SUMMARY

Immigration has recently increased sharply from a range of countries
Not previously known as significant sources of immigrants to the U.S.A.
Libraries are essential contact and information points
for New Americans, but it is necessary to analyze
library services and needs.
The survey will examine both the general problem
and the problems of specific cultural groups.
A website will be created to promote better relations
between libraries and specific immigrant groups.
 

NEW AMERICANS:

Recent decades have seen significant increases
in immigration from countries which had not previously been known
for sending immigrants to the United States.

To some extent the list of migrants resembles
a list of the world's war zones or trouble spots:
Vietnamese, East African Asians, Iranians, Palestinians,
Haitians, Afghans, Russians, Somalis, Serbs, Croats, Albanians.

National Immigration Forum:
http://www.immigrationforum.org/index.htm
New Americans in Maryland:
http://www.dhr.sailorsite.net/mona/who.htm
Americanizing the New Americans:
http://cato.org/dailys/08-05-99.html
Russians in Boston:
http://www.jfcsboston.org/Services/na.htm

But there is also significant immigration
from economically hard-pressed zones,
such as the Philippines, Brazil, India,
plus general immigration from the Pacific Rim:
Taiwan, China etc.:
Asian Community Online Network:
http://www.igc.apc.org/acon/
Asian American Resources on the Web:
http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/irie/aar/

These immigrants are being welcomed into the United States,
because they, like other immigrants before them,
are undertaking jobs which US born workers are unwilling to accept,
due to low salaries and difficult working conditions.
The current boom economy or Internet economy
relies on a substrata of lower paid workers.

New Americans are largely concentrated in major cities
(again, like other immigrants before them).
There are especially large concentrations in the Borough of Queens, New York,
and in Los Angeles.
Detroit has a significant Arabic-speaking population.
But in many cases immigrants are making themselves felt in smaller cities,
such as Postville, Iowa, where meat packing plants
have attracted both Orthodox Jewish and Russian immigrants.
 

PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND NEW AMERICANS:
Public libraries have consistently played
a major role in the process of integrating immigrants
into North American society.

They offer four main types of materials of especial value to new arrivals:

1. Resources relating to the root culture of immigrants,
with special attention to recent changes in that culture;

2. Survival skills: general information of value to new immigrants
and materials to support formal and informal educational programs;

3. Intellectual attitudes:
accounts of the experience of group members in the U. S.
and creative writing by members of the group.

4. Political attitudes:
discussion of the future of the group in U. S.,
and its relationship with other ethnic groups.

They also offer meeting rooms
which can be used for short courses or conversation groups.

Queens Borough Public Library: New American Programs
http://www.queenslibrary.org/wlinq/shlib/queens/nap.html
Worldlinq: multilingual, multiscript library gateway:
http://www.queenslibrary.org/wlinq/
Chinatown Branch Library: Los Angeles Public Library:
Citizenship Classes; English Conversation Classes:
http://www.lapl.org/branches/63ci.html
Chinatown Branch: Chicago Public Library:
http://cpl.lib.uic.edu/002branches/chinatown/chinatown.html
Collection profile: adult collection approximately 50% Chinese,
50% English, juvenile about 90% English, 10% Chinese:
http://cpl.lib.uic.edu/002branches/chinatown/chinacol.html

To quote a recent statement by New York's Deputy Mayor:
"We are a city of immigrants, of new Americans
who are important to the constant renewal
of the city's economy and social fabric.
At libraries, immigrants can learn the English language,
and learn about democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
The library has always been the great national resource
where immigrants can go from being strangers to being citizens." (Reiter, 1996)

It must be remembered that many of these new immigrants
come from countries where libraries are undeveloped
and where the principles of public librarianship are little-known.
They have to be actively attracted into libraries,
although for many a modern library may seem a strange and complex place.
 

OBJECTIVES

This project aims to identify the major geographic areas
affected by recent immigration to the U. S.,
evaluate current provision for recent immigrants,
and recommend ways in which services
and resources for them could be improved.
A wide general survey will be followed up by
intensive approaches to specific key cultures.
Most of the emphasis will be on public library services,
but there will also be some reference to school and academic libraries.
 

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Premise: New immigrants are an essential feature
of the modern American economy,
but their continuing positive impact on American life
depends on how well they are able to become familiar
with the English language and American culture and customs.

The public library has an important dual role in both
familiarizing foreigners with the English language
and American culture and customs,
also in preserving and updating root cultures.

In order to successfully carry out this role,
the modern public library must be able to offer
and process a range of materials
in immigrants' own languages, relevant to their cultures etc.

Are public libraries able to rise to the challenge of this dual role?

How are public libraries in areas with significant populations
of new immigrants reacting to these challenges?
 

HYPOTHESES

General hypothesis:
(Note: hypotheses are presented in positive form)

Public libraries in areas with significant populations of new immigrants
are offering adequate services to these groups.

Specific hypotheses:

Public and other libraries serving significant populations
of new immigrants carry out ethnographic surveys
of the populations they serve
and implement specific outreach policies
aimed at bringing new immigrants into the library.

Public and other libraries serving significant populations
of new immigrants are able to offer them adequate supplies
of appropriate books, periodicals and other materials.

Public and other libraries serving significant populations
of new immigrants adopt collection development policies,
technical services and cataloging procedures
appropriate for materials of relevance to these users.

Public and other libraries serving significant populations
of new immigrants offer additional activities,
such as courses on citizenship and English,
meeting rooms and other support.
 

METHODOLOGY

The research will be in two phases:

General survey of library services to new immigrants

Specific surveys of library needs of specific immigrant groups

(The phases are analyzed here in this order,
but in fact they are independent
and could be undertaken in any order).
 

METHODOLOGY FOR GENERAL SURVEY OF
LIBRARY SERVICES TO NEW IMMIGRANTS

Identify localities with significant populations of new immigrants

Identify public libraries in these locations

Use mail questionnaires to collect relevant data on services
 
 

SPECIFIC SURVEYS OF LIBRARY NEEDS
OF SPECIFIC IMMIGRANT GROUPS

The selection of groups for in-depth treatment will depend on the
availability of researchers or associates with adequate linguistic and cultural skills.

The first specific group to be studied will be Brazilian immigrants;
the approach to them will be facilitated by the principal investigator's
deep knowledge of Brazil.

Brazilians now form a significant proportion
of the population of several major cities.
Most librarians understand that they speak Portuguese,
rather than the Spanish spoken over
most of the rest of the South American continent.

New York Brazil:
http://www.newyorkbrazil.com/
Brazilian Voice newspaper:
http://www.brazilianvoice.com/home.htm
Brazilnet:
http://www.brazilnet.com/
Brazzil: magazine-style site:
http://www.brazzil.com/
Brazil Online:
http://www.brazilonline.com/index.html
Virtual trip to Brazil:
http://www.vivabrazil.com/

But books from Portugal are of little interest to Brazilians.
The reference materials focus the wrong geographic area
and often use vocabulary unknown in Brazil,
while the fiction, especially the dialogs,
sounds very strange, almost foreign, to Brazilian ears.
Brazilians can only be served by books imported from Brazil.
Luso-Brazilian Books:
http://www.lusobraz.com/

Brazilians are relatively easy to identify,
because they tend to remain in contact with each other.

Brazilian clubs, associations etc. in the US:
http://www.brazzil.com/thats.htm

FOCUS GROUP APPROACH
Focus group methods will be used as the primary approach,
as it may be difficult to obtain street addresses of respondents
and they may react poorly to mail questionnaires.
Formal questionnaires will be used when contacts
via associations or organizations of Brazilian immigrants
makes such an approach viable.
 

SCHEDULE:
Two year project:

First semester:
background reading, sampling,

Second semester:
questionnaire development and pretesting;
final selection of sample,
preliminary application of questionnaire

Third semester:
follow-up application of questionnaire;
keyboarding and preliminary analysis of results

Fourth semester:
final analysis of results; conclusions,
preparation of research report,
preparation and submission of journal articles based on research
 

TEAM:
Principal researcher: Cavan McCarthy, Ph.D.,
Graduate assistant(s)
Researchers or collaborators
from other cultural or ethnic groups
 

BUDGET:
Limited financial support required for:
Graduate assistants
Printing and mailing questionnaires
Keyboarding and analyzing data
Office and computer support etc.
 

ELECTRONIC SUPPORT SERVICES FOR
LIBRARY SERVICES TO SPECIFIC GROUPS

Each cultural group studied in depth will be supported by:

Creation and maintenance of a website which will act as a
referral point for library support for the group,
bringing libraries and  members
of the cultural group together
(no such sites currently exists)
Link to libraries whose sites describe significant services for the group
Make suggestions for library activities in favor of the group
Link to publishers and materials of relevance to the group
(Note that there is some possibility
of financial return from these links)

As constituent parts of the site: set up and maintain:

Specialized bibliography on library activities focusing the group

Digital library of documents relevant to
library activities focusing the group
(when copyright permission can be obtained)

Receive responses to questionnaires
on library support for the cultural group
via HTML form or similar electronic system
(Note: data collected in this manner
would not be completely reliable,
as the electronic respondents would represent
only those using Internet at a relatively high level.
But it would be very interesting to compare
data collected electronically without proper sampling and control
with data collected by traditional means;
studies of this nature are highly relevant
as electronic data collection will probably
become common in the near future).

Maintain and archive a discussion list
(LISTSERV) on library support for
the cultural group
 
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berger, Monica. An annotated guide to Internet resources on immigration and immigrants. SLA Social Science Division Bulletin. 1999 Apr.; 40(3):5.

Berman, Sanford. Sing a song of green cards at Hennepin County Library: bibliographical essay. Technicalities. 1996 July/Aug.; 16:1.

Cameron, Ann. A warm welcome: put out the welcome mat for immigrant parents and you'll reach their children. School Library Journal. 1996 May; 42:54.

Chao, Sheau-yueh J. The New Americans Program: Queens Borough Public Library's Service to Multilingual/Multicultural Communities. Public Libraries. 1993 Nov./Dec.; 33:319-322.

Du Mont, Rosemary Ruhig; Buttlar, Lois, and Caynon, William. Multiculturalism in libraries. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press; 1994. 240 p. (Contributions in Library and Information Science; 83). Z678 .D8 1994.

Ganss, Dawn S. A nation of immigrants: Web sites on immigration. The School Librarian's Workshop. 1999 Nov.; 20(3):13-15.

Gitner, Fred J. The New Americans program: twenty-one years of successful partnerships serving diverse and changing communities. Reference and User Services Quarterly. 1998; 38(2):143-145.

Hernandez, Hector R. Latino Outreach: The Case of the Rudy Lozano Branch of the Chicago Public Library. Illinois Libraries. 1993 Fall; 75(5):328-330.

Hoffert, Barbara. Dragon Dancers & Eastern Westerns: Serving the Asian American Community. Library Journal. 1994 July; 119(12):42-45.

Hsu, E. S. Beyond quality services: the New Americans Program and the Asian-American community. Public & Access Services Quarterly. 1995; 1(3):63-69.

Johnston, James R. Time to ask! Library Service to Hispanic Patrons: A Beginning. Illinois Libraries 75. 1993, Fall; 5:280-284.

Jones Jr., Plummer Alston. Libraries, Immigrants, and the American Experience. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press; 1999. 256 p. (Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science; 92).

Kirby, Debra; Petty, Mary Jean, and Gates, Nelda. New kids on the block: immigration, genealogy and readers theater: activity projects at the Otter Creek Middle School). Indiana Media Journal. 1995 Summer; 17:78-80.

Kravitz, Rhonda Rios. Serving the Emerging Majority: Documenting their Voices. Library Administration & Management. 1991 Fall; 5:184-188.

Mason, Elisa. Against all odds: refugees coping in a strange land: information needs of displaced people. American Libraries. 1999 Aug.; 30(7):44-47.

McElroy, Anna Yin. Reaching Out to Asian-Americans: An Asian-American Librarian's Perspective. Illinois Libraries. 1993 Fall; 75(5):302-304.

McMorran, Charles and Schlein, Andrew. Walking the Multilingual Walk: WorldLinQ: online library catalog in foreign languages and scripts. American Libraries. 1997 Nov.; 4.

Oliver, Lee; Belvin, Robert, and Manoogian, Sylva. Survey on Services to Multicultural Populations. Public Libraries. 1994 July/Aug.; 33:197-204.

Paynter, Robin. A world in motion: refugees and resources: Web sites on refugees and immigration. College & Research Libraries News. 1998 Sep.; 59(8):591-594.

Queens Launches Program to Recruit Diverse Workforce. American Libraries. 1998 Feb; 16-17. QBPL's mentorship program teams QBPL librarians with teen 'page fellows' from high schools and colleges, to encourage teens to pursue careers in librarianship.

Ratliff, Debra D. The Refugees in our Midst: immigrants from Russia. Colorado Libraries. 1995 Sep.; 16:18-19.

Reiter, Fran. Deputy Mayor Fran Reiter Speaks on Libraries at Annual Meeting. For Reference: Electronic Journal of the Metropolitan New York Library Council. 1996 Nov./Dec.; (268). http://metro.org/forref/novdec96.html

Rodriguez, Jill and Tejeda, Maria. Serving Hispanics Through Family Literacy: One Family at a Time. Illinois Libraries. 1993 Fall; 75(5):331-335.

Sachs, Elizabeth-Ann. A Door to the West: Public Library outreach to Japanese in Westchester County, NY. School Library Journal. 1995 Sep.; 41:36.

Somerville, Mary R. Global is Local: By Serving New Immigrants, Public Libraries Serve Us All. Library Journal. 1995 Feb. 15; 120(2):131-133.

Strong, Gary E. China-United States Cooperation: A Public Library Perspective: services to Chinese immigrants in Queens Borough Public Library: Paper presented at the China-U.S. conference on Global Information Access: Challenges and Opportunities. National Library, Beijing, China, August 21-23, 1996. 1966. 6 p. http://www.queenslibrary.org/~gstrong/speech.html

Strong, Gary E. Connecting Diverse Communities: Nontraditional Approaches to Serving New Americans: A paper presented at the Conference of the Public Library Association. Kansas City, Missouri, March 1998. 1998. 4 p. An overview of QBPL's immigrant services, including collection development, coping skills programs, and cultural arts programs. http://www.queenslibrary.org/~gstrong/connect.html

Su, Sherry Shiuan and Conaway, C. Information and a Forgotten Minority: Elderly Chinese Immigrants. Library and Information Science Research. 1995; 17:68-86.

Tandler, Adriana Acauan. Serving Diverse Populations in Queens -- the New Americans Program. Reference Services Review. 1998 Summer; 63-65.

Tjoumas, Renee. Giving New Americans a Green Light in Life: A Paradigm for Serving Immigrant Communities. Public Libraries. 1987 Fall; 26:103-108.

Tjoumas, Renee. Opening doorways to new immigrants: Queens Borough Public Library's Coping Skills Component. Public Library Quarterly. 1995; 14(4):5-19.  Surveys QBPL's coping skills program, which offers courses in immigrant law, tenants rights, preparing income tax returns, and career planning. Also discusses multilingual instruction and marketing.
 
 

ADDITIONAL INTERNET RESOURCES

Immigrant and Ethnic Outreach in Public Libraries:
http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~dalton/450ds/inf.html

South Asian Diaspora: U.C. Berkeley Library:
http://library.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/SouthAsia/diaspora.html

The Many Voices of Diversity:
Librarians Association of the University of California (LAUC)
1992: Developing culturally diverse collections etc.:
http://clnet.ucr.edu/library/diversity/contents.htm
Hosted on: CLNet: Building Chicana/o
Latina/o Communities through Networks:
http://clnet.ucr.edu/index.html

Groups protecting immigrants:
http://www.queenslibrary.org/webcontact/SearchByKeyWord.htm

Multicultural Internet Links:
http://latino.sscnet.ucla.edu/multicultural.links.html

Latino.com:
http://www.latino.com/index.phtml

Beginning Library Research on Ethnic Identity in the United States:
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/adams/shortcu/ethi.html