How can libraries help new immigrants?
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?
By telling immigrants to go to a library, the government is assuming all libraries are equipped to handle such situations. However, I know for a fact there is at least one that is not, and though there are probably many more, even one defeats the purpose. We seriously need to start pushing minorities and bilingual people to start working in libraries, which I'm sad to say, I'm not really. But we just assume that everyone is going to speak English, even though we expect everyone to speak English in other countries, too. Perhaps if we made more of an effort, we'd get more multicultural minorites to frequent libraries, at least.
Posted by
Michaela Schied |
6:02 AM, November 02, 2005