Diversity

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Diversity Dare to Win
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Resources in Libraries GATHERING DUST? A Case
Study By Kal Dale Ethnic Services
Manager Wolverhampton City Libraries
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• Specialist collections just gather dust because
  no one uses them.
• Challenges
• Why dont they get used?
• Who is the community?
• What are the needs?
• What are the resources?
• How do we promote?

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Mission Statement The mission statement of
Wolverhampton Libraries Information Services
is To provide a high quality library service
which is customer focused, flexible and
responsive to the needs of all people and
communities within Wolverhampton.
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• Community Profile
• Over a fifth (22.2) of the local population
  class themselves as being of a non-white origin
  this compares with 18.6 in the 1991 Census.
  Nationally 9.5 of the population are from a
  minority ethnic group and 20 of people in the
  West Midlands county.
• Locally, the largest single group is Indian
  (12.3) followed by Black British Caribbean
  (3.8)
• Regionally, Birmingham is the only council with
  a higher proportion of people from BME
  communities (29.7) than Wolverhampton.
• (Source National Statistics www.statistics.gov.
  uk)

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• Breakdown by Religion
• Based on the 2001 Census indicators.
• Christianity 157,300 or 66.5
• Sikh 17,944 or 7.6
• Hindu 9,198 or 3.9
• Muslim 4,060 or 1.7
• Buddhist 737 or 0.3
• Jewish 104 or 0.05
• Regional ranking for Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist
  religions is 1 out of 34

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• Library Services
• Central Library Departments Reference,
  Children's, Adult Lending and Learning Centre
• 20 Branch Service Points (with ICT facilities)
• Mobile Library Service
• Education Library Service
• Special Needs Unit

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• Resources
• Indic language adult books in Punjabi, Hindi,
  Gujarati, Bengali and Urdu
• Polish language collection
• African Caribbean interest materials Asian
  interest in English
• Ethnic newspapers periodicals
• Audio visual resources (DVDs, videos, tapes,
  CDs)
• Childrens resources dual language books,
  audio visual materials and a small collection of
  Indic language books, teen periodicals and study
  aids.
• ESOL and resources for asylum seekers and
  refugees
• Fiction of lesbian and gay interest
• First Choice collection

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Location of Branches ? Stock Indic Language
Books ? Community Libraries ? Central Library
? Other
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• Outreach
• Deposit collections at community
• venues and places of worship
• Home Library Service
• Dual language storytelling sessions
• Visits and cultural events

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• Partnerships
• Adult Education Service, Light House media
  centre, University of Wolverhampton etc.
• LEA Multicultural Services Team to deliver
  Indic language childrens books to mother tongue
  classes
• Specialist suppliers
• Regional and national networks

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• Ethnic Services Team
• The Ethnic Services Manager contributes directly
  to the action planning process. The ESTeam,
  consisting of staff from different levels with a
  range of skills, support the work by-
• Researching and advising on issues such as
  periodicals provision
• Stock selection
• Black History Month and other promotions
• Current initiatives are concerned with developing
  resources for asylum seekers and refugees in
  languages such as Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish etc. and
  ESOL.

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Gathering Dust? What do you think? Thank you