The focus of my Social Justice ePortfolio is to examine the offerings of the Clifton Public Library located in Clifton, New Jersey and how they serve the immigrant population in their community. This page will focus on relevant readings and resources related to the immigrant population in a library setting.
*ALL TEXT IN BLUE ARE HYPERLINKS
Readings
Grossman S, Agosto DE, Winston M, et al. How Public Libraries Help Immigrants Adjust to Life in a New Country: A Review of the Literature. Health Promotion Practice. 2022;23(5):804-816. doi:10.1177/15248399211001064
This article addresses the work that public libraries are doing to help the immigrant population adjust to life in the United States. The authors searched through 810 articles across 5 databases. looking for relevant keywords such as. Immigrants and libraries and examined the information within the for similarities to each other. The research concluded that library programs and ESL classes geared towards immigrant patrons were very useful. It helped show what immigrants want and out of their public library and how libraries were fulfilling those needs. Most patrons were satisfied with the library offerings. Some however, wanted more books and resources in their native language. Having information and library materials offered in various languages makes a difference in the patron experience.
Chunying Wang, Ruhua Huang, Jiyuan Li, Jiangping Chen, Towards better information services: A framework for immigrant information needs and library services, Library & Information Science Research, Volume 42, Issue 1,2020,
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740818819302129)
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740818819302129)
Researchers in this study used a systemic literature review in order to identify what libraries are offering or need to offer their immigrant population. Using a literature review the goal of this study is to answer four key questions. What are the information needs of immigrants identified in the literature? What are the sources and challenges for immigrants to obtain information? What services have libraries historically provided to meet the information needs of immigrants? What are the obstacles for libraries to provide services to immigrants? They hope to answer these questions by using a 5 stage systematic review process. In the end based on the information they received they were able to build a framework to help libraries better understand immigrant needs.
Grossman, S., Cannuscio, C.C., Feuerstein-Simon, R. et al. Public Librarian Perceptions of Assisting Immigrant Patrons: Results from a Multi-State Survey. J Community Health 48, 659–669 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-023-01204-w
The authors of this paper conducted a multi-state survey with the goal of examining the interactions between libraries and immigrant patrons. Two US States were selected and within those two states around 250 public librarians were polled. The survey focused on how librarians were helping their immigrant population in regards to their health and how the library could support them on this issue. The survey found that librarians were hesitant to speak to patrons about their health or immigration status and immigrant patrons found that there were very little resources for them at public libraries. This could be due to various factors such as immigrant patrons receiving help from other sources such as lawyers or government office and due to librarians being hesitant to speak on such personal matters.
Web Resources
https://www.njimmigrantjustice.org/
The New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice is the largest immigration coalition in the state of New Jersey. Their goal is to collectively position immigrants as leaders in order to advance justice, inclusion and belonging for all immigrants. They do this by creating advocacy campaigns that are aimed to help racial, social and economic justice. They want their members to empower themselves to make radical change within their communities and make people aware of the challenges faced by the immigrant population. The alliance is currently made up of over 30 different organizations all with the goal of furthering the cause.
https://library.raritanval.edu/c.php?g=728614&p=5203402
The Raritan Valley Community College is located in Branchburg, New Jersey. The University's Evelyn S. Field Library is an excellent resource for immigration services. They provide links to government websites as well as scholarship opportunities and tips on several topics related to immigration. There are also resources dedicated to helping people apply for residency and citizenship as well as how to avoid being scammed by companies. It is a very useful tool for an immigrant patron trying to find help and information.
Environmental Scan
https://piscatawaylibrary.org/new-americans/
The Piscataway Public Library is located in Piscataway, NJ and has several offerings aimed at helping the immigrant community. Their website has a section for "New Americans" that is filled with useful resources that patrons can take advantage of. Some examples of their offerings include ESL classes that happen once a week, they also have links to grammar help websites, games, podcasts and much more. All of it is aimed to help new Americans navigate the English language. All of it is also available to their patrons. Some websites require a registration but others do not, it depends on what resource you are interested in.
https://www.bergenfieldlibrary.org/
The Bergenfield Public Library has excellent resources for their immigrant population. They have several links on their services page that include ESL, Learn English, Become a tutor, Citizenship classes and Language Resources. Each of these offerings will help any immigrant navigate the new language and the journey of becoming a citizen. They have ESL classes that are held in person and via zoom. The classes are once a week for 1 hour. They also offer citizenship classes and a language learning application called Mango. This library would definitely be in one of my top choices to refer our patrons to if they needed assistance in these areas.
