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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