Opening the library’s doors to refugees

Abstract

In the last few years, libraries all over the world have made a concerted effort to serve refugee and asylum seekers. In this paper, we hope to make a case for greater international collaboration within the library community when it comes to serving refugees. Different countries do have different situations when serving refugees, such as the number of refugees they receive, the origin of the refugees, and the amount of control they have over who enters their country. Libraries as well differ in the purpose and amount of resources they have. Despite that, there are many similarities that those serving refugees share, such as the needs of the newcomers and the previous trauma many of the refugees have endured. The last section of the paper is comprised of concrete examples of items used in refugee services that could be shared across borders, including posters, films, flyers, and books.