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Multicultural services overview

The State Library Public Library Services branch provides a range of services and resources to assist public libraries with multicultural services to their culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.

These include:

  • state-wide consultancy and advice on delivering library services to CALD communities 
  • training for library staff on cross-cultural awareness and access and equity strategies
  • promotional resources to help deliver services to CALD communities
  • bulk loans of books in over 40 languages and an ESL collection 
  • a purchasing cooperative that locates and purchases material in language other than English (LOTE) on behalf of public libraries

Multicultural services highlights 2022-23

PDF icon multicultural_services_infographic_22-23.pdf

Networking

The Multicultural Library Services Working Group consists of public library staff from metropolitan and regional NSW whose role it is to work with multicultural communities in their local government area. 

The working group meets quarterly to share information and work together on projects that improve the awareness of multicultural services and resources.  Each meeting features guest speakers including suppliers of LOTE material and electronic resources, and government and community partners. 

Contact multicultural@sl.nsw.gov.au  for more information on joining.

Email lists

You can subscribe to our email lists to keep up to date with information relating multicultural services and multicultural bulk loans.

multicultural 
for library staff who are interested in, or provide services and collections for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.  Email multicultural-subscribe@libraries.nsw.gov.au to join the list.

mcbulkloans
for library staff  who work directly with multicultural bulk loans.  Email mcbulkloans-subscribe@libraries.nsw.gov.au to join the list.

Accessibility

The State Library has a range of facilities to assist people with disability, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. 

  • Readit Air is an automatic reader that can convert printed documents to large print and also has text-to-speech output in over 15 languages.    

Find out more about access and inclusion at the State Library of NSW.

Key resources in community languages

The following online resources are available in community languages: