Library Services to Ethnocultural Minorities

ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007. Library Trends VOLUME 29 NUMBER 2 FALL 1980 University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science This Page Intentionally Left Blank Library Services to Ethnocultural Minorities LEONARD WERTHEIMER Issue Editor CONTENTS Leonard Wertheimer 175 INTRODUCTION The People David Cohen 179 ETHNICITY IN LIBRARIANSHIP: A RATIONALE FOR MULTIETHNIC LIBRARY SERVICES IN A HETERO- GENEOUS SOCIETY Johannes Fest 191 THE MIGRANTS H.C. Campbell 207 WORLDWIDE IMMIGRATION AND ITS RELATION TO LIBRARY SERVICES: DO PLANNERS “PAY IT NO MIND”? The Library: Philosophy and Practice Anna Lisa Wargren 215 SOME PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH THE ACQUISITION OF FOREIGN BOOKS IN SWEDEN Hans H. Wellisch 223 BIBLIOGRAPHIC ACCESS TO MULTI- LINGUAL COLLECTIONS Sylva Simsova 245 LIBRARY TRAINING FOR SERVICES TO MINORITY ETHNIC GROIJPS: CONCEPTS AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES The State of the Art Natalia B. Bezugloff 259 LIBRARY SERVICES TO NON-ENGLISH- LANGUAGE ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE UNITED STATES CONTENTS - Continued Marie Zielinska 275 PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICES TO CANADIAN ETHNOCULTURAL COM- MUNITIES: AN OVERVIEW Hans Joachim Vogt 293 LIBRARY RESOURCES FOR ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY Radha Rasmussen 299 PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICES TO Ivan Kolarik ETHNOCULTURAL MINORITIES IN AUSTRALIA: A STATE-OF-THE-ART SURVEY P.D. Stepanov 317 NEW FORMS AND METHODS OF LIBRARY SERVICE TO ETHNIC GROUPS AND MINORITIES IN THE FAR NORTH OF THE USSR Special Groups Alois Stadler 325 CHILDREN OF GUEST WORKERS IN EUROPE: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL NEEDS IN RELATION TO LIBRARY SERVICE Ruth Jacobs Wertheimer 335 CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS AND Kathleen M. Foy MULTIETHNIC HERITAGE: AUSTRALIA, CANADA, THE UNITED KINGDOM, AND THE UNITED STATES Richard G. Heyser 353 PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE TO NATIVE Lotsee Smith AMERICANS IN CANADA AND THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES Introduction LEONARD WERTHEIMER SOMETHIRTY YEARS AGO a humorous manual for tourists, Sauoir Viure International (Ode: 1950), informed its readers that Australia was entirely Anglo-Saxon. The situation has completely changed after World War 11, and not only in Australia. The accelerated economy of Germany, the Netherlands and Scandi- navia has attracted temporary workers from southern and southeastern Europe; political unrest and adverse economic conditions have induced others to leave their countries and to settle permanently in others. In both cases the host countries have been faced with unexpected problems and tasks, caused by the presence of people with different languages, different ways of life, different expectations of public services. The pressing needs of housing, health, education, and work have obscured the equally vital role of public libraries. Unfortunately, libraries were not preparedor equipped to carry out the new tasks; with no reliable information or examples at hand, each library has responded as best it could, searching for suitable personnel, for materials, for practical methods. Because this new service has not found its way into curricula of library science courses (except for iso- lated instances), and because published literature on the subject is scanty, it seemed desirable to bring together, in one issue of Library Trends,a collection of articles that would serve as a resource to librar- ians in many parts of the world. In the following pages, fourteen articles on various aspects of the new problems and some solutions are pre- sented by a panel of distinguished authors from seven countries. Leonard Wertheimer is a former Languages Coordinator, Metropolitan Toronto Library Board. FALL 1980 175 LEONARD WERTHEIMER The overall subject to be discussed might be roughly stated as “the foreigner and his literature,” but this would be misleading. For one thing, in some countries the adjective foreign, when applied to languages spoken by citizens of a country, is inaccurate to the point of being offensive. (Nevertheless, the word has been retained in the articles as and when used by the authors.) The articles attempt to deal with the principles, philosophy and practice of library services to minorities. Book acquisition is, of course, part of that practice, but there are several good manuals on foreign books acquisition, though these principally cater to the needs of colleges and universities. The more recently estab- lished services to ethnic minorities are, so far, reflected in but a scanty body of literature, widely scattered and lacking a link. It is hoped that this collection will bring together useful information and stimulate further development and progress in this vital area. It seemed convenient to group the articles under four main head- ings. First is the nature and sociology of the target groups. David Cohen deals with ethnicity in its philosophical and social aspects. The worldwide significance of immigration is examined by H.C. Campbell, who pioneered library work for ethnic groups in Toronto. The particular situation of migrant (i.e., temporary) workers is explained by Johannes Fest, who did field research for the German federal government. The second section deals with the library functions necessitated by the situation previously described. Anna Lisa Wargren, of the Swedish Biblio- tekstjht, describes the difficulties of book acquisition and how, in Sweden, they are overcome. One of the most difficult yet necessary tasks, that of cataloging material in unfamiliar languages (and sometimes in non-Roman script) for bibliographic access, is expertly treated by Hans Wellisch, whose writings on the subject are numerous; and finally a rundown on the still inadequate training given at library schools is provided by Sylva Simsova, herself a distinguished teacher in London. In the third section, library services in five countries are described by authors actively engaged in their organization. Natalia Bezugloff reports on the state of the art in the United States, Marie Zielinska on Canada, Radha Rasmussen and Ivan Kolarik on Australia, Hans Vogt on Germany, and P.D. Stepanov on the far north of the U.S.S.R. The fourth section deals with special groups. Ruth Wertheimer and Kath- leen Foy survey services to children of immigrants and their descen- dants, and Alois Stadler writes on children of mi<grantworkers. Finally, Richard Heyser and Lotsee Smith present a statistical overview of library services to North American natives, i.e., Indians, Inuits (Eski- mos) and others. 176 LIBRARY TRENDS Introduction There may be disappointment at the restricted number of countries discussed here. Cultural pluralism, or at least culturally heterogeneous populations, exist in many countries. The editor can only advance weak explanations: efforts to secure contributions for India and Czechoslova- kia were unsuccessful; more importantly, the knowledge and contacts of the editor and his collaborators were confined precisely to the countries here represented. It is in these countries, according to information obtained from Library and Information Science Abstracts and Library Literature, that the impact of immigration and migration is felt and responded to most by public libraries. Those who read several, or perchance all, of the articles, will notice some similarity, even repetition, of certain points among them. This only demonstrates the similarity of the situations in the countries reported on, and of the authors’ experiences. Rather than weaken the authors’ papers, the editor asks the reader’s indulgence and patience. Concerned readers are also earnestly encouraged to make use of the bibliographic references appended to most of the articles. (For reasons of space some citations were reduced, provided sources for further reference were given.) We hope, however, that the present volume is not the last word on the subject, but that, on the contrary, it will initiate further research which will do better justice to the vital subject than does this modest effort. Immense gratitude is owed to the authors, many of whom went to extraordinary efforts to prepare and deliver their articles under pressure of work and other commitments, even from a sickbed to Marie Zie- linska, who proposed the topic to the Library Trends Publications Committee, and to the committee for accepting it; and to the editor’s wife, Ruth, who, besides coauthoring the article on services for children, assumed a major share in reading and editing the manuscripts. Note. Wherever “English” is mentioned it means the dominant language of a country, and can be adapted mutatzs rnutandzs to other countries; similarly “foreign” refers to a languase other than the dominant one, and which is foreign to the dominant majority. FALL 1980 177 This Page Intentionally Left Blank Ethnicity in Librarianship: A Rationale for Multiethnic Library Services in a Heterogeneous Society DAVID COHEN INTHE UNITEDSTATESthe notion that ethnicity is “in” is certainly encouraged by the multiplicity of references to it in both scholarly and popular sources of information. The struggle for recognition by racial and ethnic minorities, instigated by the black power movement in the 1960s, has catapulted into sharp focus the concept that America, far from being a “melting pot,” is a country best described by such words as pluralistic, multicultural and multiethnic. “Ethnic pluralism” refers to the variety of ethnic minorities, each of which wants equality of oppor- tunity in addition to a group identity that will be accepted by

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