Multilingual Collections in Public Libraries
Knowledge base, Communications
The Power of Language
Multilingualism is deeply embedded in Canadian identity, and cultural and linguistic pluralism are seen as touchstone Canadian values. The institutional history of Canadian public libraries reflects this, with multilingual collections appearing from the early twentieth-century. Over time, the changing makeup of immigrant groups and relationship of Canada to immigration has led to evolving guidelines on multilingual collections.
My in-progress publication is entitled “Access versus Assimilation in the Multilingual Collections of Canadian Public Libraries” provides an overview on how multilingual collections have been used to facilitate integration and multiculturalism, and conversely to promote Anglicization (and Francisation) of immigrant communities. This research was initially performed as part of an ÉSIS course entitled “ISI 6353 – Access and Services to Diverse Populations.” While much of the curriculum centred on access issues like disability and neurodivergence, the inability to access materials in your preferred language is one of the most powerful barriers that can exist in a library. We often promote libraries by presenting them as bringing literacy to the masses, and making them educated in ways required of the voting public. As such, since the early 1900s it has been presented as in Canada’s interests to bring newcomer immigrants into public libraries. However, the goal of providing non-English materials in these libraries was primarily as a means to diffuse dominant Canadian cultural values and identity through literature – not to treat languages as equal. Over time, the provision of multilingual collections became tied to growing ideas of multiculturalism and pluralism.
Researching this aspect of library collections has led me to consider other aspects of collections management that seemed entirely benign to me, and has reaffirmed that a great responsibility lies with librarians to constantly examine their practices and their histories.
“One aspect that must be addressed when the ethics of these language-oriented programs are criticized is that, in all likelihood, many new Canadians strongly desire the means to speak with English or French-speaking Canadian peers. In other words, the demand is there. Just as libraries may provide washrooms, help with immigration research, and other such practical necessities, enculturation is socioeconomically practical. This does not, however, exempt it from criticism. Quebec is a useful example of the tension between promotion of enculturation and multiculturalism. Montréal possesses extensive Italian-language holdings in the Little Italy of Saint-Léonard (Zielinska, 1980), but had no non-English/French holdings in the suburb of Saint-Laurent, for the express reason that it would hinder integration (Picco, 2008). Quebec librarians interviewed differed greatly in their understanding of libraries’ role in integration, varying from emphasizing French courses, to free multilingual cultural exchange (Picco, 2008).”
– an excerpt from the article