Nine-year-old Garren Bains browses through a book on the weekend. | Photo by Florence Hwang
Libraries are an important part of helping newcomers ground themselves in their new communities. One of the first things Patricia Wilensky’s daughter, Eve, did when she moved abroad for school was go to a library and get a library card.
“That was very smart of her to do,” says Wilensky, who has lived in the Sunset community in south Vancouver since 1986.
Settling in
“When people come to the library and ask for a card, we ask them for some piece of identification. They say, ‘I will have it soon, but I just got here two days ago.’ It is an urgent feeling for some people to get connected with the library once they move to a new place,” says Jinder Johal, the librarian at South Hill branch.
Johal has been at South Hill branch since 2008, but has been a librarian since 1990. Over the past 20 to 30 years, she has noticed her Sunset neighbourhood grow more and more diverse, with new immigrants particularly from South Asian countries, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines and India.
South Hill Library works with local community agencies, such as Progress Intercultural Services (PICS), South Vancouver Neighbourhood House and Multicultural Helping House, to help new immigrants settle into Canadian life. These agencies, neighbours and friends tell new immigrants to go to the library, says Johal.
Stats Canada reported in its 2011 census that visible minorities accounted for the highest proportion of any provincial population is British Columbia, where they numbered nearly 1.2 million or 27 per cent. Combined, the three largest visible minority groups in 2011 –
South Asians, Chinese and Blacks –
accounted for 61 per cent of the visible minority population. The next most populous groups were Filipinos, Latin Americans, Arabs, Southeast Asians, West Asians, Koreans and Japanese. In 2011, 73 per cent of the immigrants reported they had a mother tongue other than French or English.
Those statistics are on par with the South Hill Library branch’s figures, which has the second visible minority highest population with 79 per cent of its patrons. 80 per cent of the Fraserview branch’s patrons are from a visible minority. According to Environics Anyalytics, 69 per cent of the South Hill Library community report a mother tongue other than English or French. The three top languages are Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog.
Growing up with books
When Patricia Wilensky comes to the South Hill branch and sees Kids Storytime, it reminds her of when she brought her daughters at a young age, also for Storytime. Most people are introduced to libraries when they are children. Parents are becoming aware of the culture of reading through their children, who are developing a love of reading. South Hill Branch’s community has the second highest number of children between ages 0 and 14 in Vancouver neighbourhoods.
“If teachers take students to libraries, kids will start picking up books. Eventually these kids read these books and eventually learn to love reading,” says Johal. “Providing access [to literature] is key. Adults who are passionate about reading tell kids about good books.”
Nine-year-old Garren Bains is checking out some books for school, but not for homework. He is preparing for a trivia game called “Battle of the Books” organized by his school, John Oliver. Children are required to read five books over the summer.
“When we go to school, our teacher will ask us questions about the books we read,” says Garren, who will be going into Grade 5 this fall.
Garren loves reading adventure books because he wants to find out what’s going to happen next. His father Charlie says Garren is an avid reader.
“Garren just likes to read,” says Charlie, who has been living in the community for the past 35 years, since he came from India.
Garren says he usually takes out eight books. If he’s really interested in the books, he can read them all within a couple of weeks. When his family went on a trip this summer, he took out a lot of books. He comes to the library about three times a week during the school year because he loves spending time in the library.
“It’s pretty quiet here. You can always read. At home, it’s noisy. My mom’s on the stove on, she’s vacuuming. It’s busy,” says Garren.
Lata Ben also comes to the library to make use of its resources. Ben has been coming to the South Hill Library branch since she came to Canada in 1991. Aside from using the library’s computers, she also brings her two sons to the library. They take out children’s books, cartoon books and video games.
“We use the library all year-round. It doesn’t matter the season. We come here several times a week,” says Ben.
A place to meet
Patricia Wilensky has always been a reader. Wilensky, a psychologist by trade, doesn’t think the new technology of electronic books will diminish the use of libraries. Wilensky and her two daughters bought e-readers last year, but they still like to visit the library.
“I’m so used to meeting people here, looking through the shelves. I don’t think that books will be replaced by kindles,” says Wilensky.
Recently, a new initiative called NewToBC was launched to promote resources, services and programs available to newcomers. Vancouver Public Library is a partner in this project. NewToBC is part of the Urban Libraries Settlement Partnership (ULSP). Public Library InterLink manages ULSP, which is funded through a memorandum of understanding agreement between the Ministries of Education and Jobs, Training and Innovation.
“I think the library is a community building place where people meet others. There are book clubs where people to meet each other to discuss literature and ideas,” says Johal.
