Chris Wagner: A Librarian Who Makes a Difference

Share on Facebook

New Americans have a valuable ally in realizing the American dream: librarians like Christina Wagner.

Her groundbreaking work as head librarian at the Goodman South Madison Branch (Wis.) Library has been so successful that it earned her special recognition: a Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times “I Love My Librarian!” award.

She was one of 10 award winners who received a $5,000 cash award and were honored at a ceremony and reception in New York, hosted by The New York Times.

In addition, her library was one of 75 public libraries in 24 states to have been selected by the American Library Association (ALA) to receive $5,000 grants as part of “The American Dream Starts @ your library®” literacy initiative, an initiative is funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

Wagner said she has used the American Dream grant to enhance the library's Talk Time program.

The program is geared toward people who seek help practicing their everyday English skills.

“Talk Time is not a class,” she said. “You don't learn grammar. You don't conjugate verbs. What you do is you talk normal everyday English with other people. And you get to understand the sounds of the words.

“We kind of slur some words together, like 'want to go,' because you are talking to ordinary people about ordinary daily things."

Talk Time also focuses on actual tasks, such as using the bus to get from one transfer point to another. Another time, the group fashioned wallets out of duct tape, followed by a discussion of arts and crafts in the group members' respective countries.

She said one of her favorite stories involves a Chinese man who would come to the library with his two daughters. Wagner said she felt some sympathy because he was clearly overwhelmed by his daughters, who took advantage of their knowledge of the library rules and of his lack of awareness of them.

"He was kind of exhausted," Wagner said. "He would come in and would look so tired."

Wagner said translators are available at the library, "But the guy would often just say, 'No, no. Don't bother.'"

The man was eventually convinced to take part in the nine-session Talk Time program. "Each time he came, he would get happier and happier, and he was laughing and smiling and enjoying himself," Wagner said. One time, she said, they were discussing food. "I said, 'I like peanuts.' We were talking about nuts. And he said, 'I have a joke. I like doughnuts. Get it?'" Another time, in a playful mood on Halloween, he started saying, "Trick or treat." "What a huge jump. What a leap. What a bloom we saw in this guy," Wagner said.

Some of the participants are trying to gain the status of citizens, so sometimes the Talk Time discussions revolved around questions about whether they could vote in local elections. "They really wanted to be able to vote, but they can't yet. We talked a lot about that and other ways they can be a part of the community," Wagner said.

Sometimes involvement in Talk Time would lead to participation in other library programs. Four participants once ended up joining a knitting circle. "Four people who were at first in a library program that is geared to people learning English now were in a program that is for everybody at the library. So I felt like they became participants in the civic life of the city. Even though they weren't voting. they were making a leap from just going to classes where they were kind of a learner and someone else was the teacher to a place where they were equally learners with everyone in that room."

Also, the group was able to use Mango, a database for people learning another language. “It was a wonderful experience,” she said.

In addition to Talk Time, she helped sponsor the Odyssey Project, a free, life-changing college humanities course for adults at the poverty level, and Community Writing Assistance, a program in which South Madison Library patrons seeking help with letters to parole officers or memoir writing receive assistance from UW teaching assistants.

South Madison has half the income of the rest of the city. It serves many African American, Hispanic, and Asian American families, over a third of whom live at or below the poverty level.

Of her award, she said. “I really feel that I'm not a winner as much as the Odyssey project and this library is a winner. We get a lot of support from the head library, from Madison Public Library. And we get a lot of support from the South Central Library System, of which we are a part, and I get a lot of support from my colleagues here. It's not something that I do by myself. It's something that we do as a group. I really don't feel like I got this award. I really feel that this library got this award.”