How to create an intercultural public library

Abstract

After more than thirty years of immigration, Italian society is profoundly multicultural, but lacks social cohesion. This cohesion could be achieved through a stable and continuous intercultural dialogue within the population. To achieve this dialogue, libraries could assume a relevant role as they are public and friendly spaces open to everyone. Librarians could create safe social spaces to build equality into the relationships between different cultures.
The paper discusses the results of a comparative analysis between six different institutions that have offered excellent services to foreign citizens in their area in the past decades: the Regional library “Bruno Salvadori” of Aosta, the Salaborsa library of Bologna, the City libraries of Modena, the Lazzerini library of Prato and the Polo regionale di documentazione interculturale della Regione Toscana, the Intercultural service of Public libraries of Rome, the City libraries of Turin. In each one of these six institutions, librarians brought about a fundamental change. Instead of offering library services dedicated exclusively to foreign citizens, they managed to create library services designed for every citizen, including those with different languages and different cultural backgrounds.
From this comparative analysis it is possible to extrapolate eight guidelines to create an intercultural library. This new intercultural library, by giving relevance to different cultures, must be a mirror of Italy’s multicultural society and should shape tomorrow’s society.