Workshops for Children

How CLIC Started

In the summer of 2010, Children’s librarian Tanya Taylor, was concerned about the lack of circulation of the Spanish-language books in the Geneva Public Library in Upstate New York. She reached out to May Summer Farnsworth, Professor of Spanish at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) to help increase the reach of these Spanish-language books. What followed was a series of creative language interaction classroom lessons (CLIC), each of which featured a library book from the library’s Spanish collection. Farnsworth was eventually joined by her colleague in the Spanish department at HWS, Carolina Travalia, and several bilingual HWS students. The goal was always to teach Spanish through fun and play. As Taylor says: “Kids learn through fun. So if you love it during the process, you’re learning and you don’t even realize it. If you like it, you love it, you’re going to do it.”