--- Social and language education at the library ---

The Denver Public Library is scattered all over the Denver area with 24 branch libraries in addition to the big, castle-like central library in downtown Denver. In addition to providing books, movies and educational materials to their patrons, they offer many educational experiences.

The end of the year is a transitional event for me because I am changing topics for my adventures, but it's more of a blending than a sharp change. I've been studying social sciences, but now I will turn my attention to language. Obviously, language is social.

When I visit Mi Pueblo Market, I wish I could talk to the checkout person in Spanish.

Unfortunately, the last two attempts to learn Spanish has been frustrating. I didn't have this much trouble learning German or AMSLAN. I realize that new languages are harder to pick up as a person gets older, but I can tell from my past attempts that Spanish should be an easy language, so next year will be one more (last?) attempt to learn Spanish.

The Denver Public Library offers many tools for learning new languages and I will be using it. Specific to Spanish, not only are there books, books on tape, and movies in Spanish, but they have bilingual events. Looking at their online calendar  for next year, I see weekly bilingual guitar lessons offered by the Valdez-Perry Branch and the Schlessman Family Branch offers weekly Spanish conversation groups. And there have been many single events in the past.

I will have to develop a basic conversational grasp of Spanish before I can make much use of these learning tools, but they're something to look forward to.

Does your local public library have a website? Check it out. You may be surprised about how much your library offers.

--- Sociology on the Internet (Next door) ---

There is an interesting experiment on the Internet that I'm watching. Nextdoor is a system of websites intended to increase connection in neighborhoods. It's a noble undertaking - we'll see how well it works. I could see it going either direction.

Some years ago, there was a series of public service announcements that showed many smiling folks of different ethnicities enjoying life and saying, "Get to know me. You might find that you like me." I agree with the idea.

I see both xenophobia and xenophilia on this site. There are a lot of "I saw a strange person walking down the street" posts and a lot of "Did you invite them for a cup of coffee, " come backs.

There is a lot of "my pet is missing", "I have a bookshelf to sell", "There's a new restaurant opening", "We're having a discussion group and you're invited,"  "I'm trying to start a garden - any advice?" type posts.

There are over 175,000 neighborhoods in the US that have started Nextdoor networks - also in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Here's a link.

https://nextdoor.com/about_us

How much connectivity is there in your neighborhood? Do you think more would be beneficial or make things worse?

Do you know your next door neighbors? Do you think a community discussion group would be useful?

Check out Nextdoor and see what you think. What are the opportunities here for social research or community building? What are the problems that might be encountered in this kind of research?