New Report Describes Five Strategies Libraries Use To Serve “New Americans”

by Norman Oder, Library Journal -- Críticas, 3/1/2008 9:05:00 AM

More and more, urban public libraries are stepping up to serve immigrants, and a new report from the Urban Libraries Council (ULC), Welcome, Stranger: Public Libraries Build the Global Village, explains those strategies. The 20-page report is aimed at not just library leaders but also public and foundation officials (see urbanlibraries.org.)

Based on online surveys of 35 ULC member libraries, interviews with library and community professionals, presentations at a ULC conference, and a scan of the literature on immigrant integration, the report details five broad tactics for successful immigrant inclusion and community adaptation identified by Brookings Institution researcher Audrey Singer. It was written by ULC’s Rick Ashton and Danielle Patrick Milam.

For example, libraries are often ahead of the census bureau in collecting formal and informal data on settlement patterns and needs of immigrants and refugees. That not only helps libraries build more effective programs in-house, it can serve other community service agencies that serve immigrants. At Arlington County Public Library, VA, Director Diane Kresh expects branch library supervisors to walk around the neighborhood; the report notes that librarians now lead tours for other county employees and civic partners.

Recognizing their diverse constituencies, libraries have become more innovative in promoting their services, adapting signage and web sites, building multilingual collections, and providing basic services in the first languages of their new residents. Of the 35 libraries surveyed, 45 percent have multilingual web sites, up from 30 percent of 75 libraries surveyed in 2003. While most multilingual portals use Spanish or Chinese, some library sites use Korean, Hmong, Russian, and Somali.

In the suburbs of Atlanta, the DeKalb County Public Library uses a traveling kiosk, “Library Take-Out,” a portable pop-up exhibit that includes not only books and materials in languages like Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese, but also information about the library system, and a computer terminal to access to the library web site. The kiosk is brought to malls, churches, and community festivals.

Libraries have become leaders in building English capacity, the most important factor in immigrants’ chances for success, through both early/family literacy and adult English instruction. For example, the Oakland Public Library, CA, provides bilingual computer classes in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean. The Pima County Public Library, AZ, works with the Literacy Volunteers of Tucson on a writing project with residents who speak Spanish, Somali, and Sudanese. The San Antonio Public Library delivers “Born to Read/Nacer a Leer,” a bilingual early literacy kit and library card, to every mother of a newborn in the surrounding county.

Libraries partner with many groups, such as schools and literacy councils, to provide such services. Also, libraries have become key conduits to other local agencies and support institutions, including workforce and business development, health, and school engagement. For example, a microlending program in New England sends aspiring immigrant entrepreneurs to Boston Public Library’s Kirstein Business Branch. The library is developing a Spanish version of a popular workshop, Getting Started in Business, in partnership with the Small Business Center at the University of Massachusetts.

Finally, libraries encourage civic engagement by hosting talks and films that address the immigrant experience and provide places for immigrant and cultural groups to meet.

Libraries all over the country are making changes in response to changing demographics. Indeed, Singer’s framework suggests that patterns of U.S. immigrant settlement are shifting from traditional gateways to new ones. The typology includes traditional gateways like Boston and New York, former gateways like Baltimore and St. Louis, and post-WWII gateways like Houston and Los Angeles. Emerging gateways include suburbs of cities like Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Orlando, which are growing steadily.

Re-emerging gateways, cities like Denver, Seattle, and Tampa, experienced a lull during mid-century, but now attract new immigrants from Mexico and Asia. And pre-emerging gateways, like Austin, Charlotte, and Salt Lake City, are expected to absorb the next wave, again especially from Mexico and Asia.