Críticas Magazine

Loida García-Febo

Copenhagen: Vesterbro Library serving ethnic populations
March 1, 2008

How are libraries serving diverse populations in Copenhagen?

Here is a brief and general overview:

During the last two decades Copenhagen has experience a big increase in immigrant groups. Mostly, they come from Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam, Albania and various countries in the Middle East. The top languages of the largest collections of the Danish Central Library for Immigrants are Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Persian, Vietnamese, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian.

The State and University Library in Aarhus work with public libraries in Denmark to provide services to ethnic populations. Library services in Copenhagen are coordinated in close connection with the government. They have established the Center for Integration which coordinates the selection of materials in other languages, staff according to demographic of the libraries service areas, research and other services according to the needs of community libraries. There are a total of 21 libraries in Copenhagen.

Vesterbro is the most multicultural neighborhood. Its library is managed by a young and active librarian, Ms Rubina Afzal. She has participated in studies conducted by the State and University Library to assess the needs of ethnic populations in Denmark, and she has served as consultant to strategize services for increasing diverse groups.

Vesterbro offers books, CDs and DVDs in 17+ languages including Spanish, Italian, French, Tamil, Punjabi and Kurdish. Vesterbro represents a fantastic example of services to multicultural populations. I've visited the library two times and it is always full of people from various ethnicities reading, using computers, and checking out materials. It is inspiring to see so many parents reading to their children in Urdu - to mention a language.

Hello to Lily Echevarry, Law Librarian from the Philippines who is reading the blog :)

Posted by Loida García-Febo on March 1, 2008 | Comments (0)