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Coming to America:Immigrant Services in the
Library
Rebecca KaplanKent State UniversitySchool of Library and Information Science
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According to the 2010 Census, there are fortymillion foreign-born people living in theUnited States, composing 12.9% of the
population. This is a 1.8% increase from the2000 Census.
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Unique Needs
Due to this population's unique place insociety, they require unique programming,focusing on:
Low English Proficiency (LEP) Citizenship / Legal Residence
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Low English Proficiency (LEP)
According to the 2010 Census, there are 25.2million people who are not proficient inEnglish, with these populations correlating
with the foreign-born population.
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Linguistic Isolation
This can lead to "linguistic isolation," which iswhen no member of a household above theage of 14 is proficient in English. For
example, in the Asian-American community,twenty percent of all households arelinguistically isolated.
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Naturalization / Legal Residency
Permanent Residency: While not a legalcitizen, a person with permanent residencyis allowed to remain within the country
without violating immigration law. This isgenerally signified by a green card.
Visa: A document that allows its user to
remain in a country for a period of time. Itis not permanent. Naturalization: The process of acquiring a
citizenship.
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Outreach
Hold tours of the library, specifically forimmigrant groups.
Hold roundtable discussions on immigration
issues. Advertise services that would appeal to
recent immigrants.
Print promotional materials in languagesthat are common with the localpopulations.
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Foreign Language Collections
This is would allow for people who are notfluent in English to find materials that relateto their interests.
The San Diego Public Library has an extensivecollection with materials in Arabic, Cambodian,Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Farsi, French, German,Greek, Hebrew, Hmong, Hungarian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Norwegian, Polish,Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog andVietnamese.
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English as a Second Language Courses
This is a way to further acclimate foreign-bornpeople to a culture that is linguisticallydominated by English. It could be focused on
practical issues, such as speaking to people instores.
The Austin Public Library in Texas has
multiple English classes for their foreign-born population.
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Residency Programming
Many libraries with large populations ofimmigrants also have programming relating tocitizenship, visas, and permanent residency.
The Hartford Public Library offers these programsthrough the American Place (TAP).
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Website
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Other Possibilities
Conversation Circles. Bilingual Staffs. Cultural Events.