Friday, January 25, 2008

Connecting with Immigrants

The evaluation report "Welcome to Your Library: Connecting Public Libraries and Refugee Communities" would be interesting reading for any public librarian or trustee who is attempting to serve immigrants in their communities. Although it is a review of a project that was launched in 2003 in London, many of its findings are applicable today anywhere. From the Executive Summary, for example: "Establish ... 'critical friends' in positions of authority in other sectors with no direct connection to library services delivery in order to increase the interaction with cross-sector initiatives."

If this inspires you, consider checking out WebJunction's Spanish Language Outreach program, designed to help US public libraries better serve Spanish speakers.

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