In a document entitled "Public Libraries court immigrants and thrive," released last month by Columbia new Services, School of Journalism, Columbia University, Leila Abboud reports that the Queens public library system has the highest circulation in America, more than Los Angeles and Houston combined. The secret to its success? Programs and foreign language collections geared to a fast-growing immigrant population. And it's not just Queens. Abboud reported, over the past 20 years, libraries all over the United States have expanded added foreign language books and periodicals and offered services geared to immigrants. A Russian, Chinese, Mexican and Colombian are sitting at a table in the library; it's a typical day at the Jackson Heights branch of the Queens public library.
The four sat with reading materials spread on a wooden table. Alberto Chavez, 63, turned the page of a newspaper called La Patria printed in his home country of Colombia. Across from him, Victor Medev, 66, read the Russia Daily and took notes in sloping Cyrillic letters. To his left, Hector Alvarez, 44, completed an exercise on adverbs in his English textbook. Across the table, Zhou Xun, a 31 year-old woman from South China, read about soap opera actresses in the Taiwan-published World
The report states that the Queens public library system has turned into one-stop shopping for immigrants. Books in 70 languages, videos, CDs, free Internet access, and classes on everything from conversational English to resume writing have made the Queens library a place where immigrants can both stay in touch with their home countries and learn about American life.
According to Leila Abboud, the Queens public library system circulated 17.2 million of books, records, CDs and the like, more than the libraries of Los Angeles and Houston combined. The library's success is linked to the services it provides to immigrants, who have flocked into Queens over the past decade. Nearly one-third of the population is foreign born, according to the 2000 census.
The Queens New Americans Program is an example of how much more than books are available at that public library. The program's coping skills classes carry on the tradition started by settlement houses that helped newcomers assimilate during the last great wave of immigration to New York City 100 years ago. Since 1977, workshops in the most widely spoken immigrant languages of Queens, such as Bengali, Chinese and Spanish, have been held on everything from asthma screening to tenants' rights. One of the most popular classes is one on raising American teen-agers, a problem many immigrant parents struggle with as their children assimilate and rebel.
Zhou Xun and her 16-year-old brother, Ho Wei, attended a New Americans workshop on higher education at the Flushing branch public library recently. The Mandarin-language program covered two- and four-year colleges, the application process and how to apply for financial aid. "The system is so different here," said Zhou. "This class told us a lot about what he will have to do to study here," as reported by Liela Abboud.