Sunday May 3rd, 2009 Books and More in Other Languages

The Folklore Festival is winding down today but you can continue your journey of discovery of other cultures at the library. Not only do we carry material about other countries but we have a variety of items in other languages which reflect the ethnic composition of our community. So if you speak another language or are learning another language here's a list of what we have: Arabic, Chinese, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. You'll find that these are mostly books (translations and original works), but there are also music cds, cassette books and videos. We also have some magazines and newspapers in French, Finnish and Italian.

How would I search the catalogue to find out what the library has?

A quick way to do this is to go to our web site (www.tbpl.ca) and click on Find Books then Other Languages. Then just click on the language listed and you?ll see material for both adults and children.

Do all the branches have items in these languages and where are they located?

Only the Waverley and Brodie libraries have all the languages listed above and these are located on the ground floor. The County Park Library has French and Finnish and the Mary J.L. Black branch has children's books in French.

Are there dvds in other languages?

There are indeed. The foreign film collection has titles in more languages than what's listed above so look for them in the dvd section of each branch. You can do a quick catalogue search using the keywords "foreign films dvd". Also, many of the feature films today are subtitled and/or recorded in other languages and you can use our catalogue to quickly find out which ones they are by using a keyword search. For example "Spanish dvd" will give a list of over 1,500 titles in both the adult and children's collections which are either subtitled or recorded in Spanish as well as English.

Do you have anything in the Cree, Oji-Cree or Ojibway languages?

We have a large selection of aboriginal cds (link under Community / Aboriginal Community) which includes music and other works by aboriginal artists. The library also has some language learning tapes and a small number of books; in the online catalogue use a keyword search for Cree, Ojibwa, Oji-Cree to locate these. And don't forget that Wawatay News has some sections that are in Oji-Cree.

What other kinds of multicultural programs, services and collections are available at or through the library?

We have language learning tapes and cds, a literacy collection for English as a Second Language (ESL), music cds for most cultures, film nights with various cultural backgrounds, tours for ESL groups and the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association, we've held programs for Black History Month (February), First Nations Public Library Week (February), National Aboriginal Day (June), we participate in the Folklore Festival (May), we're a partner with the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association which hosts an English Conversation Circle at the library, we support the breakfast for the annual International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (March) by selling tickets and promoting the event, we work with Diversity Thunder Bay and we have meeting space available for ESL or other tutors. On the web site under Community we have a page of information for "Newcomers" which includes links to a wide variety of library, community and online resources for newcomers to our community. Through the Virtual Collection on our web site you can find a French language encyclopedia, newspaper and magazine articles in French and language learning e-books and e-audio books.

Sylvia Renaud, Head of Technical Services