Use of Public Libraries by Immigrants

The Urban Library Council surveyed 73 public libraries and found most of the recommendations in the literature for successfully serving immigrant patrons had been implemented. Their results showed that 93% of libraries surveyed had staff with multiple language skills, 89% had library brochures in multiple languages, 71% conducted staff training on providing multicultural customer service, and 66% had collections in ten or more languages.²³

In summary, these studies establish a profile of general library users in the United States and include information on the library use of immigrants from Latin American and Asian countries. Little has been done on immigrants from other world regions, and the studies of Latin American immigrants predominately used small sample sizes and were limited to particular geographic regions in the United States. This paper will examine the library use of immigrants from many world regions who have settled in a variety of geographic regions in the United States.

Models of Thought on Library Use

Much of the literature on immigrant library use is based upon a service model that focuses on what the library is doing or not doing to attract patrons. Research from this model informs librarians on how to make their libraries more welcoming, attract more patrons, and create more patron satisfaction with library materials and services. One aspect of the model is to make the library more appealing by reducing perceived barriers to use. Some barriers for immigrant patrons that were identified in the literature were lack of cultural sensitivity of library staff and library policies, language barriers, and inconvenient hours and locations. The other aspect of the service approach entails tailoring collections and services to identified needs in the patron community. By addressing barriers to public library use and targeting patron communities accurately, libraries may appeal to wider potential patron audiences.

In a panel presentation at the April 2007 Oklahoma Library Association Annual Conference, three librarians with extensive experience working with immigrant populations gave suggestions for making the library more welcoming and useful.²⁴ The following is an outline of their comments combined with suggestions from the literature:

1. Collections and Programs
   1. Have current (not outdated) collections of materials in immigrants’ languages and on topics of interest to immigrant groups.
   2. Create programs on areas of interest to new immigrants such as immigration law, citizenship, job searching, health, and literacy.
2. Staff and Library Atmosphere
   1. Have bilingual/bicultural staff, volunteers, tutorials, computer classes, computer interfaces, library signage, and pamphlets.
   2. Have a hospitable atmosphere with friendly, proactive staff that ask patrons if they need help and who are respectful of patrons’ individuality rather than making assumptions on the basis of their perceived cultural background.
   3. Provide cultural training for staff that particularly includes training on how to be respectful and polite across cultural boundaries; for example, do not touch patrons or call them by their first name because these acts of familiarity may be culturally insensitive.
3. Be in Touch with the Community
   1. Do needs assessments and community analyses to gather information to guide collection and service decisions.
   2. Promote the library through immigrant community centers, community leaders, religious institutions, social services centers, schools, and radio advertisements in other languages.
   3. Perform outreach with bookmobiles, new branches, and accommodating hours.

This service model focuses on the library and implies that whether people use the library is a function of the library and its offerings. Most suggestions for how to increase the library’s appeal to various populations are based on the notion that if they are offered the right combination of materials, programs, hours, and locations, people will choose to use the library.

Another model of library use examines factors of the individual that influence whether that person becomes a library user. This sociological model of library use examines a variety of social and demographic characteristics of patrons and determines which characteristics correlate with higher rates of library use. Reviewed studies identified socioeconomic factors such as education, income level, and occupation as linked to likelihood of library use. While sex, race, and marital status were not found to be important predictors, age was somewhat important, and family variables such as living with children and size of household were useful.²⁵ Other research found that distance from the library and county size were related to library use.²⁶ For immigrants, confidence in speaking and writing in English were also influential.²⁷ Identifying the likely patron base in this manner is useful to libraries that are planning marketing and outreach efforts and library services and programs. In addition to identifying factors that correlate with higher library use, this model also addresses sociocultural aspects of individuals that may predispose them to not use the library. From the literature, for some immigrants these include cultural unfamiliarity with libraries, low education and literacy levels, and mistrust of government agencies.

Scott Nicholson refers to this model of library use as understanding information seeking in context. He states that each library user is situated in one or more contexts that affect their information needs and information seeking behavior. Most individuals belong to several communities, and their contexts can be known or unknown to library researchers.²⁸

While the sociological model presents a fundamentally different view from the service model of factors affecting public library use, the models work together quite well. Some individuals will not be likely to become library users because of a variety of contexts in their backgrounds or circumstances, so no matter what the library does it is unlikely to attract these individuals. However, even those who are likely to be interested in using the library might become nonusers if their experience of the library is unpleasant for any of a number of reasons, or if they determine that the library does not have materials or services that fill their needs. It is therefore useful for libraries to be sensitive to the issues presented by both the service and the sociological models of library use.

This study is based on the sociological model and examines rates of public library use and factors that might affect those rates such as the context of user backgrounds and demographic information.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6