1. The Multilingual Library and Norwegian libraries as multicultural arenas Oddbjørn Hansen The Multilingual Library Oslo

2. Multicultural Norway 2013  700,000 immigrants = 14% of the population  Substantial immigration since 2005 from EU member countries such as Lithuania, Poland and Romania  28% of Oslo’s population come from an immigrant background  There are immigrants in all municipalities of the country

3. The Multilingual Library is a centre of expertise for multilingual library services in Norway 13 employees from Norway, Poland, Argentina, Pakistan, Iraq, and other countries 25 freelance staff with diverse language expertise Collection of 130,000 books, CDs, DVDs in 47 languages

4. Most borrowed languages from The Multilingual Library in 2012 1.Urdu 2.Russian 3.Arabic 4.Polish 5.Farsi 6.Somali 7.Spanish 8.Vietnamese 9.Turkish 10.Thai

5. Visiting authors of children’s books Iranian children’s writer Mohammad Reza Yousefi Lithuanian children’s writer Kestutis Kasparavicus

6. Celebrating religious holidays of many cultures Russian Christmas party

7. Signs and posters in different languages

8. Digital photo frames in the bookshelves

9. Travelling exhibitions The world of Astrid Lindgren I speak football Wedding customs around the world A journey through Islamic art

10. Buskerud County Library in the city of Drammen

11. New in the County of Buskerud: Newcomer’s zone A library model focusing on newcomers in a community The libraries make a newcomer’s zone in each library Implementation in three public libraries in 2013

12. Newcomer’s zone Central place in the library, signs in many languages Local and multilingual literature, DVDs, music, newspapers Brochures and digital information about the city and the county Reading circles for immigrants, language courses Pointers for content, services and activities other places in the library and in the community

13. Bergen Public Library «Laptop» Club and Language Café

14. The library is the cultural institution that reaches the most immigrants User studies 1998: The use of public libraries 2008: City study. Who are they and where do they go : user behaviour in Norwegian city libraries 2010: Newcomers, the libraries and the new labour immigrants