Moving with her mother and three sisters to Miami, Fla. from Cuba at age nine may have been the earliest experience of Betty Abdmishani that continues to inform her work today. As manager of Lexington's Village Branch library, Abdmishani said that helping others get acclimated to a new and foreign place has become an important aspect of her daily work. One might not necessarily think of a public library as a referral agency for immigration services, but in many ways, the Village Branch, which opened under Abdmishani's direction in 2004 in a community with a strong Latino population, has become just that.
"A lot of people, when they visit us or when they learn about us, they say, 'You're more like a community center,'" Abdmishani said. That, in and of itself, doesn't make the library any different from other libraries, she was quick to add. "Libraries have always been the center of a community, or a very important part. It's just that we do it a little differently."
With a location in the heart of the Cardinal Valley community, which includes a diverse population of Caucasians, African Americans, and many new Latino residents of Lexington, one of the library's first challenges was gaining the trust of that community, Abdmishani said. They worked to convince community members that they were there to help - not to report on status, as a government agency, or in a role that "people from the outside, especially non-documented, might fear." Since gaining the initial trust of the community, the role of the library has slowly evolved.
"People found out they can come here if they need to find out where to find somebody to help them file residency papers, or how to get their visa, how to get their passport, how to enroll their children in school," she said. "Slowly, Ö (the) word spread: 'They'll help you there.'"
Often, the library plays the part of a referral agency, passing the patron along to the next place, but Abdmishani said they try not to give the patrons just a phone number or address and send them on their way.
"We'll go a step further," she said. For example, if a patron needs to schedule an eye exam for a child but speaks little or no English, the librarian will call to make the appointment, making sure it is known that an interpreter will be needed.
"We just try to make things a little easier for those people who might need services and may come here to ask," she said. "We don't want our patrons to feel like, the minute they've come in, they've just hit another wall. They hit so many walls in their everyday life."
Often that includes as small a step as greeting the patrons in a language they feel comfortable with. (Every member of the Village Branch staff is bilingual.) But the services are not limited to Latino families;
if a white or African-American patron comes inquiring about a social service, for example, the library sees it as part of its service to help as much as they can.
"Everyone is trained and encouraged to be open and friendly," Abdmishani said. "It's just something that I believe strongly in, with public service."
As previously mentioned, Abdmishani knows a thing or two about adapting to a new environment. In addition to moving to the United States from Cuba as a young child, her adaptation skills were put to the test when she moved to Iran with her husband after college, while he fulfilled a two-year military responsibility. While in the Middle East, Abdmishani worked at the National Iranian Copper Industries Library.
"They had workers from all over the world - Mexico, Canada, Germany, Russia," she said.
"[Adapting] is one of my strengths," she said. "Place me in a situation and I'll deal with it."