Prince William libraries add foreign-language films

By Kirk Johnson and Rebekah Leitner-Marshall ConTribuTing WriTers

Prince William Public Libraries has been building a more robust and comprehensive world languages collection for books and magazines. We have worked with census data and demographic information provided by Prince William County Public Schools to identify some of the more commonly spoken languages other than English and Spanish in the county.

We continue learning more about our diverse community and finding new vendors for this expanding collection.

In conjunction with that project, we have been working to create a distinct World Languages DVD collection.

Approximately 50 new DVD titles have been purchased to add to the 135 titles we currently have in languages other than English. Over 15 languages are represented, including German, Danish, French, Cantonese, Japanese, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Dzongkha, Korean, Russian, Swahili, Hindi, Norwegian and Arabic.

Many are award-nominated or award-winning titles, and selections have been made for both adult and juvenile audiences. Some noteworthy titles include:

• “Theeb,” which was the first ever Jordanian film nominated for an Academy Award.

• “All Quiet on the Western Front”: The 2022 Best International Feature Film Academy Award winner.

• “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom,” which was the first movie from Bhutan to be nominated for an Academy Award. Search the Online Catalog at pwcva.gov/library to see available titles and place holds. Some ti- tles are available through our Digital Library on hoopla Digital and Kanopy, while others are being added to our physical collection as DVDs.

If you have a title you’d like to see added to our collection, submit the “Suggest a Title” form on the website.

Kirk Johnson and Rebekah Leitner-Marshall work in Prince William Public Libraries’ materials services division.