Over the past year, the staff and volunteers at the Northingham Free Public Library in Massachusetts have worked very hard on behalf of our Brazilian immigrants.

• Lecture Series - After our initial "Brazilian Saturday" at the library, word spread throughout the Brazilian community about our lecture series. Mr. Viera's opening lecture had a large and attentive audience. People seemed to listen to his valuable advice about taking advantage of library databases to learn about business methods and to search the Internet for possible business connections. Since Mr. Viera emphasized that learning English is the key to successful interactions with the larger community, and highlighted what valuable information people can learn from reading books, magazines and other materials in English at the library, many in the audience were newly motivated to learn the language. The other speakers in the series highlighted important issues, and they reminded their audiences that the library has materials in Portuguese and English which could help them. Dr. Viera's lecture was well-attended, and she highlighted women's health, an issue often presented to her at the "Brazilian Saturday" event. One of the most successful lectures was the last one, during which the new immigrants heard from their peers. The immigrants relayed how the library has helped them and their children learn about their new culture. These people's optimistic attitudes promoted a confidence in the audience members that they, too, would be able to succeed in Northingham.
  
• Portuguese website page - If Mr. Viera's lecture, or personal desire, inspired the Brazilian immigrants to come to Northingham Free Public library, these people should have the ability to learn what the library has to offer them. This website increases the ability for those adults and children motivated to know about the library. To achieve the desired long-term attitude change, one must have a positive attitude about the new information. Realizing that the library staff cares enough to have a website geared toward them has been a good first step in the process.
• Collection development - To adapt to the increasing Brazilian population and its demand, we have increased our Portuguese collection. Although this change in our collection development policy affected our budget, we believe it has been worth the sacrifices in other collecting areas. These new materials have been very useful and helpful to our patrons.
• Literacy Training - The literacy training classes were well attended. They promoted both the habit of coming to the library and a positive attitude toward borrowing books and other materials in English.
• Conversation Classes - The weekly classes were quite popular with the Brazilian community, and they fostered many new friendships. As the conversations progressed, the librarians began to attend them to speak with the immigrants in English.
• Information Literacy Training - Our computer skills and information literacy classes, taught by bilingual volunteers, were very effective. We gradually saw an increase in the number of Brazilians on our library computers.
• Business Basics - Mr. Viera's small business seminar was full of enthusiastic men and women. We soon noticed many of these people taking out books on business topics and learning to use the Gale business databases.
• Brazilian volunteers - The immigrants loved having Brazilian volunteers to guide them during their library visits. Our adult volunteers were pleased to be of service to others, and our young adult volunteers gained valuable experience. Since the bilingual youth were already so computer savvy, they were especially helpful with teaching others to use the library catalog and databases.



Although we know we have much work to do, the Northingham Free Public Library staff is very pleased by the results of our recent outreach efforts toward the Brazilian community. Petty and Cacioppo's Elaboration-Likelihood Model of Persuasion has allowed us to contemplate how various options might assist different types of patrons in gaining the motivation and/or ability to learn and retain new information.