Spanish for Librarians Course

Spanish for Library Professionals Course Syllabus

The course is completely flexible! You can as much or as little as you need based on your current Spanish abilities and your library responsibilities. Feel free to learn it all, or to skip units or lessons that you do not need.

Unit 1: Issuing Library Cards

• Conversation
  • Practice issuing a library card to a patron.
• Vocabulary
  • Filling in Forms
  • Meeting and Greeting
• Grammar
  • Nouns and Gender
  • Definite Articles

Unit 2: Discussing Library Resources

• Conversation
  • Practice telling a patron about available resources, from books and audiobooks to computers and the Library of Things.
• Vocabulary
  • Library Materials & Resources
  • Translation Facilitation
• Grammar
  • Plurals
  • Indefinite Articles
  • Personal Pronouns

Unit 3: Finding Library Materials

• Conversation
  • Practice helping a patron track down a specific book and locate it inside the library.
• Vocabulary
  • Locations within a Library
  • Book Genres
  • Making Polite Conversation
• Grammar
  • Conjugating “estar” (to be)
  • Prepositions of Location

Unit 4: Checking Out and Returning Materials

• Conversation
  • Practice helping a patron check out materials and explain how to return them.
• Vocabulary
  • Check out and returns
  • Online holds and renewals
  • Numbers
• Grammar
  • Conjugating “ser” (to be)
  • Expressing existence with “hay”

Unit 5: Using Library Computers and Printers

• Conversation
  • Practice helping a patron use a library computer and print a document.
• Vocabulary
  • Computer Terms
  • Printer Terms
  • Office Supplies
• Grammar
  • Modal Verbs: Can, Should, Want
  • Demonstrative Adjectives

Unit 6: Accessing E-Resources

• Conversation
  • Practice telling a patron about available e-resources for audiobooks, research, language learning, and more.
• Vocabulary
  • Types of E-Resources
  • Creating Accounts
  • Common Verbs
• Grammar
  • Question Words
  • Present Tense -ar Verbs

Unit 7: Discussing Adult Programs

• Conversation
  • Practice introducing adult programs like adult English classes and use dates and times to explain when they meet.
• Vocabulary
  • Types of adult programs/events
  • Registering for events
  • Times of day
• Grammar
  • Ser vs. Estar
  • Asking questions

Unit 8: Discussing Book Clubs

• Conversation
  • Practice promoting an upcoming book club meeting that might interest a patron based on a book she's checking out.
• Vocabulary
  • Registering for events
  • Days of the week
• Grammar
  • Singular Subject Pronouns
  • Plural subject Pronouns

Unit 9: Summer Reading Program

• Conversation
  • Practice explaining the library's Summer Reading Program to a patron checking out a book for her daughter.
• Vocabulary
  • Summer Reading Programs terms
  • Months
  • Possessive Adjectives
• Grammar
  • Conjugating stem changing verbs
  • Present tense -er and -ir verbs

Unit 10: Storytime

• Conversation
  • Practice helping a patron sign up his children for storytime.
• Vocabulary
  • Storytime terms
  • Registering for storytime
  • Common adjectives
• Grammar
  • Expressing states with “tener” and idiomatic expressions
  • Adjectives that follow nouns

Unit 11: Explaining Library Policies

• Conversation
  • Practice answering a patron’s questions about the library’s rules and policies including library hours.
• Vocabulary
  • Library hours
  • Library rules
  • Asking the time
• Grammar
  • Possession and Obligation
  • Impersonal “se”