The Multilingual Library in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
( no, Det flerspråklige bibliotek) is a competence centre for
multicultural
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
library services, and acts as an advisor to libraries.
The Multilingual Library purchases and lends out books, audio books, movies and music in the following languages:
Albanian,
Amharic,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
,
Bosnian,
Burmese
Burmese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia
* Burmese people
* Burmese language
* Burmese alphabet
* Burmese cuisine
* Burmese culture
Animals
* Burmese cat
* Burmese chicken
* Burmese (hor ...
,
Dari
Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...
,
English,
Finnish,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
,
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also ...
,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
,
Yoruba
The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba consti ...
,
Chinese,
Croatian
Croatian may refer to:
* Croatia
*Croatian language
*Croatian people
*Croatians (demonym)
See also
*
*
* Croatan (disambiguation)
* Croatia (disambiguation)
* Croatoan (disambiguation)
* Hrvatski (disambiguation)
* Hrvatsko (disambiguation)
* S ...
,
Kurdish,
Lithuanian
Lithuanian may refer to:
* Lithuanians
* Lithuanian language
* The country of Lithuania
* Grand Duchy of Lithuania
* Culture of Lithuania
* Lithuanian cuisine
* Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...
,
Dutch,
Oromo,
Punjabi
Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan
* Punjabi language
* Punjabi people
* Punjabi dialects and languages
Punjabi may also refer to:
* Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
,
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languag ...
,
Persian,
Polish,
Portuguese,
Romanian,
Russian,
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguat ...
,
Shona,
Somali
Somali may refer to:
Horn of Africa
* Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region
** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis
** Somali culture
** Somali cuisine
** Somali language, a Cushitic language
** Soma ...
,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
,
Swahili
Swahili may refer to:
* Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes
* Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa
* Swahili culture
Swahili culture is the culture of ...
,
Tagalog
Tagalog may refer to:
Language
* Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines
** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language
** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language
* Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...
,
Tamil,
Thai,
Tigrinya,
Chechen,
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
,
Twi,
Hungarian,
and
Vietnamese.
History and background
Soon after immigration to Norway took off in the late 1960s, Deichmanske bibliotek /
Oslo Public Library
Oslo Public Library (officially called in Norwegian ''Deichman bibliotek'', Deichman Library) is the municipal public library serving Oslo, Norway and is the country's first and largest library. It employs over 300 people and has over 20 branches ...
became aware of the needs of the many foreign immigrants in the capital for adequate library services. The majority of immigrants to Norway at this early stage came from Pakistan, and the library purchased its first books in Urdu in the early 1970s. Gradually, other immigrant groups entered Norway leading to a demand for books in languages such as Arabic and Turkish.
Libraries in other parts of Norway also felt the increased demand for books in foreign languages. Deichmanske bibliotek / Oslo Public Library was therefore given the national responsibility for meeting these multilingual demands, and as from 1975 the Government, represented by the
Norwegian Ministry of Culture, has allocated an annual amount towards this activity.
The practice soon became popular and the demands on competence, as well as the increased work load forced new ways of organising the activity. In 1983 Deichmanske bibliotek / Oslo Public Library set up a Section for literature for immigrants. In 1996 the section’s name was changed to The Multilingual Library and was launched as a national competence library.
As of 2017, the library is part of the
National Library of Norway
The National Library of Norway ( no, Nasjonalbiblioteket) was established in 1989. Its principal task is "to preserve the past for the future". The library is located both in Oslo and in Mo i Rana. The building in Oslo was restored and reopened i ...
.
The three main functions of The Multilingual Library:
*Competence and advisory centre for multicultural library services with a special focus on services for asylum seekers, immigrants and refugees;
*Purchasing and cataloguing unit for literature and other media in multiple foreign languages;
*National central for distance lending of literature and other media for asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants.
The target groups of The Multilingual Library:
*County, public and school libraries, as well as other public institutions such as hospital libraries and prison libraries;
*Teaching staff in nursery schools and educational establishments;
*Individuals whose mother tongue is among The Library’s languages, as well as those who want to learn a language.
Publishing
The Multilingual Library has exclusive rights in Norway to translate and publish books from the British publisher Mantra Lingua. The books are bilingual children’s books with text in Norwegian and parallel text in Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, Somali, and Urdu. Five books have been published so far:
*''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''
*''Beowulf''
*''The Whirling Hijab''
*''The Little Red Hen and the Grains of Wheat''
*''A Journey through Islamic Art''
External links
The Multilingual Library homepageSearch the directories of The Multilingual LibraryDeichmanske bibliotek / Oslo Public Library homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Multilingual Library, The
Libraries in Norway