We are welcoming back Adan Griego, Curator for Iberoamerican & Mexican American Collections at Stanford University, who will be presenting at Liber 2014 (Wed. October 1st. at 5:15pm) an overview of the opportunities for Spanish publishers within the US library system.

Ahead of his presentation, we were able to pose a few questions:

What should a Spanish publisher keep in mind when considering selling to US libraries?

Most libraries work via distributors as they provide additional services (pre-cataloging, rebinding, etc). It's important to understand the various markets. A public library selects materials ("how to manuals," and "self-improvement") that are not of interest to an academic library.

What is the most exciting opportunity you see for Spanish publishers in the US library market?

There is a market for Spanish language materials in US libraries, the key is to understand the needs of those markets.

How long do you see the recent growth trends continuing? And by how much?

The demand for Spanish language books will continue to grow as the Hispanic/Latino population in the US continues to grow. Understanding those demographics is the key: for example, 60% of Hispanics are of Mexican ancestry.

What should be the top three priorities for the Spanish publishing industry when looking to sell to the US public library system?

As noted above, (1) distributors are the key channel to get materials; (2) this becomes more important with e-books, as the best access is via already existing online platforms familiar to US libraries and (3) make sure digital content is available through multiple platforms or the one that has the widest coverage.