On January 28th the Saint John Free Public Library officially opened it's newly expanded "House of Languages". The "House of Languages" is a large collection of books, magazines and other reference material in a number of languages other than English, including French, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, etc. for loan through the library.
This project was borne of nessecity as the National Library of Canada stopped circulating mult-lingual texts in the 80's. So the Saint John Library, with the support of a significant donation from the Skinner Family Foundation and the help of a large group of volunteers representing each language group, took the initiative to develop their own collection.
I had the opportunity to chat with a few of these volunteers at the 0pening event, and discovered the importance of this collection to new immigrants in our community. To read - for pleasure or purpose - in your first language is something I had completely taken for granted. Of course I would feel more "at home" in a community that provided me with cookbooks from my home country for instance, or my recognized national newspaper so I can get all the news from the home I had just left.
Congratulations to the Saint John Library, their staff and volunteers who put a tonne of work into a project that will help immigrants in our community feel welcome and at home!
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