The Multilingual Library and Norwegian libraries as multicultural arenas

Oddbjørn Hansen

The Multilingual LibraryOslo

Multicultural Norway 2013

700,000 immigrants = 14% of the population

Substantial immigration since 2005 from EU member countries such as Lithuania, Poland and Romania

28% of Oslo’s population come from an immigrant background

There are immigrants in all municipalities of the country

The Multilingual Library is a centre of expertise for multilingual library services in Norway

• 13 employees from Norway, Poland, Argentina, Pakistan, Iraq, and other countries

• 25 freelance staff with diverse language expertise

• Collection of 130,000 books, CDs, DVDs in 47 languages

Most borrowed languages from The Multilingual Library in 2012

1. Urdu

2. Russian

3. Arabic

4. Polish

5. Farsi

6. Somali

7. Spanish

8. Vietnamese

9. Turkish

10.Thai

Visiting authors of children’s books

Iranian children’s writer Mohammad Reza Yousefi

Lithuanian children’s writer Kestutis Kasparavicus

Celebrating religious holidays of many cultures

Russian Christmas party

Russian Christmas party

Russian Christmas party

Signs and posters in different languages

Digital photo frames in the bookshelves

Travelling exhibitions

• The world of Astrid Lindgren

• I speak football

• Wedding customs around the world

• A journey through Islamic art

Buskerud County Library in the city of Drammen

New in the County of Buskerud: Newcomer’s zone

A library model focusing on newcomers in a community

The libraries make a newcomer’s zone in each library

Implementation in three public libraries in 2013

Newcomer’s zone

• Central place in the library, signs in many languages

• Local and multilingual literature, DVDs, music, newspapers

• Brochures and digital information about the city and the county

• Reading circles for immigrants, language courses

• Pointers for content, services and activities other places in the library and in the community

Bergen Public Library

«Laptop» Club and Language Café

The library is the cultural institution that reaches the most immigrants

User studies

1998: The use of public libraries

2008: City study. Who are they and where do they go : user behaviour in Norwegian city libraries

2010: Newcomers, the libraries and the new labour immigrants