LibraryCall is happy to announce the addition of Stephaney Cortes Alvarado to its growing content development team. Cortes Alvarado will be responsible for Spanish translations and original stories.

Cortes Alvarado, based in Yolo County, California, joins LibraryCall with four years of public library experience. Her specialties include bilingual storytime, school readiness instruction, and outreach services to community members with limited English language skills.

Born in a rural town in the Mexican state of Michoacán, Cortes Alvarado has many personal stories to tell about her childhood experiences. She says, "As a kid I would often climb up the stairs and sit on the flat roof of my house to eat my breakfast with my mom and my little sister. We often ate chorizo con huevo and chocomilk as we listened to the roosters crowing or the church bells singing. Mostly I remember the warmth of the sun on my skin and the blueish-green of Meseta Tarasca mountains out in the distance."

When Cortes Alvarado moved to California in fourth grade, she visited a library for the very first time and immediately fell in love with books. Her passion for reading, along with her bicultural perspective, have deeply influenced her work in libraries. "We need more diverse stories out there for little ones to see themselves in. I look forward to helping create change, whether that is in creating my own stories, or adapting stories to fit those cultural narratives."

LibraryCall provides affordable phone and web app technologies to help libraries connect with patrons outside the library. Services include Storytime Direct, Dial-A-Story Studio, Community Calendar, and Resource Hotline. For more information, visit www.librarycall.com.