Multicultural library services

Libraries serving culturally diverse communities: Multicultural library services of the Public Library of Frankfurt - Abstract

Birgit Lotz

 

The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005) affirms that cultural diversity is a defining characteristic of humanity and should be cherished and preserved for the benefit of all. Cultural diversity creates a rich and varied world and is therefore a mainspring for sustainable development for communities, peoples and nations. Modern societies such as Germany are characterized by a high cultural diversity. In Germany it is one of the key tasks of integration policy to assure equal access to the German education system. (Public) libraries play an important role, serving as partners in the education process and venues for social integration.

Altogether in the city of Frankfurt am Main there are people of 180 nations living together, more than 30 per cent of the city’s population is not of German origin. Understandably the Frankfurt Public Library Service has therefore for a long time attached particular importance to library work with persons with a migrant background. For many years the libraries have held, for example, stocks in foreign languages. In 2002, the International Library in the Gallus Branch Library was founded.

In close cooperation with the relevant partner organisations within the catchment area – and particularly with the Institute for Multicultural Affairs (Amt für Multikulturelle Angelegenheiten) and the Adult Education Centre of Frankfurt am Main (Volkshochschule Frankfurt am Main) - the hard-to-reach target groups of non-German speaking immigrants have been introduced to the library and familiarised with the relevant and specific library facilities available there for them, in particular with everything the library offers in the field of German language learning.