| 'An open door' is a homework and information
café for young people and adults
with ethnic background other than Danish
who have difficulties reading, writing and
understanding Danish. The café is placed
in the library in the social residential area
of Vapnagĺrd in Elsinore municipality, and
the librarians cooperate with a large
number of local players in trying to attract
new users who do not usually visit the
library. |
-The advantage of placing a local homework
and information café in the
library in a residential area like ours is
that many young and adult immigrants
are already familiar with the library
and like to come here. Muslim parents
are also confidents that nothing bad
can happen to their daughters while
they are visiting the library, explains
head librarian Ditte Lundstrřm.
When entering the library’s café on a
Wednesday afternoon, you are invited
to have some free coffee, tea, cake and
soft drinks offered by the library staff
who make time to talk to each individual
visitor.
The café has seven computers with Internet
access and two with word processing,
and you can search, surf, chat
and check mail, write essays or just
have a good time for as long as you
want.
The staff can also give support and instruction
in how to navigate in Danish
society generally: Looking for a job, the
labour market, education, family life,
culture and leisure, help to write and
understand letters, applications and
forms from public authorities. You can
also borrow language courses and
books in simple Danish, or books, music
and videos in your own language.
Homework café and lectures
The homework café operates from 2-5
p.m. Volunteer pensioners from The
Danish Refugee Council’s local networking
group and a part-time Palestinian
high-school student assist with
the homework. Sometimes the librarians step in, while the volunteers find
information in encyclopaedia and on
the net.
Together with local associations and
institutions the librarys arrange various
activities in the café that appeal to the
different ethnic target groups:
For example a talk on Christmas and
Ramadan in cooperation with the local
integration council and a religious society;
library instruction for immigrant
women, for pupils from a gipsy project
and for pupils from the municipality’s
adult education section; information
on the labour market and education in
cooperation with the job centre, including
visits by role models from the Ministry
of Integration’s campaign ‘All
young people needed’; talks by Turkish
and Arab girls and women on health in
cooperation with Turkish and Arab female
doctors; library introduction to
recently arrived refugee children and
mothers with small children; handing
out of books by Hans Christian Andersen
(in two languages) as a Ramadan
gift to local immigrant players;
help with establishing three new immigrant
associations and seminar on
ethnic minorities’ living conditions in
the municipality in cooperation with
the integration council.
New users via local networks
Attracting mature, adult immigrants/
refugees in great numbers has proved
to be the biggest challenge of setting up
a café – the need is there, but it is a
slower process than expected to make
the library more visible and part of
every-day life for those groups of
ethnic minorities who do not know the
public library and its many offers.
The library’s strategy has been to give
its partners ownership of the café.
Right from the very beginning the
library has involved immigrant organisations,
housing associations, caseworkers
from the integration office, school
advisory officers, labour market centres
and teachers. The librarians have also
participated in networking groups in
residential areas etc.
This has increased local networking
formation – and actually attracted new
users from the cooperation partners’
network whom the library could not by
itself have established contact with.
-The number of adults looking for help
in the café has been increasing steadily,
while the users via homework help to
themselves or their children find out
that the library is really a place with
services that are tailor-made to their
needs. No longer is the library a rather
obscure place in which they find it
hard to navigate. This means that in
the future they will probably use the
library more, say librarians Ditte Lundstrřm,
Suzanne Schytt and Inge Jensen
who take it in turns to man the Wednesday
café.
Great need for more help with homework
While the adults have been a little reticent,
the 13-17 year-old experienced
library patrons have been using the
homework café on their own initiative.
- And every Wednesday the 9-12 yearold
immigrant children are pushing
their noses against the window and so
much want to come in: There is a very
great need for homework cafés for
immigrant children and youngsters,
because very few of them can get any
help and support at home – even if the
parents would like to help, it is not
possible for them, says Suzanne Schytt.
The library has tried to extend the offer
to the youngest children, but is has
been impossible to find volunteers with
sufficient education and personality.
‘An open door’ receives funding from
the Danish National Library Authority
and the Ministry of Integration and
runs from November-December 2005.
