Speaking their language
Local libraries offer a world of cultures
ANDOVER - There aren't many places in Massachusetts where Wu Xiu Lian can pick up a Chinese newspaper. But the 69-year-old grandmother goes to the one place she knows for sure has material in her native language - Andover's Memorial Hall Library.
"She comes here almost every day," said Evan Huang, her 13-year-old grandson. "She reads and talks to friends."
So do a number of other Chinese-born residents in this Merrimack Valley town, as do some from Russia. They come to enjoy the library's sizable collection of newspapers, books, movies, and magazines in Chinese and Russian, and when available, any educational materials that can help them improve their English. They also come to practice speaking English or to socialize with others from their homelands.
As the country heads toward a presidential election where immigration reform will surely be one of the important issues, area librarians say politicians should take note that immigrants are trying to fit into their American communities by patronizing their local libraries, especially in the Merrimack Valley. They say immigrants here are using their foreign language collections, checking out English as a Second Language CDs, using library computers to e-mail family back home, and holding conversational English groups in an effort to make the transition to their adopted home much easier.
"There's no question that libraries are central to their lives," said Maureen Nimmo, director of the Lawrence Public Library, which helps serve the city's large Latino population. "They come here for anything from language lessons to landlord-tenant issues, to what to do in order to open a beauty salon."
Area librarians say because there seems to be a rise in immigrants using libraries, they are stepping up efforts to offer more services when money permits. Libraries in Lowell, Lawrence, Andover, and Methuen are seeing their reading rooms become hotspots for many languages and cultures.
James Sutton, director of Andover's Memorial Hall Library, said his library has expanded its Chinese and Russian collections, and is looking to see if there is room for materials in Korean. "They come to use the materials and work on their language skills," said Sutton. The [Chinese and Russian] "collections have grown so much since 1996."
In Lowell, a city with a large number of Southeast Asian immigrants, the Pollard Memorial Library offers free adult literacy classes for those wanting to learn how to read and write in English.
That local libraries are gathering spots for recently arrived immigrants is nothing new. At the turn of the century, when the United States experienced a big rise in immigration, Andrew Carnegie donated millions to the building of local libraries in areas that had large immigrant populations. Carnegie, who came from Scotland, viewed libraries as important places for immigrants to learn about American culture. The current Chelsea Public Library building, for example, was built in 1910 with money from Carnegie.
According to state numbers, around 17 percent of the present Massachusetts workforce are immigrants. That's a jump from 1980, when only 9 percent of the state's workforce were foreign-born.
In the Merrimack Valley alone, more than a quarter of the region's residents now are foreign-born.
With the pressure of newly arrived residents seeking services at the libraries, the state has responded with assistance to aid libraries. Statewide there are nearly 40 active library-based literacy programs that offer some type of services for those learning English. A program called Conversation Circles allows libraries to receive grants of up to $12,500 to develop a volunteer program for support materials on English language instruction and citizenship.
At Andover's Memorial Hall Library, for example, a group of non-native English speakers meet regularly to practice their English. Sutton said the conversational group attracts immigrants from different countries, from Asia to Europe. They meet in a room with a Civil War-era American flag and lists of names of those from the area who were killed in the war. "It's kind of overwhelming for anyone new to this country," said Sutton.
Nimmo said Lawrence also has an English conversational group that gets together regularly to practice. In addition, the library's website allows card holders to use Rosetta Stone - the popular online language learning software. Anyone who has a library card in any of the nearby libraries can access the software from the Lawrence Public Library's website.
"Internet usage in the past year has skyrocketed," said Nimmo. "The library's website had 100,000 more hits."
Not all libraries can accommodate the rising demand. In Woburn, for example, the town's library is tapped out of resources and space to provide more services, said Woburn library director Kathleen O'Doherty.
However, O'Doherty said, she recently sent a fellow staffer to a training course on how to offer better service to Spanish-speaking patrons.
In Arlington, the Robbins Library hosts Spanish story time for children on the second Saturday of each month.
Marcus R. Villa, a 22-year-old UMass-Lowell student who grew up in Lawrence, said the city's library was key to his education, especially when he moved here from Tucson knowing only Spanish. "I learned English at the Lawrence library," Villa said while checking his MySpace page on a library computer. "It took me about a year to learn English and hold a conversation."
Villa said he was motivated to learn English when he came to the library and heard so many different languages. "I wanted to know what people were saying," he said.
Since then, Villa has volunteered at the Lawrence library during his spare time and has helped others learn English when he's not studying. Villa is a sophomore and is working on a degree in computer technology with a minor in Russian.
And why Russian?
"I don't know," he said. "I guess I just like languages."
Russell Contreras can be reached at rcontreras@globe.com. 