Description
After 1989 Poland began to discover and revive its cultural, ethnic and language diversity. Public libraries – which preserve and disseminate cultural heritage and have a network of ca. 8,400 libraries – can play a major role in this process, although they are only becoming involved in it. The project’s objective is to develop a model of a library integrating a diverse local community and to equip librarians with the knowledge and skills necessary in planning and implementing multicultural activities, carried out together with the representatives of the minorities. The project aims also at strengthening the potential of regional and county libraries in supporting lower-level public libraries of a given region in their multicultural activities. The project will cover 4 regional libraries, 9 county libraries and 36 municipal and communal libraries in Poland. Polish librarians will have an opportunity to draw on the experience of six Norwegian libraries working with immigrants and cultural minorities. The project will benefit librarians as well as residents of multicultural communities.
Summary of project results
The project’s objective was to develop a model of a library integrating a diverse local community and to equip librarians with the knowledge and skills necessary in planning and implementing multicultural activities, carried out together with the representatives of the minorities. The project aimed also at strengthening the potential of regional and county libraries in supporting lower-level public libraries of a given region in their multicultural activities. The project covered 4 regional libraries, 9 county libraries and 36 municipal and communal libraries in Poland. Polish librarians had the opportunity to draw on the experience of six Norwegian libraries working with immigrants and cultural minorities. The project benefited librarians as well as residents of multicultural communities.
Summary of bilateral results
All the partners took part in: - the study visit to the Pomeranian libraries and workshop on multicultural libraries; - trainings for Polish regional libraries representatives; - jury for the competition for small Polish-Norwegian library projects, - visits of Polish librarians in Norway - visits to the Polish libraries; - conferences "Multicultural Library", as speakers. All this led to an increased understanding of each other’s realities and developing new ways of working with multicultural communities in both countries.