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Toolkit
Appendices
Appendix G: Template for Developing Multicultural Library Collections
| Development Steps |
Tasks |
Action Taken |
Results |
| Step 1:Conduct an Environmental Scan |
Review Statistics Canada reports for the service area on:
- Birthplace/ country of origin
- Profile of languages in Canada (mother tongue / language spoken at home)
Gather information locally by contacting
- Provincial or local multicultural councils or similar organizations
- Local government for local statistical profiles
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| Step 2: Conduct a Needs Assessment |
Conduct a needs assessment by:
- Including data collection on multicultural library services within a general library needs assessment process, or,
- Conducting a specific multicultural needs assessment process
Both types of needs assessment processes should involve a consultative process with the community.
Community consultations can include:
- surveys (in-library surveys & external)
- interviews
- focus groups
- contact with appropriate organizations (ethnic, multicultural, immigration, ESL)
Augment community consultations through in-house observations including analysis of circulation, reference and other usage data. |
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| Step 3: Develop a Multicultural Library Services Plan |
The multicultural library services plan should include a section on developing multicultural collections that includes:
- A clear statement of library collection development policy on multicultural material acquisitions and on the provision of access to online materials
- Specifics on the role and responsibility of staff for multicultural acquisitions
- A training program for staff engaged in developing multicultural collections
- Information on budget allocations or on the formula for budget allocations
- Performance measures and deliverables
- An implementation schedule for the plan
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| Step 4: Provide Staff Training |
Provide skills training in:
- The publishing and distribution of "other language" materials in Canada.
- The sources of multicultural e-content available on the web.
- The issues, problems and solutions related to evaluating, providing access to and using web-based multicultural resources and in developing multicultural web resources.
- Cross-cultural communications
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| Step 5: Develop The Multicultural Collections |
Select and Acquire multicultural materials following accepted library acquisition procedures using the following techniques:
- Selecting and purchasing from vendor and bookstore catalogues
- Acquiring materials through visits to bookstores
- Arranging for purchasing plans through vendors
- Searching through reviews for recommended purchases
- Attending book fairs
- Seeking advice from the ethnic community through their organizations
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| Step 6: Develop a MulticulturalLibrary Resources Web Presence |
Develop a library website that provides access to:
- Multilingual search engines
- Multicultural Web directories
- Multicultural reference resources
- Links to sources of information on the country of origin for larger ethnic groups
- Links to machine translation sites
- Instructions in the use of library services and collections in the main community languages
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| Step 7: Evaluation - Evaluate multicultural collections and the collection development process |
Evaluate multicultural collections using:
- User feedback and satisfaction ratings systems
- Analyzing statistics, such as circulation statistics
- Assessing the performance measures and deliverables developed as part of the plan for multicultural library services.
Use the evaluation process to revise or develop a new plan for multicultural collection development |
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