Konference om Integration, kultur og biblioteker - Statsbiblioteket

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Outreach activities KONSULENTER FOR BIBLIOTEKSBETJENING AF ETNISKE MINORITETER 150-175 groups from primary education, adult education and asylum centres come annually to visit the library. The library also organizes meetings with parents, and library personnel visit schools to talk to the kids about books and internet use. Particular attention is being paid to the issue of ‘caring for books and treating them with respect’. It may surprise you, but there are still a lot of kids nowadays who cut pictures out of books. Many books are destroyed every year. So it is no luxury to create opportunities for kids from families who are not used to books, in order to teach them how to handle books, and to help increase their awareness that these books are part of a public collection. The children and their parents have to learn that they are not the only users; other users must be able to benefit from the books as well. Gallery The library also functions as a gallery. Not very far from the library is a centre for asylum seekers. Some of the artists who live in this centre have had the opportunity to present their work to a wider audience and to start building up a network. Personnel The director of this library, with its 16 members of staff, is a woman. She told me that some time ago her son-in-law had said to her: “Are you the boss of men? I wouldn’t like that.” The good-humoured director laughed as she told me this, and I could see her thinking “I mustn’t be bothered by this kind of ignorance.” Amongst the personnel in this library are professionals with different levels of education: some have had higher vocational library training, and some have had a middle level training. They include 2 British, 1 Sudanese, 1 Surinamese, 1 South-African, 1 Turkish and 1 Moroccan member of staff, and the rest are autochthonous Dutch. In total there are 9 men and 7 women. Staff members who want to invest time in library training are encouraged to do so, and they are given feedback and offered on-thespot coaching. The library also invests in their personnel in other ways. The whole staff has taken part in a three-day team training course to acquire the competences needed for communicating with aggressive users and customers. This has worked out very well for them. The director enjoys working in this environment and when asked how she manages this diversity, says: “I value every human being and respect each person for what they are.” In my opinion, the director of this library in Amsterdam does an excellent job of what the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum describes in her book as ‘Cultivating humanity’. Martha Nussbaum describes three capacities which are essential to citizens who want to cultivate humanity in today’s - 20 -
KONSULENTER FOR BIBLIOTEKSBETJENING AF ETNISKE MINORITETER world. Firstly, the capacity for critical examination of oneself and one’s traditions. Secondly, the ability to see oneself and others not simply as citizens of some local region or group, but as human beings bound to all other human beings by ties of recognition and concern. Thirdly, Nussbaum asks people to be courageous enough to imagine what it might be like to be in someone else's shoes. For instance, let us imagine for a moment what it is like to be a refugee. How would a Danish or Dutch citizen feel if they lost their house and family and were forced to build up a totally new life in a strange country and to learn the language? Library services for ethnic minorities - New chances for Denmark I understand that public libraries in Denmark have the ambition of developing new models for library services for ethnic minorities, and of playing a role in the integration process. Libraries are often close to the inhabitants of neighbourhoods and are thus ideally situated for distributing information to potential target groups in neighbourhoods. Libraries are in touch with teachers, schools and pupils on a daily basis, so they have easy access to information on pupils’ needs and can translate these into collection policy. If libraries in Denmark develop strategies for finding out about user needs such as ethnic minorities, and understanding what makes them tick, they will be able to deliver a user-friendly service. It all boils down to a few questions: • are policy-makers and library staff determined to look into the needs of communities and are they committed to deliver the services that culturally diverse user groups need? • are libraries eager to play a central role in the empowerment and cultural development of people with a variety of histories? If this determination and eagerness within libraries is combined with an open, collaborative and trustbuilding attitude towards migrant communities, theatres, museums, schools, community centres, outreach workers, etc., then there is great potential for libraries to fulfil a central role in integration and the web of connecting cultural institutions and cultural workers. If you, as representatives of public libraries and cultural institutions in Denmark, choose to be the driving force behind powerful partnerships in life-long learning, empowerment, integration, and cultural participation, there is a fair chance that local authorities and municipalities will be interested in discussing how your sector can be facilitated to enable you to fulfil this interface role properly and effectively . The Diversity Adoption Curve Marilyn Loden, American diversity specialist, shows in her ‘Diversity Adoption Curve’ (Loden 1996), how people relate to diversity and to the process of change which goes with it. Loden’s curve gives an idea of the degree in which diversity is, or is not, accepted by different groups. - 21 -
Page 1 and 2: KONSULENTER FOR BIBLIOTEKSBETJENING
Page 19: KONSULENTER FOR BIBLIOTEKSBETJENING
Page 57: KONSULENTER FOR BIBLIOTEKSBETJENING

Konference om Integration, kultur og biblioteker - Statsbiblioteket

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?