1. Strengthening Social Inclusion in Multicultural Societies through Information Literacy Esin Sultan Oğuz & SerapKurbanogluHacettepe University Department of Information Management 77th IFLA General Conference and Assembly, 13-18 August2011, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2. Outline Introduction Importance of IL skills for multicultural societies Aim and Methodology of the Research Findings and Discussion Conclusion and Suggestions

3. Introduction Most countries today are linguistically and culturally heterogenous increasing rate of international migration globalization Multiculturalism “the co-existence of diverse cultures” Problems of multicultural societies intercultural dialogue mutual understanding cultural integration civic participation, social inclusion and social cohesion of new comers

4. Multicultural Libraries Aim to provide equal access to information sources and services multilingual collections diverse range of services in appropriate languages trained staff members Cultural mediators Bridge cultural divide Prepare immigrants for citizenship Introduce new comers to the values of their new nation Sustain them trough the initial period of adaptation Equip new comers with essential skills for social inclusion

5. Information Literacy as a Key Skill “… a set of competencies that an informed citizen of an information society ought to possess to participate in that society...” It is a key for lifelong learning and self-directedlearning sucess in school, work place and daily life achieving personal, social, occupational and educational goals improving personal choices and options

6. Importance of IL for Multicultural Communities Well developed information literacy skills help: to promote social inclusion to eliminate social exclusion to promote personal and vocational empowerment to maintain participative citizenship to improve the competitive advantage of individuals to promote employability and productivity to strengthen integration into society to strengthen intercultural competences

7. Role of Public Libraries in IL Training Public libraries should provide training programs to equip newcomers with IL skills These programs should address the specific information needs of linguistically and culturally diverse groups Developing such programs requires familiarity with the society in question community anaysis needs assessment

8. A Research on Information Needs of Foreign Residents in Turkey The aim of the research is to uncover the distinct information needsof foreign residents in Turkey to explore the importance of community information, information sources, and services to foreign residents to explore to what extent these needs are being satisfied

9. Methodology Survey conducted in 2010 Convenience sampling method N= 77 respondents Questionnaire (26 questions) Five-point likert scale (1 the least – 5 the most) Descriptive statistics and paired-samples t-test Didim – a town in southern Turkey 4000 foreign residents

10. Findings: Age and Gender Composition

11. Findings: Turkish Language Proficiency

12. Findings: Prerequisite Competencies for IL

14. Library services

15. Health

16. Education

17. Sports & Recreation

19. FulfilmentEach categoryis composed ofseveral items Mean scores of importance and fulfilment were compared

20. Findings: Information Sources 1=novels, 2=newspapers, 3=books, 4=magazines, 5=DVDs, 6=music CDs, 7=dictionaries, 8=encyclopedias, 9=children books, 10=sources about local information

21. Findings: Library Services 1=a collection in the languages I know, 2= borrowing materials, 3=reference services, 4= training on how to find information in library, 5= training on how to find information on Internet, 6=training on how to find local information

22. Findings: Health Information 1=health centers, 2=health services, 3=local diseases, 4=health insurance, 5=emergency services, 6=services for disable, 7=things to do after child birth, 8= things to do after death, 9= mother & child care, 10= pharmacies and pharmacology, 11= family doctor

23. Findings: Educational Information 1=free education services provided by municipality, 2= adult education programs, 3=schools for formal education, 4=school registration, 5=pre-school education, 6=libraries, 7=services provided by libraries, 8=language courses, 9=translation and interpretation services

24. Findings: Recreational Information 1=activities on religious holidays, 2=addresses of churches etc., 3= cultural activities, 4=tourism information, 5=transportation information, 6=travel insurance, 7= festivals, fairs, local activities, 8= sports clubs/amateur teams, 9=international social services/projects/activities, 10=local excursions

25. Findings: Community Information 1= pharmacy 24/7, 2= consumer rights, 3=banking, 4=housing, 5=associations, charity, 6= orientation to new culture, 7= employment, 8= residence permits, 9=work permits, 10=driving licenses, 11=retailers, 12= maintenance & repairing services, 13=telecommunication services, 14=marriage and divorce procedures, 15=social security, 16=safety, 17=public amenities

26. Findings: Overall Comparison 1= Information Sources, 2= Library Services, 3= Health, Education, 5= Sports & Recreation, 6= Practical Issues

27. Findings: The Most Important Needs Items rated as highly important (4 points and above)

28. Conclusions Respondents’ Turkish language proficiency level is inadequate Respondents possess basic library, computer and Internet skills Development of these skills is necessary They have training requirements Current public library system fails to meet respondents’ needs Lack of library sources and services in English Lack of community information

29. Suggestions Long term: Improving the existing public library system with respect to its multilingual and multicultural collection and services Long term: Developing information literacy instruction programs That address specific needs of foreign residents Short term: Developing a web-based multilingual information literacy tutorial focused on how to find local and community information Short term: Developing a web-based multilingual portal for community information

30. Esin Sultan Oguz & Serap Kurbanoglu {esinsultan, serap}@hacettepe.edu.tr Thanks for listening…