lives for the country. The library was named after Marine Lance Corporal Dustin Michael Sekula. Dustin was the first Edinburg native to be killed during the Iraqi Freedom War; he was 18 years of age when he lost his life defending our country.

Kindergarteners from a local school arrived by bus to take part in an activity in the library’s children’s department. As we prepared for the interviews, dozens of patrons arrived, checking out books, doing research, and using the public computers. We were there to check out the computer classes the library offers. On that day, instructor Claralexis Rios was teaching an introductory class for adults on Canva, a visual communication and design program.

The library has a designated room for this training, with laptops for everyone and a monitor at the front where Claralexis can share her screen and walk patrons through her tutorial. The class was filled to capacity with 25 students, mostly small-business owners looking to promote their businesses by using Canva.

After that class ended, we made our way to the children’s department, where another computer class was being taught to elementary schoolchildren from the community. The staff was so friendly and engaging, it was easy to see why so many patrons flocked there.

TSLAC’s digital literacy spotlight series can be found on YouTube. The videos for the Rio Grande Valley libraries will premiere at the Texas Library Association (TLA) conference in April.