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 ...

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 the ...

( 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; Walter ...

, Bosnian, Burmese,

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 English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, French,

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 language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

, Yoruba,

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, Croatian,

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

, Lithuanian,

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, Oromo, Punjabi,

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 langua ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

, Serbian,

Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people * Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today Shona may also refer to: * ''Shona'' (album), 1994 album by New Zealand singer Shona Laing * Shona (given name) * S ...

, Somali,

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, Can ...

, Swahili, Tagalog,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

, Thai,

Tigrinya (; also spelled Tigrigna) is an Ethio-Semitic language commonly spoken Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region by the Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions. History and literatur ...

, Chechen, Turkish,

Twi Twi () is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 17-18 million speakers in total, includ ...

, Hungarian,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

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 municipalities of Norway, municipal public library serving Oslo, Norway and is the country's first and largest library. It employs over 300 peopl ...

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 ...

. 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