Northingham, a small city in Central Massachusetts, is currently experiencing a large increase in its Brazilian population. Brazilians started immigrating to the United States in large numbers during the mid 1980's due to a result of the economic downturn in the Brazilian economy, and a significant increase has been seen in the last ten years. The Greater Boston area may have the largest Brazilian population outside of Brazil, and Northingham is one of three Massachusetts communities that have the largest concentration of Brazilians.

The change in demographics has resulted in many challenges for Northingham. These include the accommodation of a large number of Portuguese speaking students into the school system and the provision of public services to a growing immigrant group. The recent Brazilian immigrants speak limited English and are very motivated to learn the language and to become aware of community and educational resources. The staff at the Northingham Free Public Library would like to set up programs to introduce the new Brazilian residents to the library resources and programs, but the staff is concerned about language issues and a lack of Portuguese materials.

We are exploring ways to persuade the Brazilian community to utilize the public library. Richard E. Petty and John T. Cacioppo's Elaboration-Likelihood Model of Persuasion is our chosen theory.