Local Projects
GENERAL REPORT ON THE ACITIVITIES OF THE SWEDISH PILOT LIBRARY
Immigrant Institute (Sweden)
BISKOPSGĂ…RDEN LIBRARY IN GOTHENBURG
The Immigrant Institute/Research and documentation center about immigrants, refugees and racism (Sweden)
Biskopsgården Library in Gothenburg is the Swedish intercultural pilot library in the European lifelong learning/Grundtvig project Libraries for All – ESME. The library situated in Biskopsgården, a Gothenburg city district rich in linguistic and cultural diversity, where half the 25 500 residents have an international background. Part from Swedish, the multilingual library staff speaks Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, English and Farsi. The library is found at the central square Vårväderstorget, where it shares the top floor with the People’s House and Biskopsgården public blended learning center. The library counts 700-800 visitors per day and plays a central role in the city district.
The aim of the project Libraries for All –- ESME is to develop multicultural, multilingual public libraries and models for intercultural library services in order to promote integration and social cohesion. A key point in the project is to cooperate with migrants in order to integrate their cultural capital in the development process. For this purpose a Multilingual Advisory Board was initiated at Biskopsgården Library in early June 2009.
The Multilingual Advisory Board consists of librarians at Biskopsgården Library and invited local residents in Biskopsgården who contribute to the development of the library’s services, activities and media purchases in multiple languages in cooperation with the librarians. The members of the advisory board are well established local residents who belong to the largest language groups in Biskopsgården: Arabic, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Farsi, Finnish, Kurdish, Somali, Swedish and Turkish, in alphabetical order. The members’ professional and educational background is mainly in the field of education, from preschool to adult education. Several members are also actively involved in immigrant organizations and other NGOs and have access to useful networks for reaching new target groups.
The Multilingual Advisory Board functions a valuable forum for information and discussion between the librarians and local residents promoting the library as an intercultural meetingplace and a center for information and education for the common benefit of local residents of different ethnic, social, educational and professional backgrounds and age groups. The advisory board meets four times per semester and has decided to continue its work after the project end in September 2010.
In spring/summer 2009 we carried out the first local needs assessment and in November 2009 we received the September 2009 survey results in which 100 residents in BiskopsgĂĄrden stated their use of the library services and wishes for further improvement.
The surveys show that library and the services offered are much appreciated by its visitors. The fundamental borrowing service of books, films, music, newspapers and journals is by far the service most used, but the library also plays an important role as meetingplace and information center. Social and cultural events at the library are also appreciated. Some participants express a wish for more activities, thus enhancing the library’s role as meetingplace for the local residents.
Since early June 2009 several regular intercultural library services have been developed in the ESME project framework, along with many temporary activities and events in cooperation between the library, local residents, the Immigrant Institute and other local organizations. The increase in services and activities is reflected in the increased number of library visits (+14%) and media loans (+6%), compared to statistics of the year before the project start. The new services and activities are now evaluated in order to decide which ones should become permanent offers after the project end.
Below follows a description of some of the intercultural services and activities developed at BiskopsgĂĄrden Library.
Please note that all activites and events offered at the library are free of charge, This is a general policy of BiskopsgĂĄrden Library in order to avoid excluding anyone from participating for economic reasons.
Developing the library as a forum for non-formal and informal language learning
Biskopsgården Library is one of nine libraries in Gothenburg that offers the One Step Further learning environment for adult students, including weekly Swedish language café, homework assistance and basic computer courses. For the study librarian in charge purchase of language learning media for newcomers is also one of the top priorities.
Since June 2009 weekly conversational groups– Language Cafés – are offered at the library not only in Swedish but also in English and Kurdish.The participants come from all over the world and the weekly meetings in the library cafeteria is a good example of intercultural communication. Trainer and participant evaluations have been collated and the preliminary analyses show positive results, both in terms of language learning and enhanced social cohesion; the weekly coversational groups enable extended networks, new friendships and an enhanced sense of local belonging.
Two new elements have been added to the language café activities: group excursions – at least one per semester, to discover nature sceneries and local destinations like the World Culture Museum, other public libraries etc. In cooperation with the Gothenburg region rescue service fire safety information evenings have also been organized for the language café groups and other library visitors. The evenings include film and information on how to prevent fire and how to act in case of fire at home, lots of valuable questions and answers come up, and fire safety leaflets are distributed in ten languages. The idea sprung from one of the advisory board members who highligted the importance of fire safety knowledge, reminding of the tragic event in Rinkeby 2009 where six newcomers, a woman and her five daughters, died from asphyxiation in the staircase when trying to escape a violent fire in their apartment building.
Homework support is an important regular service offered to children, youngsters and adults three evenings per week at the library in cooperation with volonteers from the Red Cross Youth Section and the educational organization Medborgarskolan. It is a much appreciated forum which is freqently attended by immigrants, in particular by Somali girls during the past semester.
Bridging the digital gap
– basic computer courses for beginners, special courses targeting women
During the needs assessment carried out in spring/summer 2009 we noted that the public computers at the library were predominantly used by men, and few women attended the One Step Further basic computer courses offered. In order to encourage more women, the study librarian designed basic computer courses for women which started in November. The courses have run full since then, and many women are on the waiting list. Most of the participants are immigrants.
Developing cultural activities and creating intercultural meetingplaces
Author visits
In order to promote cultural events a fantastic author visit program was organized at Biskopsgården Library automn 2009 through spring 2010. Famous authors with immigrant background have been invited and authors highlighting intercultural topics. In automn 2009 the popular authors Zack O’Yeah, Renzo Aneröd, and Douglas Foley were invited to the library. The popular youth author Douglas Foley also met with five school classes, youngsters aged 15, most of them immigrants, who easily relate to his novels where the main characters have international background and the scene is set in Swedish suburbs. On 24 March 2010 award-winning author Susanna Alakoski with Finnish background visited the library in conjunction with the release of her new novel ”Håpas du trifs bra i fengelset”. Gender, class and ethnicity are issues close to her heart.
In spring a Turkish-Swedish poetry evening with the Turkish poet Dervisan was arranged at the library and the event encouraged more local artists to propose own initiatives of author, film and music events.
World film evenings
In order to encourage intercultural dialogue Biskopsgården Library joined the regional World Film project spring 2010. Four international film evenings are scheduled one Sunday a month at the library February through May, featuring interesting films in Persian, Arabic, Russian and Thai. Afterwards visitors are invited to discuss the film using the methodology Talk Film – Talk Life! designed in cooperation between the Swedish church and the adult educational organization Sensus. (Talk Film-Talk Life! manual in Swedish).
Art corner
BiskopsgĂĄrden Library has a popular and well established Art Corner where local artists are invited to show their works, usually one artist per month, sometimes two. The Art Corner is a great way to promote local artistic creativity. For several local artists this has been their first opportunity to show their work in their new country. The September 2009 resident survey showed that 18% of the respondents visit the library to see the art exhibitions.
Handicraft
Handicraft is popular all over the world and the yearly Handicraft Day organized at the library and adjacent People’s House offers ample opportunities to meet across cultures. The day is organized in cooperation with the city district culture group, local associations and artisans, professionals as well as amateurs.
In February 2010 several weekly knitting cafés were organized in the library cafeteria and in March 2010 local residents’ favorite knittings were on display in the Art Corner while local knitting experts from the local association Friluftsfrämjandet in Biskopsgården offered knitting lessons to visitors in the Art Corner.
Developing creative activities for children and youngsters
In the needs assessment cultural activities for youngsters was assessed a priority, and the library decided to offer various activities during school holidays: three days of drawing courses in October 2009, two days of manga drawing courses in February 2010 and two days of animation courses in April 2010.
In automn 2009 the Library Youth Film Club was kicked-off. During school holidays in February 2010 the film club schowed the latest Harry Potter movie, and for the Easter holidays 2010 popular the vampire love story saga is scheduled. BiskopsgĂĄrden Library also has a youth corner and a youth blog.
Story tellings for young children
On Wednesday mornings the children librarian organizes popular story tellings in Swedishopen to all children aged 3 to 5 years in the city district. As a supplement to the stoiry tellings in Swedish, the Immigrant Institute decided to organize a series of bilingual dramatizations of the fairy tail the Three Billy Goats Gruff in cooperation with pedagogues and children from the local preschools Långströmsgatan and Vintervädersgatan at the People’s House during spring 2010. All local preschools, childminders and parents in Biskopsgården are invited to these events as well. The idea is to take advantage of the pedagogues language skills given that many are immigrants, to display some of the rich language resources available in the local area and to support children’s bilingual development and offer them an opportunity to encounter other children who speak the same mothertongue. After the bilingual dramatizations adults and children are invited to the library’s children section where the two preschools exhibit some of their pedagogical materials.
Children’s theater
Biskopsgården Library organize children’s theater performances at a regular basis which is very popular. Most take place on weekdays and are attended by the local preschools. In the ESME project framework the library has been able to extend the children’s theater program, and also offer theater sessions on weekends something which has been very much appreciated by the parents. The next children’s theater is scheduled on 17 April 2010, at the Family Saturday at the library - a day full of workshops, world music, and dance shows for the whole family.
Competence development
Seminar-workshop for librarians and other intercultural professionals
14 October 2009 we organized an intercultural breakfast meeting at the library for intercultural professionals, followed by a seminar for librarians in Gothenburg on the theme ”Users’ perspective” in order to discuss media purchases, organization, media display, signs and other useful information with a special focus on immigrants’ needs.
Cooperation with other intercultural competence development projects
Libraries for All – ESME cooperates with several ongoing projects in Western Sweden. One of the projects is the Swedish European Social Fund project The InterLingual Library – opening up intercultural meeting places (2009-2011). It is a intercultural competence development project headed by the Västra Götaland Regional Library and comprises several NGO’s and more than thirty public libraries in Western Sweden, Including Biskopsgården Library.
Another project is the Grundtvig mobility project Creative Approaches to Intercultural Competence (CAIC)
For more information on the local program and project progress, please contact:
Olivera Djudja, Head of library, BiskopsgĂĄrdens bibliotek, e-mail: olivera.djudja@biskopsgarden.goteborg.se
Randi Myhre, regional coordinator, the Immigrant Institute, e-mail: randi.myhre@immi.se
LINKS:
March 2010 Newsletter in Swedish / Mars 2010 Nyhetsbrev pĂĄ svenska
