Did You Know? Our Library has Books in Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Portuguese, and more!

In 2024, the Betsy Schreuer Fund at the Medford Public Library Foundation was established in memory of beloved Medford librarian Betsy Schreuer to honor Betsy's legacy by fostering collaboration between the Charlotte & William Bloomberg Medford Public Library and the Medford school libraries, creating more pathways to the Library’s resources for underserved youth, making the Library more inviting and accessible to communities of color, and making the Library’s collections more diverse and inclusive so that every child in Medford can find books to read in the language spoken in their home. 

The Betsy Schreuer Fund has two components: the Book Fund and the Program Fund.

Betsy Schreuer Book Fund

The Betsy Schreuer Book Fund enables the library staff to purchase books in languages spoken by Medford residents. So far, 458 books have been acquired with support from the Betsy Schreuer Book Fund! And, the collection is growing! The current collection includes books in Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. The youth and teen librarian in concert with the library director make the selection of books based on census data about languages spoken in Medford.

The world languages collection is housed in the Teen Library on the second floor of the Charlotte & William Bloomberg Medford Public Library. 

Special bookplates designed by Sommerville-based artist Gabriel Mata are installed in each book acquired through the Betsy Schreuer Book Fund.

Betsy Schreuer Program Fund

One of the special features of the Charlotte & William Bloomberg Medford Public Library is the many  meeting rooms and multipurpose spaces available to our community.  To make these spaces more inviting and inclusive for the migrant and immigrant communities in Medford,  the Betsy Schreuer Fund supports programs in languages other than English such as readings, story times, ESOL classes, and other activations to make the library's resources accessible to all Medford residents!