#WorldRefugeeDay- A Library’s Place
by Leah Higgins, CILIPS Graduate Trainee
Most of us know the friendly face of our local librarian, but what is sometimes overlooked is the importance of this friendly face to someone seeking refuge in a new country.
Sabir Zazai, Chief Executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, spoke to our delegates at this year’s CILIPS Annual Conference about this very experience. Find his full keynote address here:
Having arrived in the UK in 1999, Sabir draws on his own lived experience and how it in many ways echoes the experiences of new arrivals to this day. Practical elements of a person’s life upon arriving, such as monetary support, only go so far (and as Sabir notes, not far enough) to support refugees to thrive in their new communities. His call to see those new to our communities as an asset rather than a deficit speaks loudly to the current climate, and the misinformation that information professionals are uniquely equipped to effectively address. Society must place greater value on libraries as places where ideas converge, as public spaces that are warm and open to all, and places where people can access the tools they need to flourish. The shift in perspective that Sabir offers in his keynote is central to how libraries can continue to best support refugees and allow them to not just survive, but to thrive.
In order to sustain the crucial work libraries do to assist new arrivals in integrating into their new communities, we must first recognise it and the fact that libraries truly hold the key to many of the issues that refugees face. As is clear from the library-led responses we have seen to those fleeing conflict in Ukraine and seeking refuge here, momentum can be gathered if we as a profession are given the right support and resources to help refugees. Learn more about our sector’s response via the CILIP Ukraine Crisis Hub.
Another brilliant resource to share on #WorldRefugeeDay is our most popular online resource to-date, our Libraries of Sanctuary online learning. We were joined by Ashley Beckett and Gün Orgun from City of Sanctuary, John Vincent, coordinator of The Network and author of Facet’s Libraries and Sanctuary: supporting refugees and other new arrivals (remember that all CILIP members receive a 35% Facet print book discount!) and Dylan Fotoohi, a founding member of Refugees 4 Justice in Glasgow. You can find the video here: