The provision of public library services to the Chinese community in Wellington and Auckland

Abstract

Many newly arrived Chinese immigrants in New Zealand are Chinese language readers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. The appearance of the new Chinese immigrants has posed a challenge to public libraries on how to meet the reading needs of the new Chinese immigrants. The author examined this problem in the following ways. Firstly, a comprehensive literature survey was carried out to study how overseas countries overcame their problems in providing services to immigrants and ethnic communities. A co-operative scheme was found to be the most suitable model for New Zealand public libraries to use for the development of an appropriate service to the Chinese community. Then, the author provides a full picture of the existing library services to the Chinese community in nine public libraries in Wellington, Auckland and Franklin. Difficulties and foreseeable problems in providing services to the Chinese community are identified in a summary of the visits. The author conducted a postal questionnaire survey of the Chinese community in Wellington and Auckland to assess their library and information needs. The statistical analysis of the survey results is represented in fifteen tables. Using public libraries as a source of information about business emerged as a high priority for the Chinese community. Recommendations are made in areas of concern to public libraries in the hope of improving the provision of services to the Chinese community. The author suggests a co-operative scheme as the solution. This proposed co-operative scheme will work on a regional basis and focuses on the idea of a 'centralized' librarian with Chinese language expertise to serve as an agent to select, acquire and catalogue Chinese language materials for member libraries. The centralized service will be based in one of the libraries and will use a rotating system to share materials amongst the participating libraries so that they can offer a wider range of materials to their users. It is only through a co-ordinated effort that services to the Chinese community can be maximized at the optimum cost.