Multicultural Libraries

Some presentations that may be of interest....

"Telling Tales: Celebrating Diversity"
- Thursday, October 27, 2005 4:30-5:45

"Yummy: The World of Food!"
- Thursday, October 27, 2005 4:30-5:45

"Reaching Immigrant Populations: Serving the Culturally & Linguistically Diverse: The New Americans Program Model"
- Friday, October 28, 2005 8:00-9:15

"Librarians' Toolkit for Serving Spanish Speakers"
- Friday, October 28, 2005 9:35-10:50

"World Poetry: Developing Library Collections and Programs"
- Friday, October 28, 2005 3:30-4:45

"Bilingual Storytelling"
- Saturday, October 29, 2005 8:00-9:15

Check out the whole schedule on www.nyla.org

In 1906, Dr. James Canfield wrote "The Library in Relation to Special Classes of Readers: Books for the Foreign Population - I" in the The Library Journal. In this article he proposed the following:

• that libraries make books available in multiple languages, and
• the creation of a document for new immigrants informing them of their civic duties.

Well a quick search of my home town library system, The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, shows that they have books available in multiple languages.

Finally, (almost 100 years after Dr. Canfield made the proposal) US Citizenship and Immigration Services has created Welcome to the United States: A Guide for New Immigrants.

The guide provides information to new immigrants about their rights and responsibilities of being a permanent resident of the United States. The guide is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Tagalog, Portuguese, French, and Haitian Creole. The guide directs new immigrants to go to their local public library for more information. Information about the services offered at the library is highlighted on page 2 of the guide.

The guide markets libraries to new immigrants. Now the question is....
What can we as librarians do to help new immigrants and others from various cultures?

This is a small list of literature and websites available from the late 1800's to present day about Multicultural Libraries.

Agosto, Denise. "Bridging the Culture Gap: Ten Steps toward a More Multicultural Youth Library." Journal of Youth Services in Libraries 14 (2001): 38-41.

Canfield, James. “The Library in Relation to Special Classes of Readers: Books for the Foreign Population - I.” The Library Journal 31:7 (1906): C65-C67.

Curtis, Florence. “Librarianship as a Field for Negroes.” Journal of Negro Education 4.1(1935):94-8.

Gleason, Eliza. “Facing the Dilemma of Public Library Service for Negroes.” The Library Quarterly 14 (1945): 339-44.

Gollop, Claudia. “Library and Information Science Educations: Preparing Librarians for a Multicultural Society.” College and Research Libraries 60(1999) 385-395.

Holmes, Anne, et al. “Multicultural Communities Guidelines for Library Services.” International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. 06 Feb. 2002. 03 Oct. 2005. http://www.ifla.org/VII/s32/pub/guide-e.htm.

International Children’s Digital Library. 31 May 2003. U of Maryland. 02 Oct. 2005. http://www.icdlbooks.org

“Office for Diversity.” American Library Association. 2005. 03 Oct. 2005.
http://www.ala.org/ala/diversity/diversity.htm

Smith, June Smeck. “Library Service to American Indians”. Library Trends 20 (1971): 223- 238.

Wheeler, Maurice B, ed. Unfinished Business: Race, Equity, and Diversity in Library and Information Science Education. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005.